Interesting article. You’re right, the USA doesn’t seem so bad. Until you get caught in an active shooter incident.

I lived in Marin County, white-bubble safety zone par excellence, for 25 of my 27 years in the USA. But during my time I experienced more than a dozen active shooter incidents (several, to be fair, when I was traveling outside Marin) within 300 yards of where I was. A few were very, very close. I got tired of worrying about whether my two children would be unlucky one day because a retard with a gun decided to be more than usually stupid.

Fact is, no society aspiring to civilized values lets civilians own small arms, because it’s the stupidest idea imaginable. And I speak as one who trained with the best of the best; my weapons handling skills & drills are superior to any American redneck survivalist gun lover I’ve ever seen. But you can’t debate with gun rights people because they’re ignorant, impervious to facts, and wedded to the notion that if they can still force a flabby finger through a trigger guard then they’re Squint Eastward. It’s an emotional thing, and reason has no purchase.

There’s no hope for the USA because the myths are too prevalent, the IQ scores of Republican voters are too low, and the political dysfunction too solidified. So I left, returned to Europe, and frankly I can’t imagine ever going back.