Split Gun Culture in America

[lpetrich]

MODERATOR’S NOTE:
This post was split into a new topic as it was a distinct topic from the school shooting thread where it was originally posted

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Skipping America: US gun culture has the rest of the world keeping its distance

In late May of this year, while reeling from the news of the mass shootings in a Buffalo, NY grocery store and Uvalde, TX elementary school, I found myself daydreaming about which progressive country with sensible gun regulations I could emigrate to. A place where my husband and I could send our son to school knowing the emotionally disturbed don’t have readily-available firearms for the inevitable day they decide to live out their homicidal fantasies.

...
I grew up hearing that everyone in the world yearns to come to America, to experience life in the land of the free. But as the body count grows, the dynamic has reversed for me, and I began to wonder: If people like me fantasize about living in a country that’s not plagued by gun violence and a do-nothing government, do people in the more civilized countries see our gun violence rates and fear traveling to the USA?

Godless Liz on Twitter: "If you live outside the USA, does our gun violence epidemic make you less likely to want to vacation here?" / Twitter

Godless Liz on Twitter: "Amazing amount of responses—wow! Thank you everyone for providing your honest appraisal of the USA.
Perhaps it’s time to #AmendTheSecondAmendment" / Twitter

Godless Liz on Twitter: "Correction: Amazing *number* of replies I hate it when I don’t catch a mistake beforehand" / Twitter

Within two days, the tweet had garnered more than 41,000 likes and thousands of replies from people all over the world. As of this writing, it’s over 48,000 likes and 22,000 comments. I even had a quote tweet from Canadian author Margaret Atwood.

Clearly my question had struck a nerve. And most replies to my question were a resounding “YES.”

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“It’s not just the guns”

In addition to the gun violence, many people cited other troubling aspects of American life that keep them away, like the rise in Christian Nationalism, racism, and our expensive for-profit healthcare system. Some have been advised that if injured while visiting the US, they should avoid US hospitals and fly back to their home country for care.

Also, Donald Trump being elected and attacks on reproductive rights.

“I’m an American and I feel so much safer when I’m visiting other countries with sensible gun restrictions”

Plenty of US citizens chimed in to share personal stories about feeling so much more relaxed while visiting other developed nations.

Like walking in the middle of the night while knowing that other people aren't armed.

“I don’t want to financially support a country that values the right to own firearms over their children’s lives”

Many people responded that even though they don’t necessarily fear they’ll be a victim of gun violence while visiting us, they wouldn’t travel here simply out of principle.

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“Americans say they fear visiting Australia because of our venomous creatures, but that’s laughable considering they have the most dangerous animal of all: an armed human”

A bunch of Aussies made this point while saying they wouldn’t travel to the US. Some even provided statistics on how many Aussies are killed by poisonous animals compared to the number of people who die by guns in the United States.

“When I was visiting (insert US city here) I witnessed/experienced gun violence or the threat of a shooting”

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“Our country has travel advisory warnings about gun violence in the US”

Travel Advisory: United States of America – Amnesty International USA

“I only travel there for work and rarely leave my hotel, so I’m probably safe.”

A minority of replies were by people who acknowledged the gun violence issue but generally weren’t deterred since they don’t vacation here nor patronize events with large crowds.

Some responders tagged major news media, like MSNBC, the New York Times, and Reuters, asking why nobody’s talking about how our astronomical rate of gun violence could be causing a loss in tourism revenue.