The National Rifle Association (NRA) is the premier organization in the United States that promotes gun ownership. No doubt the NRA would dearly like to set up a branch in Germany, for there is entirely too little shooting and killing taking place in the Federal Republic. Last year German police fired off 85 bullets in total – in a nation of 85 million people:
85 Patronen verfeuerten Polizeibeamte in Deutschland im Jahr 2011 bundesweit auf der Jagd nach Verbrechern, 49 davon waren Warnschüsse. 36-mal gaben die Polizisten gezielte Schüsse ab. Dabei wurden 15 Personen verletzt und sechs getötet, wie aus einer Statistik der Deutschen Hochschule der Polizei im westfälischen Münster hervorgeht.
(Police officers in Germany fired 85 bullets in 2011 in the entire country while pursuing crminals; 49 of these were warning shots. The police fired targeted shots at individuals 36 times, during which 15 people were wounded and six killed, according to statistics provided by the Police College in Muenster)
Meanwhile the New York City police fired slightly fewer bullets – 84 bullets, to be exact – at one man, while their colleagues in Los Angeles fired 90 times at an unarmed teenager. Still, there is far too little bloody mayhem in the United States to satisfy the NRA; the organizaiton is pushing to allow concealed weapons in schools, churches, hospitals, and even courtrooms.
Read Battleground America: One Nation Under the Gun.
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Maybe the American police don’t need more fire power but better target practice. By the way, Germany might be a nightmare for tourists from the U.S. as well, we have 10x less people per capita inprisoned here. But the risc of becoming a victim of a crime isn’t 10x higher. Don’t be afraid, it’s only civilization.
The complaints about the USA are real and obvious for a number of years now. I suppose we in the USA will merely be stuck with this legacy, even if we are not involved directly with it and dont own guns ourselves. Why are there no improvements then?