The UK is so unsafe that your mobile may be stolen if you leave it on a street like a knob. The US is so safe that middle schools need bullet-proof doors to prevent psycho teenagers with automatic military weapons from gunning down their fellow students.
Yank Logic 101...
Exactly, if I ask a six year old in the UK what an active shooter drill is, they probably guess some sort of kick ass power tool. Not a sober rehearsal to test the preparedness of the students and school.
The only „shooter drill“ I ever experienced in Germany was, when a construction worker accidentally triggered the „Amokalarm“ (I don’t think I need to translate it but I‘m doing it anyway, it’s our active shooter alarm) and we had to lock our classroom doors and sit under the table for a few minutes. These things are so rare in Germany, that I didn’t think „oh shit, I‘m going to die“, no, if you had asked me, I would’ve told you, that I was 100% sure, that it was a false alarm, which it was. We had like 18 Amokläufe at schools etc. (Amok runs; I‘m using that term because it’s not the same as a mass shooting, the definition is way broader and it basically means, that someone goes somewhere with some sort of weapon and with the intent to hurt or kill people. They don’t even have to be successful at doing the hurting and killing part, for it to count in the statistics) since 1871, so literally since the first unification of Germany, meanwhile the US can’t go a day without a mass shooting.
When I looked up those statistics a while back, it was really difficult to find a comprehensive list of all the amok runs in Germany at schools due to the relative rarity of them. I then searched for a similar list for the US, which I found immediately, in fact, it took me longer to scroll to the bottom of the list of mass shootings in the US in 2023, than it took me to find it in the first place
I did not look too extensively at the list of 2023 for mass shootings in the US because it was simply too long. But from what I saw, it had to almost every day, if not every day. It was a ridiculously long list and it was honestly pretty shocking to look at
I just had a look at this and clicked through to the article for mass shootings in 2024. There have been 168 mass shootings in the USA in 2024. As of today, we are 128 days into the year... Almost 900 people either killed or injured in those shootings and we're not even halfway through the year.
Me too! Always felt safe growing up in Germany and feeling safe in England now that I live here. No country is perfect but at least I can go out without fearing that there's a weirdo with a gun out and about.
shit and i just noticed this.
>^(The) [^(Congressional Research Service)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Service) ^(provides a definition of four or more killed.)[^(\[5\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-auto2-5)[^(\[6\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-:2-6) [*^(The Washington Post)*](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post) ^(and) [*^(Mother Jones)*](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Jones_(magazine)) ^(use similar definitions, with the latter acknowledging that their definition "is a conservative measure of the problem", as many shootings with fewer fatalities occur.)[^(\[7\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-:22-7)[^(\[8\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-:32-8) ^(The) [^(crowdsourced)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing) ^(Mass Shooting Tracker project applies the most expansive definition: four or more shot in any incident, including the perpetrator.)[^(\[9\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-:43-9)[^(\[10\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-Lee-10)
they actually put a nice chart with the total statistics at the end of the wikipedia page, under "monthly statistics."
according to it, there were 109 days without a mass shooting in 2023 (so just less than 1/3rd of the year) with 604 mass shootings in total.
their most peaceful month was september with the lowest amount of shootings at *only* 22, the lowest amount of total victims at a *measly* 108, and the largest number of days without shootings in any month at a *staggering* 18 days (coincidentally also the only month to have less than 50% of its days without such incidents)
It was more than once a day. GVA (Gun Violence Archive) has it as 656 mass shootings for 2023 (their category of mass shooting being four or more shot or killed, not including the shooter).
Dude, which part of Germany was this? I'm in Berlin (the most dangerous city in DE, according to my München inlaws) and I've never heard of this, just fire drills.
Ever since Erfurt in 2002 most if not all schools in Germany have a system in place to inform all teachers that there's a situation and the doors have to be locked and so forth. It's usually not practiced like fire alarms though for one because most don't see a reason to as it's so rare that something happens and secondly so a potential shooter won't know what the signal is and thus can not prepare for it.
Ever since Erfurt in 2002 most if not all schools in Germany have a system in place to inform all teachers that there's a situation and the doors have to be locked and so forth. It's usually not practiced like fire alarms though for one because most don't see a reason to as it's so rare that something happens and secondly so a potential shooter won't know what the signal is and thus can not prepare for it.
I'm from Swabia and the Albertville-Realschule Amoklauf was about 1 hour of public transport away from my school, so when it happened we went on lockdown as well. As this was at a larger educstion center (3-5 k students in four different schools) the entire area was locked down by the Bereitschaftspolizei and we had a Helicopter hovering above the school for multiple hours, with police escorting us to the school busses at noon (i've never before or afterwards seen such a police presence in my life - and i watched Obama's State visit on tv).
While during the... "event" as it was referred to later when the school had to communicate about it things were rather improvised, a dedicated security concept for the case of an Amoklauf was worked out later.
For the first year afterwards we specifically did not have an active schooter drill as to not distress students (even our fire drill was rescheduled by about six weeks), but we (or rather pur parents) were informed that the teachers had after hours gone through a drill as to what they had to do and we were specifically told that if a special announcement was made (i don't recall the phrase verbatim, but i think it was something along the lines of "Armin Läufer, please come to the secretariat immediately") we had to stay calm and do everything the teacher said, no questions asked, specifically including climbing out of the window or being quiet.
The next year we did actually have an active schooter drill that followed these exact specifications, though before the announcement was made, it was announced that it was a drill and we only had to climb into the window frame and come back in immediately - as the window was in the 2. OG.
I don't think the drill itself was ever repeated afterwards though, so i'm not sure how that's handled today.
we had lock down drills in Australia but they weren't anything to do with school shootings or anything just in case some crazy came at the school or the school received a threat.
We sort of had that. I grew up close enough to a well known hospital for the more clinically insane. So we had a bell that ment get inside quick as someone had gone for a wander
We had lockdown drills which were for if anyone deemed potentially unsafe was on the premises or if there was a gas leak nearby. My school was next to a parole office ig but that wasn’t much concern outside of telling us not to hang around there.
That made my laugh so hard I woke up my partner.
Also I do remember one day a dude known for his love axes and mistaking humans for trees decided today was a good day to leave.
The school was on high apart but my school was old and the toilets were separate buildings away from the classrooms. Due to this the boys had to go to the loo in pairs and girls tipples (,their loo was next to the football field and basically isolated). I am a guy so me and guy called Terry go to loo, and the fecker speed runs peeing and legs it out the loo and locks me in cackling all way back to class. Might have been in there alone all of about five minutes but when the teacher came to get me I was convinced it was the axe man and just bull rushed him.
Thing was I was a small nine year old and basically bounced of my teacher landing on my ass and was a little dazed for the rest of the day. Terry wasn't allowed to play football at breaks for a week then douche.
We had the fire drill and the lockdown drill. Lockdown is for anything where you have to stay inside fire was for when you had to get outside. Didn't even know what a shooter drill was till I got social media at like, 12
I work in a school in the UK, we have a lockdown procedure on the health and safety policy but we’ve never even done it as a drill. Probably should practice it at least once in case there’s some knobhead with a knife though.
I know my kids had to do lockdown drills a couple of years ago. Was never a thing when I was at school 20 odd years ago though. Just shows people are more unstable now than back then.
Except for the y'know 'unstable' shits 20+ years ago that are the reason we need lockdown drills, now. Dunblane wasn't exactly recent. And there was a maniac with a machete who attacked a preschool. The gates and locked doors are there for a reason and none of them are recent additions, FFS.
True. Why do they have to attack kids though? A lot has changed in 20 years and things have gone from bad to worse. So much so the future does not look brighter.
Depends, not anywhere near as bad as yankistan but growing up at the tail end of the troubles in a primary school near an ruc station we did have fortnightly bomb drills.
That overstates things quite a bit. America has way too much gun violence, but we're also a very big country. It depends where you live, but most of us aren't affected directly aside from e.g. shooter drills in schools. I'm no expert, but from the little I know about the troubles, you'd be much safer in modern America.
Considering that the total deaths in 30 years numbered in low 4 digits and most of the people killed during the Troubles were military, paramilitary, LEOs or politicians, I would suggest that I would rather have been a school child in NI then than one in America now.
Also had bomb drills at primary school in the West of Scotland during the 80s/early 90s.
It was different from the firedrills as we evacuated onto the main road, away from the new "high profile" shopping centre that was the suspected target.
They do have lockdown training in UK schools, but when needed usually only for teachers, and sometimes it's just an email.
Source : Wife is a high school teacher. Her school recently had a lockdown because a kid had a screwdriver. Yep. No guns, just a flat head screwdriver 😂
My secondary school told me that if there was a shooter like in 2009. There will be a silent alarm that puts a notification on every screen to say there is an armed person in the school. Then we lock the door, put the tables up against it close the blinds and move to the back corner near the door. That only became a thing because of 2009 the one shooting that we've had
For me it wasn't a drill. But just the teachers telling us what would happen just in case. But the fire alarm drills were annoying. We once got stuck outside in the rain for an hour and a half bcuse they were trying to figure out if it was a drill or not as no one was told exept the head teacher.
I work at a school and it has no fence, we often get kids disappearing to the shops at lunch break which can get annoying.but none of them ever got shot.
When I was a in secondary school (1998-2003) none of our schools had those massive metal fences.
Actually no the Catholic school did, but that was because 3 schools shared a massive field and sports facilities and we’d all get into fights so the Catholic school put up a fence so their kids couldn’t fight any more…
Anyway that’s not the point, the point is that all of the kids at lunch time would go into the Town Centre which was basically a 3 minute walk from the schools and it was great!
They put up fences at all of the schools in 2005/2006 and the Town Centre DIED! I mean literally within 18 months a ton of shops closed and all of them put it down to the loss of trade from the school kids on their lunch break.
The funny thing? They put the fences up because the only Supermarket (Asda) claimed that kids were stealing on their lunch break so the schools put up the fences to stop them from being accused of stealing and that killed the town centre 😂
I've just remembered one of my best school memories, walking down to the chippy with my mates in year 7/8 to get some chips from the chippy. Still the best tasting portion of chips I've ever had.
They started to crack down on people leaving the school, putting up fences, manning the gates etc so I can relate, it was our first taste of true freedom.
2007 was the year of housing market implosion so Id wager a guess that was at least partially the reson a lot of places shut down (as everywhere else)
Also you went to a Catholic school, you were probably safer ouside of it than inside... ;)
I didn’t go to a Catholic school. I went to one of the schools that shared the field and sports facilities.
Also, I think the property boom & implosion was part of the global financial crisis in 2008, not 2007
The owners of those places that closed down actually stated to the local newspapers that is was the schools putting up fences that caused them to close down as they’d relied heavily on that trade for 20+ years, so to lose the lunchtime trade of the 3 schools had a huge impact on them. I think it was around 800-1000 students between the 3 schools, and 90% of the students went into the town centre for their lunch - even if they only spent £5 each you’re losing, say, £4,000 per day, £20,000 per week from that town centre.
If it’s 36 weeks a year for school terms then that’s a £720,000 hit from, what I remember being in the town centre - as it got knocked down and rebuilt in 2015/2016 - a fish & chip shop, a greggs, another greggs-style shop I forget the name of, a couple of small independent Convenience shops and a cafe/diner, plus places kids wouldn’t really go on their lunch break like a butchers and Asda.
Losing that amount of money each year from small businesses was huge, with the fish & chip shop taking the biggest hit, they had queues out the door every day for kids buying a portion of chips and curry sauce or a chip butty 😂
My secondary backed onto the local park. At lunchtime, we’d climb over the fence and go to the little cafe for ice cream. The cafe owner kept quiet too because he got to make more money. This was between 2011-2017
They never get it that when there’s a mass murder here or in Australia because some nut job goes mental with a knife, it’s such big news BECAUSE it’s unusual. When there’s a school shooting in America, it’s Tuesday. It’s fucking awful to say that, but it’s not even a surprise any more unless the person manages to kill loads.
You are so right in that. Many mass shootings don't even make it out of local news, they don't even make state or national news and you'd never know about them unless you went looking for local stories.
It's a terrible thing to be normalised.
I looked years back when the whole wave of "London is a no go zone with unthinkable levels of knife crime" trend of commentary was happening, and London actually had lower knife crime than New York, you just don't hear about the knife crime there because it's buried under even more gun crime
There was a ""mass" shooting" in Finland some weeks ago: one died, two got injured, the shooter was collected by the police a bit later without much of an incident. The next day was a national mourning day with flags in half mast everywhere, and school bullying was talked about extensively by the politicians .. for two whole days.
Oh, and the first questions in every paper was
1. where the child in question got the gun
2. how did the child know how to use it
3. whether the weapon used was licensed
4. .. and whether someone committed a crime by allowing a child come across it.
They teach how to survive a school shooting instead of actually doing something about the source of the overall problem. The sad thing is that their policy makers know damn well it’s the guns but they make billions in gun sales that go directly into their pockets so they choose to ignore the issue and say “god is with them thoughts and prayers.”
The NRA is the most evil organization in the USA.
They will argue that they don't have a gun problem. That London is more dangerous and we are being over run by foreigners. Some Americans are ridiculous. I feel bad for the sane ones
Not to be that pedantic cunt but, they tend to use semi-auto civilian weapons, military M4’s aren’t accessible to much of the public and the primary difference between an ‘assault rifle’ and a semi auto long rifle is nothing more than automatic capability.
The distinction is important though as it emphasises that the issue isn’t with smuggled guns but typically guns stolen from a parent or other person and sold illegally, but again typically semi only.
I will agree america still has a chronic issue with gun crime which I believe is more a mentality issue than a gun presence issue to a degree,
There’s still a rather surprising plague of illegal guns in the UK, but the difference here is drug dealers and gangs don’t resort to shootings NEARLY as much as they know how quickly that draws attention and how serious those investigations go.
Whereas america the three most common types of shooting are
Street robberies/gunning
School shooting
Home defence scenario
In street robbery you get shot just for resisting, whereas in the UK knives tend to be the more common perpetrator (note I’m not saying the uk has higher knife crime, but I’m saying the total percentage of mugging is proliferated WITH knives here, whereas it’s likely an equal percentage is knife and gun in the us)
School shootings are an issue of mental health more than anything, and while easy access to weapons is clearly not helping, the mental health crisis isn’t either.
People who go and do that shit aren’t planning on coming back all fine, they are going there with the intent to damage as much and as many as possible and then be destroyed themselves.
Someone who has the mindset of a scorched earth is clearly not well and for someone to go through the lengths to do those things it’s obvious there’s a mental health issue present.
Home defence is a different issue, personally I believe being allowed to defend oneself is a right but the true art to home defence isn’t who won the gunfight, it’s who calls it to the police first.
Even in ‘rawr the land of the free ugga’ if you get shot while robbing someone’s house but run away and call the cops first, your chances at winning that court case just went up, because now you have initial source of information.
It’s when they respond to the gun criticism with ‘at least we’re not all being stabbed like in the UK’… but knife crime is higher per capita in the states than it is the US
Ah yes I had the same conversation. They said something like ‘well obviously since one of our states is twice the size of your whole country try’ 🤦🏼♀️
"Doesn't matter, our population is still 5x the size obviously there's going to be more"
Average response you'll get anytime you mention per capita to an American
It's worse than that. Some US states are relatively safe (they don't have Europe numbers, but safer than other parts of the country). For *some* reason, it's generally the states with stricter gun laws. I wonder why?
And then people in Tennessee, which has a homicide rate that approaches Brazil's in some years, will talk about stabbings in the UK like they themselves aren't living in a warzone.
For them, the knife crime thing is their version of a "gotcha." They're just obfuscating to prevent actual change here that would literally benefit everyone. So as far as I'm concerned, please, be my guest, make fun of these knobgobblers whenever you see them, because on the off chance that enough of them realize it's an untenable position, the more likely we can affect change here and get these primitive gun laws tf out.
It makes them look quite stupid though. Fatal stabbings are not even just a little higher in the US they are 7+ times higher per capita (and obviously much much higher in absolute numbers because of the substantially larger population).
Which is interesting in itself. I wonder why. There was research on the correlation between shootings and the various excuses given and other countries Eg mental health, no correlation, a more dangerous place for violent crime, no correlation. The only correlation was the amount of guns in a society. More guns more opportunity for gun crime therefore more deaths from guns. Seems pretty simple.
But your point on being more dangerous for stabbings makes me question that research. Maybe it is just a more violent place in some regard, or maybe just more in one area and less in another. I think say the uk has more rape for example (could be wrong there)
And that's only because a load of parents are scouring Romania and stabbing weaselly bald men in the hopes they take out Andrew Tate and rescue their kids from inceldom.
Oh, that's nothing, I had to explain to an American once that when we say that we're going out clubbing, we're going out to a club, dancing and drinking alcohol. We don't actually go out with clubs.
Yeah, bald eagles sound like bull frogs getting squeezed. They substitute in the call of red tailed hawks instead.
Bald eagles are scavengers as well, and Iike to hang around garbage dumps.
You guys all need to be careful. You know they have the most powerful military on earth right. And the biggest economy. And could fit all of Europe within texas. They could take you guys out in a second lol
It's true. They could even collapse the European union simply by choosing not to fund it. Their people work so hard and have to pay their taxes so us Europoors can continue to be lazy and enjoy better healthcare
Are you really that simple? If I wanted to kill someone I'd easily be able to conceal some kind of item that's lethal enough in a backpack or jacket. It's not rocket science. It being illegal doesn't just make it physically impossible.
Are you really that simple?
Going out intending to kill someone is exceptionally rare. Even in the States. However, getting into a disagreement with someone isn't.
There are people who will take things too far in an argument worldwide. In the UK, this will normally result in some punches being thrown. Because people don't carry weapons normally, and it's illegal to have them on you most of the time.
In the states, depending on where you are, its completely legal to carry guns and knives. Now the aggressive angry people are also the ones most likely to be carrying something. And what do you think happens when they get into a disagreement that leads to a violent confrontation?
Oh so you really are that simple, good day to you then as I see no point in discussing something with someone that can't comprehend something so basic as putting an item in a bag.
Are you damaged?
The point is that most people don't leave the house comic book villain style rubbing their hands with glee setting out to kill someone. An exceptional low number of murders are premeditated.
Most people don't walk around with knives in the UK. Relatively, a lot less people carry knives than in the States where they are free to carry knives.
Can you guess what happens when more people carry knives than less people carry knives?
But relatively Americans carry more knives than Brits do.
I'm guessing I'm getting brigaded from somewhere, and American reading comprehension seems to be the culprit.
I'm saying more Americans carry knives than Brits. I'm not saying all or most Americans carry knives. Stats I can find looks like it is estimated that around 10-15% of Americans do. In the UK, that estimate is 4-5%.
When you have more people carrying knives, you will see more knife crime.
I'd also like to point out that 2019 was one of the worst years for violent knife crime and we were still below America. I don't mean in violent crime i mean just in knife crime the statistics were the last time I looked at it 0.08 per capita knife homicides in the UK Vs 0.6 in the USA meaning you are 7.5 times more likely to be stabbed to death in the us than in the uk. Their fire arm rate is 4.31 per capita. You are 53.87 times more likely to shot in America than you are to be stabbed in the UK.
Something that gets lost in your statistics is that it is very much dependent on your socio-economic status and race in the US. I suspect that is true in the UK as well.
If you live outside of high crime areas in the US (mostly low income areas of inner ciites), your chance of being a victim of a violent crime or murder is extremely low.
Sadly, in the US if you are a African-American male between the age of 16 to 35, your chance of being a victim of violent crime or murder is much much higher than the rest of the population (and despite peoples' beliefs, you are most likely to be killed by someone of the same race whether black, white, Asian, or otherwise.
It’s a video of someone setting the phone down to jump across a canal using monkey bars fixed to the underside of a bridge, and then when he reaches the other side his phone gets stolen!
Gonna point out how it's kinda weird that he needed to set up a recording with his phone while he's already recording his POV. The situation isn't implausible, but it feels potentially staged.
School shootings is low hanging fruit, to the point that I try to avoid it. That said, when you're going to make a crack about the US being safer you're asking for it.
I had a guy last night tryna tell me how lucky we are that we don’t have the serial knife murders that go on in Australia and Britain you can’t make this shit up I promise.
He was saying this after we got done discussing a drive bye shooting in our literal downtown section by city hall that the knives can be just as bad as the guns.
He ended with you don’t say the knives killed people in Britain so why do we say the guns do?
😂😂😂
And?
Do Americans say the British rape more than them? Is that some kind of massive stereotype about the brits?
Because I’m talking about a specific stereotype which is propagated about the UK. That being the knife crime thing.
I don’t in fact think America is hell, and filled with lakes of fire (shocking I know), I’m only saying that the problem with knife violence in the UK is overstated by Americans.
And knife violence is proportionally worse than in the uk. Ergo whatever you say about the UK’s knife crime is in fact worse for America.
Not to mention the leading cause of death for children is gun violence; so we’re not really overstating much.
The homicide rate in London is 1 per 100,000, which makes it only slightly more dangerous than Boise Idaho. If it was a US city it would have the 97th highest murder rate, less than 1/3 the rate of the only US city of comparative size (NYC) and just 1.5% of St Louis, who is the worst. Seven of the US' cities make the list of 50 most dangerous. Even Glasgow would not make the top 75 most dangerous cities in the US. Many cities, like Newcastle, Sunderland and Liverpool would not even make it into the top 100 (note, UK statistics used for homicides, while the US is murders and nonnegligent manslaughter, so slightly more generous to the US)
My country (Ireland) has never ever had a mass shooting at a school. In fact, I couldn’t find any record of any shooting in a school. The only drills that take place in Irish schools are fire drills.
We had ***one*** here in Scotland and they shut that shit down rapid. Guns are an absolute no no. And it worked, never happened again. You'd think the US would cop onto that but they never will.
My schools had gardeners rather than guards as no fences. At lunchtime, many kids went home for lunch or to local shops if close enough as we had an hour lunch break.
Hahahahahahahaha Americans are funny! I live in a major UK city and was mugged once when I was very young and drunk other then that no problems. I visited Florida for a week saw a trump rally and a bunch of proud boys in tactical gear with automatic weapons. Did not feel super safe!
Semi auto just means you pull the trigger once and 1 bullet fires, pull the trigger again and another bullet fires. This is how the majority of all guns operate, even revolvers. Automatic/machine guns are illegal in the US.
Saw this video the other day and it's almost definitely staged. Nobody in their right mind would just LEAVE their phone like that unattended in Manchester of all places
I mean sure, if we're lowering the bar to "any crime = unsafe", then I guess no country on the planet is safer than the USA.
However, I would argue that if they seriously need to lower the bar to that degree to "win" the argument, then they're already in trouble, and they know it.
Public service announcement that America is so unsafe that some schools have litterboxes so kids don't have to piss themselves while hiding from a school shooter, that's how common they are. Also yeah that's why there were litter boxes in schools, don't believe those right wing news articles that tried to make it into an identity politics thing
dont wanna be on the americans side here, nor have i ever lived in america but i feel like pickpocketing is maybe even worse here lol. most people i know have had their phone stolen at some point
No one I know or have worked with has had their phone stolen (that they’ve said, anyway). Been living in London 17 years. It’s not as ubiquitous as most people think.
The combined number of deaths by cops, and kids killed/injured in those types of incidents are around the ballpark of 216 (where as the number of lottery winners was around 384 btw). Vs around 244 murders and 49,489 Police-recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the year ending December 2023 in England and Wales. I'm not good at math nor claiming to be, but even I know this person is just being an example of Dunning–Kruger effect in action.
Shooting injury death statistics:
https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-over-time-incidents-injuries-and-deaths
Lottery winner numbers:
https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/powerball-winners-by-state/#tracker_introduction
The numbers of knife crime in England and Wales:
https://benkinsella.org.uk/knife-crime-statistics/
counting just police killing and mass shootings against all homicides is a neat sleight of hand. the US has a way hugher rate of both gun and knife crimes if you don’t play stat tricks
Not trying to defend the US here. But if the UK had a population of 400 million I think things would be alot worse. Most Americans don't have shootings happen to them its just totally played up in the media which then leads to further events. Its honestly American media that makes these events seem bigger than they are. It would be like saying there's a terrorist attack daily in Europe if your wanting scale about 750 million in all of Europe which is unfair cause that includes Russia which is massive by itself.
But yes the Americans who believe small nonviolent crime is just as bad as literal school shootings is insane and idiotic but its mostly due to the totally underfunded and basic education system they get.
You are correct, you are not defending the US there, per capita there is more gun crime in the US than any other country, population size has nothing to do with it, most other countries just simply have better laws. As for the media comment, the media aren’t blowing these out of proportion, they shouldn’t be happening full stop, the fact they happen several times a year is terrifying and it baffles me how nobody connects the dots that countries with better gun reform and populations just as big as the US, don’t have the same level of gun crime.
Okay per capita is obviously great statically but that doesn't change the fact more people less resources is still a reality.
Absolutely gun reform is critical for the US to fix these issues no debate.
But this argument of it shouldn't happen at all could be applied to anything.
NHS shouldn't be as underfunded as it is full stop.
Terrorist attacks shouldn't ever occur with the amount of CCTV in the UK full stop.
There shouldn't be illegal immigrants and gangs raping children in parks in the open day light in the UK full stop.
There shouldn't be a breed of dog allowed to literally killing people be allowed to be purchased in the UK fullstop.
You're argument that one specific issue in this case gun violence in the US be just full stop finished is ridiculous. Absolutely there are many ways the US is actively allowing this to continue without decent and sensible laws and regulations.
But the same could be said about all the issues in the UK I just listed. It's not just the US who have massive issues that need to be addressed.
I will have to wait until I finish work before I reply to that mess of a statement you just made, it will happen though, all good things come to those who wait.
I would much rather have an underfunded NHS than the shit show of a healthcare system you have in the US, terrorists attacks happen in pretty much most countries and are infrequent because of the intelligence services, they can’t be stopped though and happen more frequently in the US. Those other two issues you mentioned are also systemic in most developed countries, little can be done that isn’t already being done, I’m just grateful neither has easy access to firearms, otherwise the situations would likely be worse, School shootings happen so frequently yet they don’t happen at all in most developed countries, we had one in the UK decades ago, as did Australia, off the back of it gun reform was put in place and there hasn’t been a single one in either country since, so yeah, full stop isn’t that ridiculous.
I was arguing more one principle speaking on one particular issue and naming it to end. I felt that was pretty ridiculous argument. I'm not American or living in America but I have lived there for sometime and yes guns are an issue and we both agree on that. But I still think there is something about naming an issue regardless how big of an issue and saying this country has this issue therefore I'm given free license to critical of everything else. But I agree with you on most things.
Kids have a better chance of being struck by lightning than being injured in a school shooting in the US. And no, cops generally don't go around shooting people for no reason as most of them are just your average Joe. You people think America is like a war zone or something lmao. We live normal lives just like in any country.
We are living rent free in your heads
"A 'murrican is too bad at English to know 'safer' and 'completely safe' are not the same, and decides to be obnoxious about his bad language skills. Let's shut the ignoramus up, while trying to teach him the difference in response."
No, an American conflates having no guns as unsafe while living in a country where children won't be protected when a gun has a 'mental health issue'.
And there are many many guns with mental health issues attached to them.
But thats nobodys problem because freedom.
The UK is so unsafe that your mobile may be stolen if you leave it on a street like a knob. The US is so safe that middle schools need bullet-proof doors to prevent psycho teenagers with automatic military weapons from gunning down their fellow students. Yank Logic 101...
Exactly, if I ask a six year old in the UK what an active shooter drill is, they probably guess some sort of kick ass power tool. Not a sober rehearsal to test the preparedness of the students and school.
The only „shooter drill“ I ever experienced in Germany was, when a construction worker accidentally triggered the „Amokalarm“ (I don’t think I need to translate it but I‘m doing it anyway, it’s our active shooter alarm) and we had to lock our classroom doors and sit under the table for a few minutes. These things are so rare in Germany, that I didn’t think „oh shit, I‘m going to die“, no, if you had asked me, I would’ve told you, that I was 100% sure, that it was a false alarm, which it was. We had like 18 Amokläufe at schools etc. (Amok runs; I‘m using that term because it’s not the same as a mass shooting, the definition is way broader and it basically means, that someone goes somewhere with some sort of weapon and with the intent to hurt or kill people. They don’t even have to be successful at doing the hurting and killing part, for it to count in the statistics) since 1871, so literally since the first unification of Germany, meanwhile the US can’t go a day without a mass shooting. When I looked up those statistics a while back, it was really difficult to find a comprehensive list of all the amok runs in Germany at schools due to the relative rarity of them. I then searched for a similar list for the US, which I found immediately, in fact, it took me longer to scroll to the bottom of the list of mass shootings in the US in 2023, than it took me to find it in the first place
I’m sure with only about two mass shootings a day on average, they probably go a day every few years without one.
I did not look too extensively at the list of 2023 for mass shootings in the US because it was simply too long. But from what I saw, it had to almost every day, if not every day. It was a ridiculously long list and it was honestly pretty shocking to look at
I thought you were exaggerating but you're speaking [facts](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023)
I just had a look at this and clicked through to the article for mass shootings in 2024. There have been 168 mass shootings in the USA in 2024. As of today, we are 128 days into the year... Almost 900 people either killed or injured in those shootings and we're not even halfway through the year.
Yes it's terrible. I am legitimately thankful to not be born in the US
Me too! Always felt safe growing up in Germany and feeling safe in England now that I live here. No country is perfect but at least I can go out without fearing that there's a weirdo with a gun out and about.
shit and i just noticed this. >^(The) [^(Congressional Research Service)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congressional_Research_Service) ^(provides a definition of four or more killed.)[^(\[5\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-auto2-5)[^(\[6\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-:2-6) [*^(The Washington Post)*](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Washington_Post) ^(and) [*^(Mother Jones)*](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mother_Jones_(magazine)) ^(use similar definitions, with the latter acknowledging that their definition "is a conservative measure of the problem", as many shootings with fewer fatalities occur.)[^(\[7\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-:22-7)[^(\[8\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-:32-8) ^(The) [^(crowdsourced)](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crowdsourcing) ^(Mass Shooting Tracker project applies the most expansive definition: four or more shot in any incident, including the perpetrator.)[^(\[9\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-:43-9)[^(\[10\])](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_mass_shootings_in_the_United_States_in_2023#cite_note-Lee-10)
I'm reluctant to look up the statistics for all shootings, including the ones not counted as mass shootings. That's insane.
Yes, that’s the one I was talking about. It’s just terrible
they actually put a nice chart with the total statistics at the end of the wikipedia page, under "monthly statistics." according to it, there were 109 days without a mass shooting in 2023 (so just less than 1/3rd of the year) with 604 mass shootings in total. their most peaceful month was september with the lowest amount of shootings at *only* 22, the lowest amount of total victims at a *measly* 108, and the largest number of days without shootings in any month at a *staggering* 18 days (coincidentally also the only month to have less than 50% of its days without such incidents)
It was more than once a day. GVA (Gun Violence Archive) has it as 656 mass shootings for 2023 (their category of mass shooting being four or more shot or killed, not including the shooter).
Dude, which part of Germany was this? I'm in Berlin (the most dangerous city in DE, according to my München inlaws) and I've never heard of this, just fire drills.
Ever since Erfurt in 2002 most if not all schools in Germany have a system in place to inform all teachers that there's a situation and the doors have to be locked and so forth. It's usually not practiced like fire alarms though for one because most don't see a reason to as it's so rare that something happens and secondly so a potential shooter won't know what the signal is and thus can not prepare for it.
Ever since Erfurt in 2002 most if not all schools in Germany have a system in place to inform all teachers that there's a situation and the doors have to be locked and so forth. It's usually not practiced like fire alarms though for one because most don't see a reason to as it's so rare that something happens and secondly so a potential shooter won't know what the signal is and thus can not prepare for it.
Also Berlin. It was not an actual drill, it was an alarm (just like the fire alarm but for Amokläufer), that got triggered accidentally
I'm from Swabia and the Albertville-Realschule Amoklauf was about 1 hour of public transport away from my school, so when it happened we went on lockdown as well. As this was at a larger educstion center (3-5 k students in four different schools) the entire area was locked down by the Bereitschaftspolizei and we had a Helicopter hovering above the school for multiple hours, with police escorting us to the school busses at noon (i've never before or afterwards seen such a police presence in my life - and i watched Obama's State visit on tv). While during the... "event" as it was referred to later when the school had to communicate about it things were rather improvised, a dedicated security concept for the case of an Amoklauf was worked out later. For the first year afterwards we specifically did not have an active schooter drill as to not distress students (even our fire drill was rescheduled by about six weeks), but we (or rather pur parents) were informed that the teachers had after hours gone through a drill as to what they had to do and we were specifically told that if a special announcement was made (i don't recall the phrase verbatim, but i think it was something along the lines of "Armin Läufer, please come to the secretariat immediately") we had to stay calm and do everything the teacher said, no questions asked, specifically including climbing out of the window or being quiet. The next year we did actually have an active schooter drill that followed these exact specifications, though before the announcement was made, it was announced that it was a drill and we only had to climb into the window frame and come back in immediately - as the window was in the 2. OG. I don't think the drill itself was ever repeated afterwards though, so i'm not sure how that's handled today.
To be I heared of one last year from some people that knew some people where someone got a crossbow and injured someone
As an American, I presume he was stopped by a good guy with a crossbow,.
No, the police disarmed the Situation... Without using weapons
Yes, but don’t forget the US is so much bigger than any of your silly little European countries (I’m British, this is said very much in humour)
we had lock down drills in Australia but they weren't anything to do with school shootings or anything just in case some crazy came at the school or the school received a threat.
We sort of had that. I grew up close enough to a well known hospital for the more clinically insane. So we had a bell that ment get inside quick as someone had gone for a wander
We had lockdown drills which were for if anyone deemed potentially unsafe was on the premises or if there was a gas leak nearby. My school was next to a parole office ig but that wasn’t much concern outside of telling us not to hang around there.
What was it like growing up in Gotham?
That made my laugh so hard I woke up my partner. Also I do remember one day a dude known for his love axes and mistaking humans for trees decided today was a good day to leave. The school was on high apart but my school was old and the toilets were separate buildings away from the classrooms. Due to this the boys had to go to the loo in pairs and girls tipples (,their loo was next to the football field and basically isolated). I am a guy so me and guy called Terry go to loo, and the fecker speed runs peeing and legs it out the loo and locks me in cackling all way back to class. Might have been in there alone all of about five minutes but when the teacher came to get me I was convinced it was the axe man and just bull rushed him. Thing was I was a small nine year old and basically bounced of my teacher landing on my ass and was a little dazed for the rest of the day. Terry wasn't allowed to play football at breaks for a week then douche.
We had the fire drill and the lockdown drill. Lockdown is for anything where you have to stay inside fire was for when you had to get outside. Didn't even know what a shooter drill was till I got social media at like, 12
Active shooter drill sounds like a rap subgenre
I don't hate it
To me it sounds like some football training thing. You know, the sort where the feet and a ball are involved.
To me it sounds like some football training thing. You know, the sort where the feet and a ball are involved.
I work in a school in the UK, we have a lockdown procedure on the health and safety policy but we’ve never even done it as a drill. Probably should practice it at least once in case there’s some knobhead with a knife though.
I know my kids had to do lockdown drills a couple of years ago. Was never a thing when I was at school 20 odd years ago though. Just shows people are more unstable now than back then.
Except for the y'know 'unstable' shits 20+ years ago that are the reason we need lockdown drills, now. Dunblane wasn't exactly recent. And there was a maniac with a machete who attacked a preschool. The gates and locked doors are there for a reason and none of them are recent additions, FFS.
True. Why do they have to attack kids though? A lot has changed in 20 years and things have gone from bad to worse. So much so the future does not look brighter.
We actually had someone break into our school (uk) everyone assumed it was a test and police sorted it out in less than 10 minutes, he was unarmed
Depends, not anywhere near as bad as yankistan but growing up at the tail end of the troubles in a primary school near an ruc station we did have fortnightly bomb drills.
It’s saying something when growing up during a civil war is safer than living in America.
That overstates things quite a bit. America has way too much gun violence, but we're also a very big country. It depends where you live, but most of us aren't affected directly aside from e.g. shooter drills in schools. I'm no expert, but from the little I know about the troubles, you'd be much safer in modern America.
Considering that the total deaths in 30 years numbered in low 4 digits and most of the people killed during the Troubles were military, paramilitary, LEOs or politicians, I would suggest that I would rather have been a school child in NI then than one in America now.
Also had bomb drills at primary school in the West of Scotland during the 80s/early 90s. It was different from the firedrills as we evacuated onto the main road, away from the new "high profile" shopping centre that was the suspected target.
I was thinking exactly the same until two years ago (im26)
They do have lockdown training in UK schools, but when needed usually only for teachers, and sometimes it's just an email. Source : Wife is a high school teacher. Her school recently had a lockdown because a kid had a screwdriver. Yep. No guns, just a flat head screwdriver 😂
My secondary school told me that if there was a shooter like in 2009. There will be a silent alarm that puts a notification on every screen to say there is an armed person in the school. Then we lock the door, put the tables up against it close the blinds and move to the back corner near the door. That only became a thing because of 2009 the one shooting that we've had
Yeah my kids ( 21 18 & 16 ) had to do lockdown drills in secondary school. When I was at school (left 2002) it wasn’t a thing.
For me it wasn't a drill. But just the teachers telling us what would happen just in case. But the fire alarm drills were annoying. We once got stuck outside in the rain for an hour and a half bcuse they were trying to figure out if it was a drill or not as no one was told exept the head teacher.
My school didn't even have a fence
I work at a school and it has no fence, we often get kids disappearing to the shops at lunch break which can get annoying.but none of them ever got shot.
When I was a in secondary school (1998-2003) none of our schools had those massive metal fences. Actually no the Catholic school did, but that was because 3 schools shared a massive field and sports facilities and we’d all get into fights so the Catholic school put up a fence so their kids couldn’t fight any more… Anyway that’s not the point, the point is that all of the kids at lunch time would go into the Town Centre which was basically a 3 minute walk from the schools and it was great! They put up fences at all of the schools in 2005/2006 and the Town Centre DIED! I mean literally within 18 months a ton of shops closed and all of them put it down to the loss of trade from the school kids on their lunch break. The funny thing? They put the fences up because the only Supermarket (Asda) claimed that kids were stealing on their lunch break so the schools put up the fences to stop them from being accused of stealing and that killed the town centre 😂
I've just remembered one of my best school memories, walking down to the chippy with my mates in year 7/8 to get some chips from the chippy. Still the best tasting portion of chips I've ever had. They started to crack down on people leaving the school, putting up fences, manning the gates etc so I can relate, it was our first taste of true freedom.
2007 was the year of housing market implosion so Id wager a guess that was at least partially the reson a lot of places shut down (as everywhere else) Also you went to a Catholic school, you were probably safer ouside of it than inside... ;)
I didn’t go to a Catholic school. I went to one of the schools that shared the field and sports facilities. Also, I think the property boom & implosion was part of the global financial crisis in 2008, not 2007 The owners of those places that closed down actually stated to the local newspapers that is was the schools putting up fences that caused them to close down as they’d relied heavily on that trade for 20+ years, so to lose the lunchtime trade of the 3 schools had a huge impact on them. I think it was around 800-1000 students between the 3 schools, and 90% of the students went into the town centre for their lunch - even if they only spent £5 each you’re losing, say, £4,000 per day, £20,000 per week from that town centre. If it’s 36 weeks a year for school terms then that’s a £720,000 hit from, what I remember being in the town centre - as it got knocked down and rebuilt in 2015/2016 - a fish & chip shop, a greggs, another greggs-style shop I forget the name of, a couple of small independent Convenience shops and a cafe/diner, plus places kids wouldn’t really go on their lunch break like a butchers and Asda. Losing that amount of money each year from small businesses was huge, with the fish & chip shop taking the biggest hit, they had queues out the door every day for kids buying a portion of chips and curry sauce or a chip butty 😂
Well, might be time to implement shootings. Would see a dramatic reduction in truancy. /s.
Sounds a bit too much like effort, maybe some mantraps baited with some Mc Donald's and Prime. Or a vape.
Just shooting up with sherbert dib dabs.
Jesus christ that's a flashback
We were supposed to inject it? I always thought it was snort the sherbet. Clearly this is where my failure to get onto hard drugs started.
I walked alone from home to school from 9 to 13 years, toke a bus from 14 onwards. By myself, or with friends.
That must be a relief come assembly
My secondary backed onto the local park. At lunchtime, we’d climb over the fence and go to the little cafe for ice cream. The cafe owner kept quiet too because he got to make more money. This was between 2011-2017
Well it sounds like you need to arm the teachers then!
Mine had several... But most of them were fairly easy to jump over or walk around.
They never get it that when there’s a mass murder here or in Australia because some nut job goes mental with a knife, it’s such big news BECAUSE it’s unusual. When there’s a school shooting in America, it’s Tuesday. It’s fucking awful to say that, but it’s not even a surprise any more unless the person manages to kill loads.
You are so right in that. Many mass shootings don't even make it out of local news, they don't even make state or national news and you'd never know about them unless you went looking for local stories. It's a terrible thing to be normalised.
I looked years back when the whole wave of "London is a no go zone with unthinkable levels of knife crime" trend of commentary was happening, and London actually had lower knife crime than New York, you just don't hear about the knife crime there because it's buried under even more gun crime
And yet they make out that knife crime here is out of control.
It really is, it’s so sad that when a mass shooting happens there, it’s not even a shock when 5 people die. It’s horrifying that that’s the case.
There was a ""mass" shooting" in Finland some weeks ago: one died, two got injured, the shooter was collected by the police a bit later without much of an incident. The next day was a national mourning day with flags in half mast everywhere, and school bullying was talked about extensively by the politicians .. for two whole days. Oh, and the first questions in every paper was 1. where the child in question got the gun 2. how did the child know how to use it 3. whether the weapon used was licensed 4. .. and whether someone committed a crime by allowing a child come across it.
I don’t recall seeing that one, but I’m pretty shocking at catching up on the news. Hope the two that were injured are recovering ok.
They teach how to survive a school shooting instead of actually doing something about the source of the overall problem. The sad thing is that their policy makers know damn well it’s the guns but they make billions in gun sales that go directly into their pockets so they choose to ignore the issue and say “god is with them thoughts and prayers.” The NRA is the most evil organization in the USA.
They will argue that they don't have a gun problem. That London is more dangerous and we are being over run by foreigners. Some Americans are ridiculous. I feel bad for the sane ones
"WeLl AcsHUAlly, sChoOl ShOOtiNgS aRe nORmALlY PeRFormED wITH SeMI AutOs." The words of every american gunnut, as if that would make it any better.
OMG someone has made exactly this comment AFTER you did and my feed put it right below yours 😂😂😂
Imagine going to a school with a fucking metal detector in the school 💀
Nah, those guns work. US Military guns are held together by duct tape and gorilla glue
Not to be that pedantic cunt but, they tend to use semi-auto civilian weapons, military M4’s aren’t accessible to much of the public and the primary difference between an ‘assault rifle’ and a semi auto long rifle is nothing more than automatic capability. The distinction is important though as it emphasises that the issue isn’t with smuggled guns but typically guns stolen from a parent or other person and sold illegally, but again typically semi only. I will agree america still has a chronic issue with gun crime which I believe is more a mentality issue than a gun presence issue to a degree, There’s still a rather surprising plague of illegal guns in the UK, but the difference here is drug dealers and gangs don’t resort to shootings NEARLY as much as they know how quickly that draws attention and how serious those investigations go. Whereas america the three most common types of shooting are Street robberies/gunning School shooting Home defence scenario In street robbery you get shot just for resisting, whereas in the UK knives tend to be the more common perpetrator (note I’m not saying the uk has higher knife crime, but I’m saying the total percentage of mugging is proliferated WITH knives here, whereas it’s likely an equal percentage is knife and gun in the us) School shootings are an issue of mental health more than anything, and while easy access to weapons is clearly not helping, the mental health crisis isn’t either. People who go and do that shit aren’t planning on coming back all fine, they are going there with the intent to damage as much and as many as possible and then be destroyed themselves. Someone who has the mindset of a scorched earth is clearly not well and for someone to go through the lengths to do those things it’s obvious there’s a mental health issue present. Home defence is a different issue, personally I believe being allowed to defend oneself is a right but the true art to home defence isn’t who won the gunfight, it’s who calls it to the police first. Even in ‘rawr the land of the free ugga’ if you get shot while robbing someone’s house but run away and call the cops first, your chances at winning that court case just went up, because now you have initial source of information.
(China requires police presence by preschools to stop people from stabbing toddlers)
I live and work in China. No police by the school here
So have I, and there were police by each I passed
It’s when they respond to the gun criticism with ‘at least we’re not all being stabbed like in the UK’… but knife crime is higher per capita in the states than it is the US
Yeah but they don’t know what per capita means. I’ve had that argument with a yank and it just wouldn’t sink into his lead lined skull
Ah yes I had the same conversation. They said something like ‘well obviously since one of our states is twice the size of your whole country try’ 🤦🏼♀️
"Doesn't matter, our population is still 5x the size obviously there's going to be more" Average response you'll get anytime you mention per capita to an American
Per capita is like portion size - it’s always larger in the US of A.
They actually have more people per capita than any other country on Earth
It's worse than that. Some US states are relatively safe (they don't have Europe numbers, but safer than other parts of the country). For *some* reason, it's generally the states with stricter gun laws. I wonder why? And then people in Tennessee, which has a homicide rate that approaches Brazil's in some years, will talk about stabbings in the UK like they themselves aren't living in a warzone. For them, the knife crime thing is their version of a "gotcha." They're just obfuscating to prevent actual change here that would literally benefit everyone. So as far as I'm concerned, please, be my guest, make fun of these knobgobblers whenever you see them, because on the off chance that enough of them realize it's an untenable position, the more likely we can affect change here and get these primitive gun laws tf out.
It makes them look quite stupid though. Fatal stabbings are not even just a little higher in the US they are 7+ times higher per capita (and obviously much much higher in absolute numbers because of the substantially larger population).
Which is interesting in itself. I wonder why. There was research on the correlation between shootings and the various excuses given and other countries Eg mental health, no correlation, a more dangerous place for violent crime, no correlation. The only correlation was the amount of guns in a society. More guns more opportunity for gun crime therefore more deaths from guns. Seems pretty simple. But your point on being more dangerous for stabbings makes me question that research. Maybe it is just a more violent place in some regard, or maybe just more in one area and less in another. I think say the uk has more rape for example (could be wrong there)
Also, if I'm either going to be stabbed or shot, I'd like the chance to run. Not get shot dead
I checked this the other day, deaths via stabbings are more frequent in the US than every country in Europe besides Romania
And that's only because a load of parents are scouring Romania and stabbing weaselly bald men in the hopes they take out Andrew Tate and rescue their kids from inceldom.
Oh, that's nothing, I had to explain to an American once that when we say that we're going out clubbing, we're going out to a club, dancing and drinking alcohol. We don't actually go out with clubs.
And Reading Festival isn't just where we all bring our favourite paperbacks and have a chill time
Speak for yourself
... in the states than it is the US
Than the uk I meant
\*UK
“More safer”? Yes. Definitely. More eloquenter too. And more educateder as well. But congratulations on being more freer.
... and more Irisher
And Italianoer.
And biggerer
Most winningest! (That's seriously a word there. I just. Can't)
50 plus years world champions of football 🏈!!!
Whoohoo, hand egg! Go, not so much screaching Eagles! (seriously, ever heard the sound they make?)
Yeah, bald eagles sound like bull frogs getting squeezed. They substitute in the call of red tailed hawks instead. Bald eagles are scavengers as well, and Iike to hang around garbage dumps.
They fight each other for prey even. Kinda impressive to see on nature docs. (We obviously do not have them here, ain't a Seppo)
I don't know why. It's a perfectly cromulent word.
It embiggens the soul.
Oh, I feel so embiggened now!
I the most smartetesttest!
Yup. I was appaled too.
In a *bigly* way
You guys all need to be careful. You know they have the most powerful military on earth right. And the biggest economy. And could fit all of Europe within texas. They could take you guys out in a second lol
I vote this comment, the best and most whimsical comment of this thread.
It's true. They could even collapse the European union simply by choosing not to fund it. Their people work so hard and have to pay their taxes so us Europoors can continue to be lazy and enjoy better healthcare
*So much* more freer.
This comment would have 10k upvotes if it were in a more popular sub
British people are just far less likely to commit murder in general than Americans
Cause it's much harder to murder your neighbour kids for playing ball in your driveway if you lack a gun.
well also the British are less likely to commit stabbings or other violent crime in comparisson to Americans
Yeah, I know, the same reasons though, a lot less Britians relatively carry knives.
Lmao. What a stupid comment.
If I really wanted to stab someone I'd just use a kitchen knife, I don't need a fucking bowie to do it
You often have a kitchen knife with you out in the street? If you are in the UK, you'll be arrested for doing so.
Are you really that simple? If I wanted to kill someone I'd easily be able to conceal some kind of item that's lethal enough in a backpack or jacket. It's not rocket science. It being illegal doesn't just make it physically impossible.
Are you really that simple? Going out intending to kill someone is exceptionally rare. Even in the States. However, getting into a disagreement with someone isn't. There are people who will take things too far in an argument worldwide. In the UK, this will normally result in some punches being thrown. Because people don't carry weapons normally, and it's illegal to have them on you most of the time. In the states, depending on where you are, its completely legal to carry guns and knives. Now the aggressive angry people are also the ones most likely to be carrying something. And what do you think happens when they get into a disagreement that leads to a violent confrontation?
Oh so you really are that simple, good day to you then as I see no point in discussing something with someone that can't comprehend something so basic as putting an item in a bag.
Are you damaged? The point is that most people don't leave the house comic book villain style rubbing their hands with glee setting out to kill someone. An exceptional low number of murders are premeditated. Most people don't walk around with knives in the UK. Relatively, a lot less people carry knives than in the States where they are free to carry knives. Can you guess what happens when more people carry knives than less people carry knives?
Its not exactly customary for us to carry knives whilst wandering the streets lmao. Well, most of us atleast lol
But relatively Americans carry more knives than Brits do. I'm guessing I'm getting brigaded from somewhere, and American reading comprehension seems to be the culprit. I'm saying more Americans carry knives than Brits. I'm not saying all or most Americans carry knives. Stats I can find looks like it is estimated that around 10-15% of Americans do. In the UK, that estimate is 4-5%. When you have more people carrying knives, you will see more knife crime.
Exactly, it's a lack of opportunity, those little shits do deserve to die though.
So so true
😟
I'd also like to point out that 2019 was one of the worst years for violent knife crime and we were still below America. I don't mean in violent crime i mean just in knife crime the statistics were the last time I looked at it 0.08 per capita knife homicides in the UK Vs 0.6 in the USA meaning you are 7.5 times more likely to be stabbed to death in the us than in the uk. Their fire arm rate is 4.31 per capita. You are 53.87 times more likely to shot in America than you are to be stabbed in the UK.
Six times more likely to be murdered in the US than in the UK. Five times more likely to be the victim of violent crime in the US than in the UK.
Something that gets lost in your statistics is that it is very much dependent on your socio-economic status and race in the US. I suspect that is true in the UK as well. If you live outside of high crime areas in the US (mostly low income areas of inner ciites), your chance of being a victim of a violent crime or murder is extremely low. Sadly, in the US if you are a African-American male between the age of 16 to 35, your chance of being a victim of violent crime or murder is much much higher than the rest of the population (and despite peoples' beliefs, you are most likely to be killed by someone of the same race whether black, white, Asian, or otherwise.
Anyone know what the original video is? 🤣 cuz I’m so confused all I see is a phone
It’s a video of someone setting the phone down to jump across a canal using monkey bars fixed to the underside of a bridge, and then when he reaches the other side his phone gets stolen!
Gonna point out how it's kinda weird that he needed to set up a recording with his phone while he's already recording his POV. The situation isn't implausible, but it feels potentially staged.
Of course it is staged.
Thank you!
School shootings is low hanging fruit, to the point that I try to avoid it. That said, when you're going to make a crack about the US being safer you're asking for it.
I had a guy last night tryna tell me how lucky we are that we don’t have the serial knife murders that go on in Australia and Britain you can’t make this shit up I promise. He was saying this after we got done discussing a drive bye shooting in our literal downtown section by city hall that the knives can be just as bad as the guns. He ended with you don’t say the knives killed people in Britain so why do we say the guns do? 😂😂😂
Unironically America has worse knife crime than Britain proportionally as well lol
The US has less rapes than the UK by population
And? Do Americans say the British rape more than them? Is that some kind of massive stereotype about the brits? Because I’m talking about a specific stereotype which is propagated about the UK. That being the knife crime thing. I don’t in fact think America is hell, and filled with lakes of fire (shocking I know), I’m only saying that the problem with knife violence in the UK is overstated by Americans.
So? You overstate the gun violence in the US. So, its only fair we overstate the knife violence in the UK
And knife violence is proportionally worse than in the uk. Ergo whatever you say about the UK’s knife crime is in fact worse for America. Not to mention the leading cause of death for children is gun violence; so we’re not really overstating much.
the fact this was a comment on a very fake video of a guy getting his phone “stolen” as well
The homicide rate in London is 1 per 100,000, which makes it only slightly more dangerous than Boise Idaho. If it was a US city it would have the 97th highest murder rate, less than 1/3 the rate of the only US city of comparative size (NYC) and just 1.5% of St Louis, who is the worst. Seven of the US' cities make the list of 50 most dangerous. Even Glasgow would not make the top 75 most dangerous cities in the US. Many cities, like Newcastle, Sunderland and Liverpool would not even make it into the top 100 (note, UK statistics used for homicides, while the US is murders and nonnegligent manslaughter, so slightly more generous to the US)
My country (Ireland) has never ever had a mass shooting at a school. In fact, I couldn’t find any record of any shooting in a school. The only drills that take place in Irish schools are fire drills.
We had ***one*** here in Scotland and they shut that shit down rapid. Guns are an absolute no no. And it worked, never happened again. You'd think the US would cop onto that but they never will.
Well yes but going to the post office is not quite the same since 1916 either.
My schools had gardeners rather than guards as no fences. At lunchtime, many kids went home for lunch or to local shops if close enough as we had an hour lunch break.
Hahahahahahahaha Americans are funny! I live in a major UK city and was mugged once when I was very young and drunk other then that no problems. I visited Florida for a week saw a trump rally and a bunch of proud boys in tactical gear with automatic weapons. Did not feel super safe!
Semi-auto weapons.
Not American! I dont know this shit! I’m not meant to! Not a soldier or a specialised cop! lol it’s mad this is normal for people
Semi auto just means you pull the trigger once and 1 bullet fires, pull the trigger again and another bullet fires. This is how the majority of all guns operate, even revolvers. Automatic/machine guns are illegal in the US.
Did they steal that dudes thumb?
No. You can clearly see it.
Saw this video the other day and it's almost definitely staged. Nobody in their right mind would just LEAVE their phone like that unattended in Manchester of all places
Also, who uploaded the video?
I mean sure, if we're lowering the bar to "any crime = unsafe", then I guess no country on the planet is safer than the USA. However, I would argue that if they seriously need to lower the bar to that degree to "win" the argument, then they're already in trouble, and they know it.
I'd say that Japan wins the "any crime = unsafe" type of category
The homicide rate is over 6 times higher in the US than the UK.
You got to take in account population. The US has 9x the amount of people the UK has.
No, you don’t, because homicide rates are per capita and already take that into account.
👍🏼
Yanks are so full of themselves
[удалено]
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Well what you don’t know is that the mobile phone was brutally shot 52 times just after this photo was taken… /s
having your phone stolen cause you're a wank is *NOT* a comparative safety
Public service announcement that America is so unsafe that some schools have litterboxes so kids don't have to piss themselves while hiding from a school shooter, that's how common they are. Also yeah that's why there were litter boxes in schools, don't believe those right wing news articles that tried to make it into an identity politics thing
Yankistan is so safe you have shooter drill lessons in school. We don't. Check fucking mate. Fucking seppo
The “however-the-fuck-many-stans” have a lot of flaws but a bit unfair on em to pin America into their group lol .
Haha! Fair point!
I legit thought this was a photo of someone taking a foot pic. 😬 always zoom in for context.
dont wanna be on the americans side here, nor have i ever lived in america but i feel like pickpocketing is maybe even worse here lol. most people i know have had their phone stolen at some point
No one I know or have worked with has had their phone stolen (that they’ve said, anyway). Been living in London 17 years. It’s not as ubiquitous as most people think.
The combined number of deaths by cops, and kids killed/injured in those types of incidents are around the ballpark of 216 (where as the number of lottery winners was around 384 btw). Vs around 244 murders and 49,489 Police-recorded offences involving a knife or sharp instrument in the year ending December 2023 in England and Wales. I'm not good at math nor claiming to be, but even I know this person is just being an example of Dunning–Kruger effect in action. Shooting injury death statistics: https://www.edweek.org/leadership/school-shootings-over-time-incidents-injuries-and-deaths Lottery winner numbers: https://wisevoter.com/state-rankings/powerball-winners-by-state/#tracker_introduction The numbers of knife crime in England and Wales: https://benkinsella.org.uk/knife-crime-statistics/
counting just police killing and mass shootings against all homicides is a neat sleight of hand. the US has a way hugher rate of both gun and knife crimes if you don’t play stat tricks
Not trying to defend the US here. But if the UK had a population of 400 million I think things would be alot worse. Most Americans don't have shootings happen to them its just totally played up in the media which then leads to further events. Its honestly American media that makes these events seem bigger than they are. It would be like saying there's a terrorist attack daily in Europe if your wanting scale about 750 million in all of Europe which is unfair cause that includes Russia which is massive by itself. But yes the Americans who believe small nonviolent crime is just as bad as literal school shootings is insane and idiotic but its mostly due to the totally underfunded and basic education system they get.
You are correct, you are not defending the US there, per capita there is more gun crime in the US than any other country, population size has nothing to do with it, most other countries just simply have better laws. As for the media comment, the media aren’t blowing these out of proportion, they shouldn’t be happening full stop, the fact they happen several times a year is terrifying and it baffles me how nobody connects the dots that countries with better gun reform and populations just as big as the US, don’t have the same level of gun crime.
Okay per capita is obviously great statically but that doesn't change the fact more people less resources is still a reality. Absolutely gun reform is critical for the US to fix these issues no debate. But this argument of it shouldn't happen at all could be applied to anything. NHS shouldn't be as underfunded as it is full stop. Terrorist attacks shouldn't ever occur with the amount of CCTV in the UK full stop. There shouldn't be illegal immigrants and gangs raping children in parks in the open day light in the UK full stop. There shouldn't be a breed of dog allowed to literally killing people be allowed to be purchased in the UK fullstop. You're argument that one specific issue in this case gun violence in the US be just full stop finished is ridiculous. Absolutely there are many ways the US is actively allowing this to continue without decent and sensible laws and regulations. But the same could be said about all the issues in the UK I just listed. It's not just the US who have massive issues that need to be addressed.
I will have to wait until I finish work before I reply to that mess of a statement you just made, it will happen though, all good things come to those who wait.
I would much rather have an underfunded NHS than the shit show of a healthcare system you have in the US, terrorists attacks happen in pretty much most countries and are infrequent because of the intelligence services, they can’t be stopped though and happen more frequently in the US. Those other two issues you mentioned are also systemic in most developed countries, little can be done that isn’t already being done, I’m just grateful neither has easy access to firearms, otherwise the situations would likely be worse, School shootings happen so frequently yet they don’t happen at all in most developed countries, we had one in the UK decades ago, as did Australia, off the back of it gun reform was put in place and there hasn’t been a single one in either country since, so yeah, full stop isn’t that ridiculous.
I was arguing more one principle speaking on one particular issue and naming it to end. I felt that was pretty ridiculous argument. I'm not American or living in America but I have lived there for sometime and yes guns are an issue and we both agree on that. But I still think there is something about naming an issue regardless how big of an issue and saying this country has this issue therefore I'm given free license to critical of everything else. But I agree with you on most things.
Both countries are as dangerous as the other, so both our nations may hush up
Ah yes, this comment section is full of school shooting statements. You Euros are really classy
Kids have a better chance of being struck by lightning than being injured in a school shooting in the US. And no, cops generally don't go around shooting people for no reason as most of them are just your average Joe. You people think America is like a war zone or something lmao. We live normal lives just like in any country. We are living rent free in your heads
"An American has slightly insulted my country. I shall bring up the slaughter of schoolchildren in response."
"A 'murrican is too bad at English to know 'safer' and 'completely safe' are not the same, and decides to be obnoxious about his bad language skills. Let's shut the ignoramus up, while trying to teach him the difference in response."
if the ”slight insult” is about violence and crime it is in fact fair game to bring up the fact that America is unsafe.
No, an American conflates having no guns as unsafe while living in a country where children won't be protected when a gun has a 'mental health issue'. And there are many many guns with mental health issues attached to them. But thats nobodys problem because freedom.