Why does America lose its head over 'terror' but ignore its daily gun deaths? (opens in new tab)

(guardian.co.uk)

13 pointsCharlesmigli12y ago7 comments

7 comments

I think that the thing we Europeans (and us Brits in particular) often fail to grasp is that the USA is a very foreign country. I love my visits there and my US friends but it does not take a long stay for you to run into things that seem "incomprehensible" and you start saying to yourself "that cant be right".

However it works the other way too. We fail to deal properly with things like the right to free speech - and our USA cousins find that pretty incomprehensible - surely a fundamental freedom.

There are some huge cultural differences - made more difficult sometimes to understand because of the vast common components of shared culture.

zurn12y ago

The collective failure of governments (and voters) to address CO2 emissions is more loony by many orders of magnitude than guns or traffic. And this even with international institutions (WTO & UN) that could be used to goad everybody to fall in line.

For future generations, the hysteria about terrorism while ignoring the the more serious threats will look baffling.

jjkmk12y ago

I'll be honest with you, as a US citizen who has traveled to the U.K. often (to visit family) I'm right with you. There are way too many things that seem "incomprehensible".

For the most part its due to religion and social conservatism. You kind of learn to pretend it doesn't exist in order to deal with it.

signalsignal12y ago

In the US gun suicides outnumber gun homocides, so the gun control advocates add them together and call it gun violence to inflate the numbers for political reasons.

jsilence12y ago

People killing themselved don't count?

Are you even listening to yourself?

signalsignal12y ago

I never claimed suicides don't count, so I have no idea what you are referring to.

awjr12y ago

I know this seems odd, but are we not, all as a society, doing the same thing with vehicle related deaths? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-re...

So the UK 'allows' 2222 deaths to occur (USA - 33808) as they perceive the benefit of vehicles to be worth that cost.

The USA does the same with guns.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

7 comments

bdfh4212y ago

However it works the other way too. We fail to deal properly with things like the right to free speech - and our USA cousins find that pretty incomprehensible - surely a fundamental freedom.

There are some huge cultural differences - made more difficult sometimes to understand because of the vast common components of shared culture.

zurn12y ago

For future generations, the hysteria about terrorism while ignoring the the more serious threats will look baffling.

jjkmk12y ago

I'll be honest with you, as a US citizen who has traveled to the U.K. often (to visit family) I'm right with you. There are way too many things that seem "incomprehensible".

For the most part its due to religion and social conservatism. You kind of learn to pretend it doesn't exist in order to deal with it.

signalsignal12y ago

In the US gun suicides outnumber gun homocides, so the gun control advocates add them together and call it gun violence to inflate the numbers for political reasons.

jsilence12y ago

People killing themselved don't count?

Are you even listening to yourself?

signalsignal12y ago

I never claimed suicides don't count, so I have no idea what you are referring to.

awjr12y ago

I know this seems odd, but are we not, all as a society, doing the same thing with vehicle related deaths? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_traffic-re...

So the UK 'allows' 2222 deaths to occur (USA - 33808) as they perceive the benefit of vehicles to be worth that cost.

The USA does the same with guns.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse