>And in most western countries a "school shooting" is nothing a person should even have to think or plan about, and schools don't ever need metal detectors, or to have to plan around such things.
School shootings are still very much a thing where I live (finland), last one being just last year. A country with no guns and supposed to be one of the happiest in the world still experiences them
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Percent_of_households_with_gun...
The metal shell of most vehicles also protect the occupants from lightning strikes.
Not about those in cities averted by lighting rods.
Fun fact: lightning rods are called air terminals.
No sane society would be comforted by the fact an active mass murdering act is "just twice as bad" as some natural phenomenon.
There's always a rental truck or a ton of fertilizer for the Cains of today.
Compared to the rate of defensive gun use appears to be worthwhile.
https://www.k12dive.com/news/school-shootings-2024-near-reco...
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-17/us-school-shootings-2...
As you can see your number of 13 makes no sense, there were 200-300 students shot (!)
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-12-17/us-school-shootings-2...
Next day we drove with a tank through a forest.
Compared to other EU countries Finland is pretty easy going when it comes to guns.
Do you know the difference between 1% and 99%? Once every 10 years vs. once every year?
A desert with a single tree vs. a forest with a dead tree, a lake on a continent vs. an island in the ocean.. are those the same things to you?
In reality, while it is nowhere near as bad as in the US, but there are school shootings and similar issues on a semi regular basis across Europe. Guns are still guns and humans are still humans unfortunately
Once a decade at most in most countries. Usually less than that.
Compared to what in the US, once a month?
Yes, guns are still guns and humans are still humans, but it's not nearly comparable.
Finland is about the same size of say Minnesota, and Minnesota hasn't had a major school shooting since August
Definitely not as bad as the US though, I acknowledge that, but people tend to paint it in black and white terms when the reality is messier
Shootings per million people 0.22 in Europe vs. 8.68 for the US, 40x difference. Deaths, US has 1111 and Europe 662, more than half of which happened in what's more accurately described as an organized terrorist attack rather than a school shooting (the Beslan school siege [1]).
Your comment is definitely trying to play down the reality in one giant whataboutism effort.
A terrorist attack where the anti-terrorist special forces used tanks and thermobaric missiles against the school premises, killing many hostages in the process and giving plenty of warning to the terrorists to kill even more. A horrific event all around.
That seems also like what you're saying?
Edit: It is true that in the UK this is pretty much unheard of since handguns were banned after Dunblane (it is literally impossible to get a handgun legally, Team GB pistol shooters have to train abroad).
So yes to be fair that kind of very extreme approach does seem to work so far
I don't think numbers are published for mainland GB, but it's likely less than a thousand - perhaps even just a few dozen. The Home Secretary has to authorise the licence, and they're limited to people with a verifiable active threat against their life.
(There are more in Northern Ireland as a legacy of the troubles - 2,924 in 2012, probably closer to 2,000 now. The rules are a little more lax, with the PSNI Chief Constable being sufficient for sign-off.)
A PPW firearms certificate allows a handgun of up to 9mm/.38 calibre, and up to 50 rounds of ammunition.
But none have been used in a school shooting, of course.
Also worth pointing out for non UK people: you can still legally licence shotguns (relatively easily) and some kinds of rifle (not so easily). Shotguns are somewhat common in the countryside but other guns (even rifles) are quite rare
I'd honestly expect most PPW holders in GB to be prison officers. There'll be a few wealthier folk in NI as a hangover from the troubles - business owners who refused to pay protection money, high court judges who sat on prominent terrorist trials, that sort of thing.
But the criteria are much the same as those for being afforded police protection, so your actual billionaires and dukes would almost certainly opt for that instead if they were under that sort of threat.
That's why I didn't say you were factually wrong but that you're trying to play down the reality in one giant whataboutism effort. Whataboutism is all misdirection and deflection rather than factually wrong statements.
I do not see evidence that the approach works. There were very few school shootings (or any shootings, really) before the handgun ban too. There are only two on this list that predate the handgun ban: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_...
The UK has a lower per capita level of knife murders than the US too so its not just access to guns that is an issue.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_stabbings_in_the_...
The last school shooting was the Dunblane Massacre in 1996, which led to gun law changes, removing rights to have handguns and various semi-automatic weapons.
I'm not sure how many occurred before then, but the total number of mass shootings in the UK is low. Check out https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_... to get a feel for how rare this sort of attack is in any setting here in the UK.
So for the last 25 years we've had no school shootings. I believe the US as a whole has had >300 shootings so far this year, with >300 victims.
> Minnesota hasn't had a major school shooting since August
There is an emerging and more frequent problem with religious terrorism though (people driving cars into crowds, shooting up concerts, etc). A problem created for absolutely no reason by stupid encouragement of mass immigration.
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azores_Summit
[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaza_International_Transitiona...