this post was submitted on 24 May 2026
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I don't think non-Americans appreciate how few guns one encounters in America if one isn't a gun nut or gun-nut-adjacent. It is not that everybody owns a gun. It's that the relative few people who own dozens or hundreds of guns skew the average.
I'll disagree. I've been mugged. There have also been two times I've visited friends that have been casually cleaning guns when I arrived. A person I do martial arts with has a conceal carry and has come in with it a few times. Every cop has at least one. There's a gun store that's on my commute route. I was hiking and crossed paths with an elderly couple on horseback and they were packing. I've known two people that have killed themselves with a gun. I drilled with fake guns in NJROTC in high school and there were opportunities to train and compete in marksmanship with actual guns. I shot BB guns in Cub Scouts (those two are just examples as to how young gun culture becomes part of an American's life). When I was growing up, Walmart sold guns and ammo. They still do in certain places.
I have to factor into my interactions with people if they have a gun. Like I put up with a lot more shitty behavior on the road because I live in a state with a high incidence of guns being involved with road rage incidents. If I get into an argument with my neighbor, is that conservative asshole going to do something stupid if things escalate (yeah yeah, don't escalate, just an example). All the POCs I know have been taught how to behave during a traffic stop to reduce their chances of getting shot by a cop.
I've never even held or shot a real gun, but guns permeate my life.
Edit: Christ, the people who are advocating fear of gun violence being good for society is how idiotic of a gun culture there is in the US.
It really depends on where you live in the USA. Where I live theres definitely people with guns but it’s unusual to see someone actually carrying one outside their home. Now my cousins live like 1-2 hours away (still in the same state) and it’s super common there for people to carry their gun on them at all times for some fucking reason. So my cousins are way more used to seeing guns than my siblings and I are
It sounds like it's such a part of our culture that you're missing the point: you cannot opt out of gun culture in America. Anywhere.
Yes, there's a huge difference between only rarely seeing a gun in public and acting as if nobody has one.
There's fucking ammo at wallmart. You can't even comprehend how mindboggling that is in most countries
Why would it be mind boggling that a supermarket carry ammo? What is mind boggling is you can order a case online and have it to your doorstep in 2 days.
Because its not a commonly used item. It should only be sold at gur ranges for immediate use.
The 14 million hunters would disagree.
All of our street cops are also carrying guns around, which (if I'm not mistaken) is not the case everywhere.
Years ago, the UK government announced they were going to arm the general police. The people with the biggest issue with it was the police union!
The UK has a police by consent basis. The heaviest firepower they carry is a tazer. If there is a risk of guns being involved, the normal police pull back and call in the armed response officers. When they do, however, they call the whole cavalry!
End result, criminals don't feel they MUST have a gun to defend from the police. Conversely, going in armed will bring the whole, focused weight of the armed response down on you. (As in multiple helicopter level searches) Most don't carry guns, and so the status quo keeps everyone safe.
Criminals know that they won't win a gunfight against the police. Instead they always flee, and if they're caught often have their guns on them or in their vehicle.
Most criminals in the US who carry guns do so to kill rival criminals. The police or law-abiding civilians being disarmed wouldn't change that.
I'm not saying the USA should just disarm its police. I was more pointing out how fucked up gun culture has made it. Most UK gangs don't have guns. The risk reward balance doesn't justify them. Any gang that does try to escalate with guns becomes the focus of a LOT of police attention.
It's pretty common, I think only Ireland and Britain (among countries that people are likely to visit) don't carry guns.
In fact, what's unusual is that in many places where civilian use of guns is extremely rare, police standing around with submachine guns in airports, train stations, etc. is common.
To add an additional exception here, police in Northern Ireland are routinely armed, but obviously enough there's reasons there.
I was thinking of British TV when I posted that so not too surprising if its mostly a thing there.
I think it’s more common in Europe since those are large targets for terrorism. Plus if you have a distinct “armed police” they are more likely to be heavily armed.
Also, I think most police outside of major cities in the USA all have ARs in their patrol cars now. I remember when my cop buddy was complaining about five years ago when they took his car shotgun and gave him an AR instead.
Terrorism is still incredibly rare. Perhaps a train station is a bit more likely as a target, but it's extremely unlikely that any given train station will be attacked. And, an "armed response" team is pretty similar to a SWAT team. They're probably better used sitting in some central place from which they can quickly mobilize and get anywhere rather than walking around among the public at an airport or train station.
I remember I visited Italy on a Latin class trip back in high school, and got a real culture shock when I saw carabinieri(?) patrolling the airport armed with some kind of assault rifles or SMGs. I don't remember seeing any "normal" police once I was out walking around in the cities so I have no idea if they would've been armed or not, but that was definitely heavier weaponry than I'd seen any American cop carrying, in the airport or otherwise.
Being heavily armed is kind of the point of the Carabinieri, who are a part of the military.
The point that they're making though is that you don't see the military hanging around public transportation terminals in the US. That's a level of militarized police state that not even the US has.
Yeah, in Italy there's a lot of armed officials in public places and big stations (even train stations!). Usually they're only there to look intimidating. The ones who will actually bother people (usually immigrants) are regular policemen, who, paradoxically, are less likely to carry firearms
I like that idea. Armed cops who focus only on violent felonies, and are forbidden to involve themselves in lesser offenses.
Are we or are we not counting the fair few you don't see because they're concealed on the people around you?
And yes the stats are absolutely skewed by gun nuts with big collections it's still true that 40% or more of American households have a gun...
When I lived in a small town, the MAGA neighbor showed my mixed family how many guns they had to "remind them". He sure didn't like it when I told them I conceal carry because of people like him.
But I'd feel uneasy not knowing which of them is the nutty one.
A lot of the nutters tend to advertise it at least. Super gung-ho patriot driving an oversized truck with Trump and flag stickers, maybe an actual flag, possibly open carrying, yard with one or multiple trump signs and likely American flags in case you forget which country you’re in, probably some cars on the lawn as decoration… you get the picture
Yeah, I think I get it, but I don't want to share the planet with them as well.
Yeah.. can’t say I’m the biggest fan of living in an area where I have several examples within walking distance of me, it has left me feeling slightly on edge at times. I don’t think it’d be taken too kindly if I started to get outspoken about politics so I just let it be
So much freedom. I have to shed a tear for you 🥹
Living in the blessed realm. What a dream!
This is the same with any enthusiast though. A keen cyclist will typically have multiple bikes, a car enthusiast will have a few cars, etc. Given how easy guns are to store, it's no surprise that people will have a collection.
...point taken. 😳
spoiler
(I have a half-dozen cars and more than a dozen bikes.)I still suspect you have been desensinsitivised to the permeation of guns in the US so you don't really notice it, and downplay it in your mind. I can assure you people from outside of the US does notice it though.
Well, "relative few" is technically correct at about 45% of Americans. Now, way less than that carry, and even less with any regularity, and even less open carry, so yeah you probably don't see them often, but they're around.
I lived in the US for a decade without ever seeing a gun, other than in a cop's holster.
Yeah I can count on one hand the amount of guns I've seen in person even after going to gun nut relatives' houses.
This is ignoring police guns because yeah that skews results. Like autistic kids skewing tech literacy resultd.
Yeah, as a life-long Californian I've seen only a dozen or so guns in my entire life not in the hands or belts of police officers.
Still, we know they are out there. People in rough areas of town are going to have a very different experience.
I'd like to just point out that this alone is a huge difference. Police in Europe generally do not carry firearms. It's even unusual to see them with weapons at an airport.
I could be subject to police brutality from a random traffic stop technically, but I wouldn't have any chance of a gun being pulled on me.
Not in Europe generally. It is true for the UK, but not so much anywhere else. But even in European countries with armed police deescalation is still the pereferred method and they only rarely draw their guns or fire them, especially compared to the US where the police have been trained with overly aggressive lethal violence responses.
Concealed is concealed. If we're seeing them, they're doing concealment wrong.
We can look at the rate of licensing to get an idea of scale and prevalence.
In 15 states, more than 1 in 10 adults have permits. Pennsylvania, ~1 in 6. Colorado, ~1 in 5. Indiana, over 22% of adults are licensed concealed carriers.
Nationwide, 7.8% of adults are licensed. Outside CA and NY, 9.3% of adults are currently licensed.
Licensing numbers peaked in 2022, but 29 states (Covering 47% of the population) have recently abandoned licensing requirements. The reduced number of licenses don't indicate falling carry rates.
To me, the most interesting statistic from that link is almost overlooked: We all know that cops are under-prosecuted and under-convicted for their crimes. ACAB. Despite their cop-privilege, police are still convicted of gun crimes at 12 times the rate of licensed concealed carriers.
They also kill around 1k people a year.... including suicides, 1 in 40 of all gun deaths are from the police. Take out the suicides, and it's down to 1 in 13.5/14... basically the cops kill a lot of people in the usa.