American Reacts UK Gun Laws Explained 

67% of US gun owners say they have one for self defence, I have seen many comments where a gun owner will say they never go out without taking their gun. A commenter once wrote their idea of freedom was being able to keep a gun under their pillow to defend themselves. I pointed out, my idea of freedom was not feeling the need.

The biggest issue in the US remains the fact that guns seem to just be viewed as a normal part of life. The vast majority of people in the UK simply have no interest in owning or using a gun.

One of my most prominent thoughts on the matter is: If you feel you need to arm yourself to keep your property and loved ones safe, your government and police force have massively failed you and need to do much better. We do not have these fears in the UK.

Owning a gun is not part of our culture, Owning a good set of darts would be more important.

There were photos today of our local primary school. The children were celebrating the jubilee, sat outside enjoying themselves without a care in the world. To me that's real freedom.

If you applied for a firearms permit in the UK for home defence, you would be refused. As an ex pistol and rifle owner and avid shooter, I gave up my firearms after the school shooting in Dunblane Scotland.

I think the majority of British people would probably think guns are banned. To most people in Britain, guns aren't really a thing, they're not part of daily life.

Having a gun that can’t fire lots of shots and banning guns that can fire loads of rounds in one go is a great way to prevent large scale massacres.

If you asked to buy a gun for ‘home defense’ you’d get laughed out the room 😂😂

Very similar here in Australia. Many Americans say "you banned guns" or "your Government took your guns", both of which are nonsense. What happened was that licensing and ownership regulations were strengthened and unified across the States, and many guns were reclassified in a way which made them much harder to acquire (and all mass shooters back in the days when we had them legitimately acquired their guns as random civilian mass shootings are rarely ever connected with crime gangs). Self defence is not, and never has been a valid reason to own a gun here. Our society is so safe and so disinterested in guns that having deadlocked doors and windows is considered to be all the security you need, even in the city. As far as needing guns to overthrow a national Government (another common reason given to me for Americans owning guns) which the people are fed up with, we call that process a "Federal election".

Legally owned guns in the UK tend to belong to people in the countryside, away from the big cities. Farmers need to control pests and put down sick or inured animals etc. You certainly wouldn't be a able to get a gun license for "Home Defence".

For me, as a European, it is a complete contradiction to claim that you live in a free country and at the same time must have weapons at home for self-defense ... #TedCruz

In the UK, we may have our history and old traditions, but there is a time when you have to update old laws. Sometimes it seems to me that parts of the USA are clinging on too much to the past and not just on this topic.

The hard facts are: in the whole of Europe, not just the EU but the entire continent with 742 million people there were 7 mass shootings with 35 deaths in 2021, in the US in the same year there were 693 with 703 deaths: and Europe has over 2 times the population

Firstly, neither the British Government nor the Australian government TOOK guns away from the public. When the appropriate laws were changed, the affected firearms were bought, by the governments, for fair market value. Secondly, it was unusual for minor criminals to carry guns. The police in Britain, are for the most art not armed. A burglar, for example, is in the burglary business, not in the getting shot business. Going "Tooled-up" to a burglary, is a good way of getting beaten up when you eventually get to prison. Prisoners do not want to encourage police to carry guns as it's bad for business.

Important to know: if you are in the UK and have a firearm without a licence, you will go to prison pretty quickly. A sentence of 7 years for illegal possession of arms in the UK is not uncommon.

Brit here, I did learn to shoot when I was a teenager as a member of the Army Cadets. I fired rifles on the army ranges at Colchester and Thetford. The last time I held a rifle was when I was 16, which is now 40 years ago and in that 40 years there has never been a moment when I have wanted to have a gun, it is just irrelevant in my life. I grew up in the countryside here in the UK it’s not unusual for farmers and pest controllers to own a shotgun and there is a little bit of a sport-shooting scene, but I moved to London when I was 19.

A lot of people don't realise that Switzerland and Finland have gun laws as easy as Texas. The difference is the gun culture. Guns are not the go-to dispute resolver there and their national identity is not so bound up with firearms. In fact, I think the Swiss government still issue every male of military age an assault rifle to keep at home in case the Germans or the French get any ideas about invading. They also rig the bridges on the Alpine passes with explosives ready to blow if needed. But the Swiss and the Finns do not fetishise and promote guns, which is what the Americans do, they treat them more like power tools.

The thing many people forget about the Constitution is that it was designed to be reviewed every 19 years to make sure it is still relevant and also designed to be regularly changed when necessary.

I watched an interview with Andy Murray today where the subject of Uvalde came up and he said how it brought back memories of his own experience at Dunblane. One school shooting was enough for the UK to tighten up gun laws and I wish the US would at least make theirs a little tighter.

I think you've got it spot on. The problem in the US is how many guns there are and how easy it is to access them when you're pissed off, when you're drunk or when you're a kid who doesn't know what it is. Here in the UK I could buy an AR15 clone with thousands of rounds of ammo, and yet nobody picks one up and goes on a shooting spree. You're right that we essentially banned all guns that are small enough to conceal and that makes a huge difference and is a huge part of keeping us safe - it's why sawnoff shotguns are so popular with criminals as they're the only weapon that still sort of functions with most of the barrel removed.

The US Constitution was written when guns were muskets and held one bullet at a time. Those days have gone. US needs to decide which is more important- the lives of their people and kids in particular, or the right to own a gun.

With the qualifications I hold, I am able to sign certain document, firearms licence request forms being one. One of my staff would ask me to sign his firearms requests form when it was due for renewal, he had had some time off work with depression, when he asked me to sign one of his renewals I had to refuse, I also informed the local police authority explaining my decision and his resent health issues. Better safe than sorry. 🇬🇧

Hi Conner. Here's some stats cus I know you love them. Here's some stats on school shootings since 2009:- Canada 2 France 2 Germany 1 Japan 0 Italy 0 UK 0 US 288

The point is you are on your own. Other countries are similar to the UK and they don't have mass gun massacres, certainly not within a couple of weeks of each other. The US law is based on a weapon people used over two hundred years ago, not military weapons of today. Why is owning a gun a right but health care is not? The majority of Americans are for stricter gun control, but the government seems to think they are in charge instead of the population. Your opinion has disappointed me!

Living in the UK I did learn to shoot when I was young, rifle, hand gun & shotgun. I grew up in a city with some of the highest shooting rates in the UK. There were lots of illegally held guns or guns that were 'left over' (gun control came in in 1923 from memory) I now live in a rural area with far more shotguns, shooting is pest control on farms. 6.5 guns per hundred people, but one person may have 6 or more guns registered guns so they are even less common than it suggests. What got rid of the handguns in the UK (& there were 1000's unregistered when I was growing up) was a shooting where several people died. All the police forces held gun amnesties where anyone could hand in a gun no questions asked to be destroyed. This has happened a few times over the years. It only takes one person in the house to hand a gun or guns in & they are out of circulation, all the younger people appearing on the news protesting about gun control in the US could hand in the unregistered guns in the house. Yes it will cause arguments but they are gone. What kind of civilised society needs a gun to protect the home? Get a dog if your that worried.

The ability of a person suffering mental distress and being able to quickly access a weapon with high volume magazines and high muzzle velocity needs to be restricted or curtailed completely. End of. No excuses.

The worst mass shooting event in the UK was the Dunblane School shooting, 16 students and 1 teach were killed, with 15 others being injured. If I recall correctly, he had 4 pistols, two revolvers and two 9mm magazine fed pistols. Guns laws were changed more or less that year due to mass public protest and uproar, resulting in magazine fed pistols being more or less impossible to get, overall length increased to make easy concealment and drawing of the concealed weapon difficult, reducing the potential magazine (most revolvers only have a 6 round cylinder) and making reloading much more difficult (its easier and cheaper to get a hold of legal, 'muzzle loaded' revolvers) and most firearms now available tend to be rim fire, not center fire. The difference being the firing pin hits the rim of the cartridge or shell, so the explosive force sending the bullet up the barrel is off center, he science behind it being that rim fired projectiles are have less power and accuracy than a center fired munition. In practice the difference isnt a whole lot, but any option to reduce the lethality of legal weapons is what matters

I think I am right in saying that 36 out of 50 states there is no need for you to have a licence to purchase a firearm. In the UK it is clearly far more controlled. Such as making sure that you do not have any mental health issues that could cause a problem. I think that the UK has got the balance correct.

Sadly, I can’t agree with your argument. Whatever the issue is about the amount of hand guns. As someone mentioned the real issue in America is how an organisation like the NRA decides policy. As I have said before, the law in America defends companies, not people. This is not about left or right.. it is absolutely unbelievable that an 18 year old can enter a store and buy 2 AR15’s. America says gun control is a political issue, defining the Entire nation as idiots. Sadly, it will happen again and again because people like yourself do not have the guts to stand up and be counted. I can think of no other country in the world that would elect officials who do not make it their primary goal to stop these mass killings.

Looking at America from the UK, I think what you need is a Constitutional Amendment. But not to amend the Second Amendment, but to have an Amendment restricting the amount of money that big organisations can pay to the election expenses of legislators, and indeed on how much any contributors can dictate to the candidate. My understanding is that there are restrictions on party expenses, but not on how much money single-issue organisations - such as the National Rifle Association - can pay to candidates. These big sums of money sloshing around mean that there can't be a reasoned debate about the often complex and technical questions around gun control. If a legislator is being subsidised by the National Rifle Association, even if he or she comes up with a good argument against some gun control measure, it will be assumed that he or she is simply saying that argument because he or she is being paid to do so. You badly need an unbiased, calm debate about the issues. This cannot happen with all this money about.

You make some very good points about the amount of guns already in existence, however Rome wasn’t built in a day and you have to start somewhere. What would really help would be removing lobbyists from political life. Mitt Romney has taken over $13,000,000 from the NRA alone!

If you put "self defense" on a firearms licence in the UK; first someone as pedantic as I in the dibble will scribble out the defense and put defence. Then they will say no, then they will make a note that you are never allowed a licence in the future, then they will come round your gaff and have a look for unlicenced controlled weapons. You *may* be found to have used a firearm for self defence in a court of law, but you cannot legally own a licence for a firearm for the specific use of self defence, is my *completely unqualified assessment of UK law*

Well as a German i absolutely feel no need to own a Gun for "self defense"

You chaps culturally are different. You’re raised on the John Wayne ethos of a person looks after themself without any help from anyone else, with a history of the west being populated by rugged individualists. Our collective memory/culture is of us all pulling together to deal with crises, such as the “blitz spirit”. So a yank will look after himself, have a gun and sort out their own healthcare, whereas we’re more likely to do things for the collective good at state level, hence the NHS is worshipped here.

What the video forgot to mention is that there are limits on the amount of ammunition you can purchase and store. This is specified on your gun licence.

So in Australia they didn't "take guns away from people", and Australia _does_ still have gun problems. What the Australian government did is it made certain kinds of guns illegal, and then ran a buyback scheme for those kinds of guns, followed by periodic options to hand in illegal weapons without fear of legal consequence - the combination of gun amnesties and gun buybacks allowed people to be benefited by compliance without risk of any consequences for having the guns in the first place. A more detailed explanation is, they ran a gun buyback for 12 months back in 1996-1997, which netted 650,000 guns and paid out some AU$304 million to those gun owners. There have been repeated gun amnesties run by state governments and the federal government since then to allow consequence-free gun hand-ins to aid in compliance with the laws. In fact, as of last year there is now a permanent gun amnesty in place allowing anyone to surrender any unregistered firearm or firearm-related item to a police station anonymously without consequence - it's considered a safety issue. Giving people a consequence-free option to assist in compliance is *WAY* better than not doing that and then having to punish them for non-compliance. So while police do take guns from criminals they find who have guns that aren't registered or that are illegal or that have been proven to be used for a criminal purpose (because you can legally own guns in Australia for the record), generally speaking the government isn't coming for anyone's guns. There are approximately 3.5 million registered firearms in Australia, held by about 868,000 licensed individuals (out of a population of 25.5 million or so at the time that the University of Sydney released these figures last year - so about 3.4% of the population is registered to own firearms). Australia still has gun problems - there have been hostage crises and shootings since the 1996 gun law changes - but they are rare (there are two of note since 1996), and Australia basically doesn't have mass shootings anymore. *Also, as an educational side-note:* the Second Amendment existed because the US originally did not have a federally-run military as that was viewed as potentially tyrannical (imagine the President being able to command all the military! that's basically a king!), and instead each state had their own militia. Since that time, the legal classifications of militias in the US have changed to include civilian associations, and the military has also been federalised which eliminated the state-run militias as they existed at the time of the amendment, making the Second Amendment doubly non-applicable in the modern era. It also says that the militias had to be "well-regulated", which directly implies that regulated gun ownership was part of the intent. So while the right to own guns could not be abridged by the government, the manner in which they were owned and the way in which ownership was regulated absolutely was meant to be. And it wasn't so that people could shoot their own government, it was so that the US could be defended from outside invaders without the need of a federally-run standing army.

One of the reasons for the American Revolution is that the British government wanted to remove guns from the Americans, considering they started the French Indian war and their behaviour since,the British government was probably right.

Why do people in the US feel they need to protect themselves? From what? Here (UK) we do not live in fear of violence against us. THAT is my take away. A sad society that feels it needs so much personal protection. Also, the idea one has to teach drills to school children about what to do if there is an attack is, to the rest of the world, incomprehensible.

Personally I’m proud of our gun restrictions and agree with the vetting process. Don’t need one….I feel safer and for me that’s a comfort

NZ has similar gun laws to the UK, with some differences in definitions. When applying for a licence the applicant (not in order) must sit and pass a written test after completing a course on gun ownership and safety. They are interviewed by a police arms officer to confirm genuine reasons for purchase and use, the applicant's partner is interviewed separately to ensure that there is no history of threats or violence in their relationship and the storage (lockable safe bolted to the building) meets required standard. Referees are needed who will be interviewed and other checks as may be identified are followed up, such as membership or association with gangs or other risk groups. The licence is for a set period and defines the class of weapon it is for, eg, long arm, pistol, collector... As we are a very safe country on the world scale, (I think about second as opposed to the US about one hundredth plus) the use of firearms for home defence is not an issue. Firearms here are used for hunting (we have open hunting for most game animals, so it is a common sport), target shooting and pest control. I personally have hunted all if my adult life and as my ability to do so has diminished with age I now shoot targets for pleasure, a common progression.

It seems to me that the real difference between UK and USA is that the USA has a culture of individualism. It is all about 'my rights' as an individual. The UK is a long way from perfect in all of these issues but there is still (hanging on by a thread) a culture of community. Americans often call it socialism (I wish) and consider that dreadful, but it is why we went with gun control (protection of our communities is more important than individual desires to own guns) and why we have socialised medicine (giving everyone access to healthcare regardless of their income is more important than individual right to only pay for my own healthcare).

Honestly, if I were American I'd be more concerned about general mental health than weapons per se.

It’s sad when some feel that you need own a gun to protect yourself & your property,it’s never enters my mind that my house will be broken into,or worry when I walk the streets of London,& that I will be attacked. I wouldn’t want to live in a society having those worries on my mind.or is it that some Americans think they still live in the old western days in Tombstone at the ok corral?

He seems to have lost 10 million people from the UK!

I love how the Americans always need to make excuses for their horrendous, world leading, gun crime and homicide rate

React to Aussie gun laws after port Arthur massacre. The US could learn a thing or 2 about keeping guns away from nutters

I’m Australian. 6 years ago a schizophrenic patient escaped from hospital and tried to get hold of a gun. He had to eventually settle for a butchers knife. He went on a mad rampage through a shopping centre and launched straight at my daughter and her friends. She had the presence of mind to grab her friends and hurdle over a hedge where they watched the attack end with police shooting him in the thigh. He survived. No one was killed. A woman was injured from the ricochet from the police bullet. She recovered. I have NO DOUBT IN MY MIND my daughter would not be alive had he been able to secure a gun that day.

Good video although he's wrong about the ability to have a firearm being a privilege and not a right here in the UK. English citizens have a right to guns given to them in the English Bill of Rights (which predates the constitution) but that right is restricted by legislation because it's not 1698 anymore and the world is a little different from back them.

This topic is a minefield of opinion and reasoning. everytime I hear about a mass shooting in the USA, I appreciate our gun laws even more. To many of us Brits I would bet my mortgage that given a choice, we would not want guns to be freely available. Even our everyday police don't wear a firearm. I believe the USA is so far down the road of gun ownership that no amount of pushback is achievable.

In the UK one-question that must be answered is, "Would you use this weapon to defend yourself?" If the answer is, "Yes." the licence is revoked.

If in UK you tell the visiting policeyou say you want it for home defence it's a permanent no for ever ,you have just banned yourself from firearms

You have a great grasp of this and your opinion is right. Donald Trump said that school teachers in the USA should be trained to carry guns! Well if my childs school had to do this then I would not be sending that child to school! Imagine going somewhere where it is possible that you might get shot and killed. I wouldn't go there and would not expect or let my child to go there either!

The UK is similar to here in Australia with our gun laws, although they do also vary over here from State to State. In Victoria, in the South, we're less strict for the most part compared to the UK, but when it comes to the types of long arms you can acquire, we're actually a little more strict as you can acquire some types we can't. Mind you we can acquire more variations of handgun once licensed. The common denominator though is the background checks, to ensure only those deemed as responsible are able to become owners. Air powered rifles also have to be registered here and the licenses are catergorised depending upon fire-arm type etc. Obviously there's a lot more to it, but I'm sure you get the drift. My point for now though is that we too, have essentially stopped all mass shootings, as our idea of freedom, which I believe is similar to that of the Brits, is to not live in a society where the need to carry firearms becomes a necessity as a means to potentially survive. We have them for sport, vermin control, with some blokes making a living out of this, and livestock management. My kids don't need to train at school for potential shooters, they can play outside until well after dark, and hey, I don't have to lock up the house when we go out. How's that for being "Free"?

The thing is it isnt about taking away peoples guns it's obvious that isnt going to happen it's far to late for that, it's about introducing proper sensible legislation to control those guns and the purchase of new ones. There should be proper records, background checks and some kind of register of gun ownership, legal ages should be raised and set at a federal level, it's insane that you cant even drink until your 21 in many states but can buy a gun at 18 in some of those some places. It also needs to become accepted that some people with certain histories of violence and mental illness must not be allowed to buy firearms for obvious reasons. Guns and ammunition also should not be so widely available and should probably be more expensive, and certain types of gun shouldn't be available to the general public. After all it is literally written in the text of the 2nd amendment that although there is a right to beat arms it should be well regulated, a fact that the NRA and the right tend to forget when quoting the document.

What the video doesn't cover is the fact that guns actually used to be commonplace in the UK but the key difference between the UK and the US laws is the UK laws moved with the political climate and the times. The right to keep and bear arms had originated in England during the reign of Henry II with the 1181 Assize of Arms, and developed as part of common law. After the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745, harsher laws providing, amongst other things, for disarming the Highlands of Scotland, were enacted by the Parliament of Great Britain: the Disarming Acts of 1716 and 1725, and the Act of Proscription 1746. Then the laws were changed again the first British firearm controls were introduced as part of the Vagrancy Act 1824, which was set up in a reaction against the large number of people roaming the country with weapons brought back from the Napoleonic wars. It allowed the police to arrest "any person with any gun, pistol, hanger [a light sword], cutlass, bludgeon or other offensive weapon ... with intent to commit a felonious act". It was followed by the Night Poaching Acts 1828 and 1844, the Game Act 1831, and the Poaching Prevention Act 1862, which made it an offence to shoot game illegally by using a firearm. Changes in 1870 made it a requirement to have a license to bear a gun outside of the home and was done merely as a way to generate income for the Government at ten shillings a year. Then the laws were changed in 1903 with the Pistols Act. Then again in 1920 for the Firearms Act then that was changed once again in 1937 and 1968, 1988 then 1997 after the Dunblane school shooting. There was an affinity with firearms in the country but attitudes and the mentality of the people changed and the laws did. Unlike in the US where it will fight tooth and nail against any change simply for the sake of doing so and holding up a constitutional right more vermently than the bible.

UK style gun laws would of helped in the US years ago. Its too late now, the situation is out of control. I would hate to live in a place where people are scared to send there children to school. 😒

Gun laws in the USA are totally stupid. The 2nd amendment speaks of a "well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State ..." However, most private citizens are NOT part of a militia, nor is citizen ownership of guns today necessary for State security (I'm sure the US military is more than capable of providing for said state security). Moreover, with around 400 million guns in circulation in the USA, gun ownership can hardly be said to be "well regulated".

Alongside tighter gun laws, Australia ran a "buyback" and national gun amnesty. They have run several since 1996 which has taken out large numbers of unlicensed weapons. The UK and other countries do this at regular intervals.

Population of the UK given is wrong by about 11 million people as far as I can see 67million ish at last count

Home Protection has never been a valid reason to own a gun in the UK, even before all the firearm laws were tightened (which incidentally was the result of two separate tragedies carried out by lunatics who legally held a FAC in 1987 & 1996) it was difficult to get a Class 1 Fire Arm Certificate and putting 'For Self Defence' on the form would have guaranteed a refusal.

Why would you want to own a firearm when you have armed law enforcement?

My personal opinion is that there is no place in a civilised society for weapons designed to kill other humans.

The biggest surprise I had when I visited America! I was staying in a home in a reasonably wealthy area of a city and on New Years night at midnight guns went off! People shooting guns into the air. I asked about the bangs thinking they were fireworks and was told no that’s actually guns! That does not happen here in the UK, the bangs are fireworks. That’s how it hit home to me! The family I was staying with kept a gun. But didn’t use it. I was asked and I said I didn’t want to hold it let alone fire it, which surprised them! And these were genuine Democrat liberal people!

The number of guns in the US is an issue but you're thinking about it from the wrong perspective. The number of guns is a product of the laws. Therefore the laws ARE the issue. Stricter laws means less guns.

It chills me to the bone knowing that pretty much every household in the US owns a firearm. The fact that you can buy a gun without any proper checks it’s terrifying.

Without going too deep into the politics, your summary about the relative political spectrums in the US and UK was correct, there's actually very little overlap (or even none at all). By UK standards, both the Republicans and Democrats are pretty right wing, conservative parties (Rep being further right than Dem obviously). By US standards, the nominally right wing Conservative party in the UK would be seen as progressively left wing, perhaps even more than that, and the actual left wing would probably be written off as Communists. 'Liberal' and 'Socialist' don't have the same negative weight in the UK that they do in the US.

Number of gun deaths in USA in 2020 was 45000. Number of gun deaths in England/Wales in 2020 was 30. Also the U.K. police don’t carry guns. In 1940 (WW2) Hitler mounted a full invasion of England (Operation Sealion) but the British public were still not given small arms. It was left to the military. Fortunately the RAF dealt with it and Hitler cancelled the invasion.

A factor in the massive difference in gun deaths between the U.K. and the U.S.A. is that the guns you can own in the U.S. is that the calibre can be so much bigger and that they can be fully automatic.

In the UK you can never ever use home defence as a reason for possessing a gun. I was a police officer for 30 years and I can recall one instance where a person was a collector user of american mid 18th century rifles. All weapons must be specified on the licence and the serial number noted. Also all ammunition must be recorded and stored separately to the weapon. So for instnace no more than 50 rounds per weapon could be owned at any one time. This person showed me that his rifles were stored in an unlocked cheat in his attic space. The ammunition was in another chest in the same attic space with a poor padlock on it. As he handed the weapons to me to inspect I secured them all and the ammunition and removed them from his possession and took them to our Firearms department. His licence was cancelled and he was forced to sell his weapons without ever seeing them again because he was irresponsible in their storage. That level of control is given to all weapons even shot guns. Also you are never allowed to carry a loaded weapon in a public place even if you are en route to a range or a shoot of any kind. In comparison the USA our laws are sensible and I think about right. The USA gun laws are like a circular firing squad. Just mad.

I think the most worrying aspect of this awful tragedy is that a 16 year old was able to walk in off the street and actually obtain this powerful weapon and nobody questioned it. He didn't have to apply to own it. He wasn't challenged. When a 16 year old buys a weapon as dangerous as this one it should've been flagged. The shop owner can't challenge him but surely he can contact local police to inform them that a 16 year old is on the streets with this weapon. Then I suppose that is against his right to bear arms! I would despair because you just know this is going to happen again!

In 2020 in the USA 4345 children were killed in gun related incidents, death in car incidents were 30% lower than this.

Another important difference here is that in the UK, self defence or home defence is not accepted as a legitimate reason to own a firearm or indeed any weapon. Indeed if you even have a golf club or baseball bat which you have be found to be keeping at home solely to injure an intruder, you could be charged if you use it. Basically we don't want people to be armed either at home or in public and the vast majority of people support this.

It's not 101 guns per person, it's 101 guns per 100 people.

As an Australian with similar gun laws, I thought it was amusing that your reason for owning a gun was for home protection. You see when no idiots have guns anymore its not a very good excuse a cricket or baseball bat does just as good.

It's a cultural thing. British born and bred many decades ago, I have never been acquainted with anyone owning a gun.

I like the idea that you have to go to the cops to get permission to buy a gun. Even if they say yes, you are automatically on their radar. In the UK, they are very concentrated so calling the police is absolutely the best idea in every case. There are large areas of the US where it is just not practical to wait for the police if you are in danger. Also - if you sell an unlicensed weapon or hold an unlicensed weapon you are serious trouble in Great Britain. You dont even have to fire it.

The question is, why do most Americans feel the need to protect their homes with a firearm? Is it easier to break into an American home?

I remember a comvo with an american: me: we have gun crime and deaths in the UK her obviously! me: 57 deaths her :57,000 deaths yeah that sounds normal me: no, 57, in the last ten years her: you're lieng! me nope! *shows proof* her: obviously that's wrong! note: the numbers are not correct but close enough to 2012 figures it still gave the same responce.

I think a huge part of the problem is that guns can be sold more easily and marketed in the US for example you won't see adverts for guns on UK TV.

In Italy we have similar strict regulations however hunting weapons are quite common.

I’m in the uk and I hold a gun licence, but hold no gun... I had to get a gun licence that would permit me to hold gun powder & the components to make black powder. I have this because I handle gun powder for my re-enactment group where I trained as Cannon crew. By law our canon is taken apart and stored in separate locations & the black powder is stored elsewhere. So the entire cannon would take over 200 miles to bring it all together, but it will not fire until I arrive. Even when on site I have to keep my powder locked away safe and dry. I also keep the components separate until we’re ready for a display, so I mix on site, NEVER driving with the final product in my vehicle. It’s all VERY tightly regulated, if anything changes in my life I have to record this, so accidents, injuries, mental health issues & anything like police records, crimes, use of drugs etc could all remove my licence. But it does tend to scare folks when I say “oh yeah, my gun is a cannon, literally!”

Breaks my heart that the US just can't sort their guns out.

If anyone broke into my house, id ask them to leave VERY sternly.

The second amendment specifies a "well regulated militia" - what actually exists isn't well regulated - it's a free-for-all. Here in the UK I enjoy going clay pigeon (skeet) shooting, and can do it any time - it's well controlled. I lived in the US but, like you, lived in New England - Mass to be precise - and the problem is much less there because state laws are somewhat tougher than in, say, Texas or Florida.

As a former licensed handgun owner in the U.K up till 1996 when they were banned my thoughts were hell don't ban them just have us check them in and out at the range instead of keeping them at home in a gun safe.

Hi Conner, always appreciate your videos. I'm Canadian and many policies/legislation around gun ownership are closer here to the UK rather than the US. However, because of our proximity to the US, there is some influence - we do not have a "right" to bear arms, but it is a privilege granted under conditions of licensing. However, some Canadians do adhere to the US view. One of the problematic things I find about the pro-gun advocates is the insistence that the problem is with which kind of individuals (disturbed, mentally deranged, evil, etc) are getting hold of the weapons but blocking any effort to strengthen the background check process. How does this make sense? If you don't have stringent checks (or any checks at all, beyond proof of age & money), how on earth do you expect weapons not to get in the wrong hands? (I know this differs by state.) Part of the legislation proposed by the Canadian government yesterday, besides a freezing of handgun sales or transfers, are restrictions on the amount of ammunition. Do hunters or sports shooters need hundreds of rounds of ammunition? Even in the "stand your ground" states, why would you need so many bullets? What a terribly sad way to live...

The reason the UK has less guns in the population is because of the gun laws and the checks and regulation. So yes US gun laws would reduce gun ownership in the uk. Interestingly the hand gun ban is a pretty recent thing in the uk and was a direct responce to hand guns being used in a school shooting. People were willing to give up their handguns because protecting our children was a higher priority.

Shit storm incoming Pick up popcorn 🍿

As an English Brit. I use to work for the Ministry of Defence as a Civil Servant in my case for 21 years. I was at the time in a position if someone wanted to own a gun they could ask me if they were of sound mind or not to own one. Reality is neither myself or anyone else I knew or ever no one ever asked or wanted to own a gun. In the UK talk about guns and chances are no one gives a s***. I knew one person who owned a black powdered historic rifle where he had it locked safely in the roof of his house and only use for historic events. I have an ex-American USAF real good friend who defends the rights of guns in the USA and we talk in depth about this. We don't mind talking no holes barred and when talking about this his arguments makes sense to what the situation is. As such I totally understand and think that the problem the USA has is this is so much a total mind set that to suddenly change a Nation is so not going to happen over night. Problem you have is what if law abiding Americans all of a sudden gave up their guns by the millions. I think this is a valid argument that who then has the others still in posession not given up. The more looking into this subject from outside the more difficult and frustrating it becomes. It really makes me appreciate exact same thing of how come Russia is run by an evil despot yet ordinary sensible Russians allow themselves to be ruled by a total nut job despot. Conclusion is why just for once can't the answers be simple and others not make life so tragic or difficult for others.

I recently watch a video, and i wish i could remember which one it was, that showed that the majority of gun crimes in the US are committed with legally purchased and registered firearms. Turns out that movies and TV shows with dodgy guns sales taking place in the back streets are actually rare and mostly work of fiction. I think the same video showed how easy it is to get a gun from a shop, even a bank was giving them away when opening a new account :s

The population of the UK is 67m. The guy in the vid mixed it up as 56m is the population of England alone. I imagine he looked up gun violence stats which are broken down by constituent countries and mixed up the England stats with whole UK stats

We've had 2 major mass shooting events in the last 30 years in the UK, Hungerford and Dunblane. As a result gun ownership has become very difficult. We're not even comfortable with our police being armed. In the US you seem very comfortable with events such as Uvade ("hopes and prayers" etc), and the use of firearms as an increasingly common form of suicide. I do not understand this collective insanity, perhaps you could explain?

Americans obviously live in far greater fear of gun violence than we in the UK do. The concept of 'home invasion' is a US concept. Here in the UK we lock our doors to prevent burglary, but no-one has any fear that the robber will be armed with anything more lethal that a screwdriver. If you had a gun and shot an unarmed burglar over here then you would probably be charged with manslaughter unless you could prove that you were in real fear for your life. If very few people have guns then no-one needs to be fearful of gun violence. However, there are more guns that people in the US, so fear of gun violence is understandable. The question is whether there should be more checks on mental health and whether semi-automatic machine guns should be allowed unchecked in the US. This would help reduce the number of mass shootings, but probably not much more than that. Most US citizens are actually shot by someone they know. There are more unintended killings than mass killings; there are more suicides by gunshot than murders.

Looking in from Scotland, the whole home defence argument is strange, just how bad is the burglary rate in the States, and don't most burglaries occur when the property is empty.

So I live in the UK and I've never owned a gun, never fired a gun and cannot even remember the last time I saw a gun but I'm banned for life from owning a gun. 🤔 So in 1998 I was sentenced to 3 years imprisonment and anyone who receives 3 years or more is slapped with an automatic mandatory lifetime ban regardless of the crime. My crime was drug related and happy to add that part of my life remains in the last millennia

This is always a highly emotive issue and not one for keyboard warrior types. The saddest statistic I read last week was more children died by firearms than other group in the USA… in the last couple of years, overtook road traffic collisions. It’s for the Americans to decide. Too many school site killings. As the video said you *could* own many types of guns in the UK but you’re very unlikely to get a licence for them.

As a former shotgun licence holder as used to do skeet/clay pigeon shooting, once I stopped that the gun was sold and licence expired. Yes the police did visit my house, they interviewed me and asked the reason why I needed it, I had to show club membership and prove the reason was sensible, they then inspected the gun safe where it would be stored once happy they then granted one. I can't see any reason for anyone to need a gun for protection, if there is a likelihood of someone having a gun, then those bad people will have guns too. Saying that guns make you protected and safer is false, you can look at the murder and crime rate in USA and it's higher than most western countries. People shoot people not guns they quote, but people without guns can't shoot anyone. The reason why Americans want the need for one gun, never mind multiple ones baffles me, if guns were available in shops here I wouldn't see the sense in buying one. They keep stating the second amendment, this was written centuries ago, and should of been changed with the times. There have been gun amnesty's around the globe where citizens handed in there guns, it could easily be done in the USA.

Americas right to bear arms from a time when their independence was perilous and it took 1 minute to load a musket. Completely ridiculous today

You are not allowed to have openly carry a gun here in the UK. If you are seen carrying any gun you will be very quickly surrounded by armed police. Guns must be kept securely and not left in open view when travelling to a place that you intend to use it.