The Supreme Nine’s latest decision abolishing DC’s strict gun control laws triggered sighs of relief across America and raised eyebrows across the gun-shy old continent. “Those gun lover Americans, they never change,” would the usual dismissive head-shaking go. It’s just another thing that’s weird about them. Add it to the list!
On this side of the Atlantic, however, few would trivialize the issue. Considering that it was the British army’s attempt to confiscate the firearms of patriotic Americans which snowballed into the Revolutionary war against Britain, small wonder that the “right of the people to keep and bear Arms” comes right after the First Amendment in the American Constitution.
Against all this patriotic American gun pride, the nation’s capital, a long-time trophy holder of the highest homicide-rate city in America, decided on a general firearms ban and passed the toughest gun law in the United States. Alas, crime rates only increased to the point where for example two years ago, when I spent my summer here, a murder-less week was as rare as a grammatically impeccable speech from the current President. Unarmed tourists and local nighttime runners frequently fell prey to illegal gun gangers. For gun guardians it was clearer than the truth that the solution to high crimes is not the general disarmament of the public. Yet rates did not convince the local government, hence the Court had to fire the fatal shot that ultimately killed the law – enjoying the wide support of the American public opinion.
While the vast majority supports reasonable regulations to purchase firearms this same majority of Americans still stick to their sacred right to carry guns. As emotional, politicized and patriotic an issue as it is, most Americans don’t have a gun at home and don’t hunt in their free-time. A lot of them do though and it is a cherished an important part of their lives which also makes them “very American.”
All of my friends who hunt, have guns or ever shot a rifle happen to be American. Despite the fact that my grandfather’s a real hunting buff, I never had forty minute long conversations about the proper techniques of clay shooting or the intense excitements of dove hunting before coming here. My mother never allowed us to play with toy guns in the house and I will never allow my children to do so.
Here, it’s hip to carry a gun and un-hip to carry a packet of cigarettes. In Europe it’s the opposite. I’d rather get rid of both of them. But in the meantime, as long as no one uses either one around me, I’m fine.
