Welcome to the Magic Kingdom
Actually, I think the Disneyland metaphor is applicable. For example, when entering Disneyland - it's pretty much a given cultural norm that firearms and related weapons are forbidden. Is anyone really outraged that they can't enter the Magic Kingdom without a pistol or rifle? Does anyone feel insulted that they can't bring their Glock to church? I say this jokingly a bit ie. when I was a small child I was known to pitch a few fits for not being allowed to bring my cap guns to church!
And while Disneyland is a great metaphor we can picture in our minds - I also know of one nasty homicide that took place at one ie. a thug misperceived someone as breaking in line - and whirled around with a knive and stabbed the person to death. I don't offer paradise - but just the prospects of a culture where a person is perceived as deviant for bringing along a firearm.
Yet there are some major cities that do appear like Disneylands in comparisons to major American cities in regard to gun violence. The illusion that many Americans have - is that the violence they are used to in America is just a normal reality. In Moscow, I actually feel much less of a police presence than I do in most major US cities. A lot of this has to do with public transportation, urban sprawl and cultural attitudes about what is normal. The 'automobile' and 'public control of sidewalks and public transportation' is a huge factor. (About this time is usually the time I start getting flamed as a commie - but none of this really has anything to do with liberal/conservative/right/left inasmuch as it does with urban design and cultural norms...)
In the cities there is a gun culture that contrasts the gun culture found in rural environments. I don't like the urban gun culture ie. drive by shootings and kids growing up wanting a gun like the one they used in the latest video game. In rural environs there is a gun culture that I tend to respect. When I grew up I was shooting a 12 gauge by the age of 13 and was bringing home rabbits,squirrels and quail...to cook up in the iron skillet. Gadzooks, I even used a few steel traps and salted a few pelts. I remember walking down a country backroad with a holstered revolver and carrying a rifle over my shoulder. Yet, all those things out in the country were 'normal'. I learned a respect for wildlife and felt a bonding with nature. By contrast the urban gun culture is all about 'being tough because you have a gun' and 'combat'. I simply would like to increase the freedom of positive gun culture and decrease the freedom of negative/criminal gun culture.
The problem in the USA - is that the lines between rural and urban are blurred. The urban areas have sprawled across the landscape. I don't think one can begin to think of restricting guns from urban centers until the urban centers themselves have been improved by other reforms. I would simply like to see urban poverty and dysfunctional public transportation and sprawl cleaned up...and then when cleaned up they can be perhaps more like Disneylands and gun free zones...
It's kinda like some areas of Europe - perhaps Germany - where one has a pristine countryside connected to big urban centers. There are no billboards or sprawled out suburbs and dumping grounds stretching betweeen the urban areas... I also like what Germany has done in regard to highways/the autobahn ie. a special lane for trucks and open lanes for automobiles. In a sense that's the sort of reform I'd like to see applied to firearms ie. zones where you can wear a holstered revolver and walk about with a rifle over your shoulder, and places wear firearms are Verbotin. I'm afraid, if we don't get a grip on some of these things - if we fail to reform our urban areas and transportation systems...we will become a kind of violent wasteland where we have the worst of both worlds - both rural and urban.
In Russia there has been in recent years a spike in gun related crimes. Ironically, I would say it is mainly due to increased traffic/transportation problems. The highways/prospekts are much more congested and there is a spike of travel between rural and urban centers. One problem there is 'train robbers/bandits' who prey upon folks traveling by train from small Russian towns to big urban centers. Often and usually there is no firearm involved in these crimes - but it shows how transportation is always a big factor in crime.
I am always skeptical of 'legal' changes. Afterall, when Lenin came to power he helped form what was perhaps the most progressive and wonderful constitution ever written: it declared world peace, an end to secret negotiations involving war, equal rights to women, and the return of all fuedal lands to the people and declared the right to have a job... The problem was that the people for whom all these blessings legally fell upon were not accustomed to an open and democratic culture. They were accustomed to being oppresed by autocratic Tsars and nobles... In troublesome times, they turned to usurpers of power like Ivan the Terrible,and Joseph Stalin.
The USA has deeply embeded cultural ideas, and firearms are intertwined with America's history and frontier. Russia too has such a tradition ie. its far east is a vast frontier too. For America to make a really meaningful change in regard to gun control - it will have to do much more than pass a few laws; it will have to improve its culture. Improving one's culture - is never an easy task, but it's perhaps the best work one can do.
