This is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of the entire debate. A schools in Thailand (the schools I know at least) there were security guards on every gate and a yearly lockdown drill. Children were taught what to do if an armed attacker entered the school. They practised staying in classrooms, hiding under desks, and teachers locking and barricading doors. When you stop and think about it, that's a pretty grim thing to normalise. By contrast, in the UK, most schools don't have armed security, and active-shooter lockdown drills remain largely alien to the experience of most children. I know someone will inevitably point to the Hungerford massacre 30 years ago Dunblane school shooting 30 years ago. Both were horrific events, but they occurred decades ago and were followed by significant changes to UK firearms legislation. Since then, shootings have become extraordinarily rare in Britain. The United States, meanwhile, has experienced dozens of school shootings over the past decade alone. The fact that American children routinely participate in active-shooter drills, while most British children have never even heard of one, should give people pause. Whatever side of the gun debate you fall on, that difference is difficult to ignore, and I recognise there is an argument which brings in societal differences but the facts remain stark and shocking: The UK has had 49 mass shooting deaths in a 50 year period. The US has recorded approximately 7,000+ deaths from mass shootings in the last decade alone. (also of note: mass shootings are just 1-2% of firearms deaths in the US). Since the Firearms (Amendment) Act (roughly 37 years since 1988), a total firearm death toll in the UK of approximately 3,000-5,000 deaths, including homicides, suicides, accidents and other firearm-related fatalities. The UK experiences fewer than 200 firearm deaths per year from all causes combined. The US experiences roughly 45,000-50,000 firearm deaths per year. So in a single year, the US suffers roughly 250-500 times as many firearm deaths as the UK, despite having only about 5 times the population. A common argument is that if firearms were less available, violence would simply switch to another weapon such as knives. The data doesn't really support that claim. The United States records roughly 1,500-1,800 knife homicides per year, equating to around 0.45-0.55 deaths per 100,000 population. England and Wales record roughly 200-260 knife homicides per year, equating to around 0.33-0.43 deaths per 100,000 population. The UK does not have a knife crime problem instead of a gun crime problem. The US has both a higher gun homicide rate and a similar, or slightly higher knife homicide rate.
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