Anyone following international news in recent months will be struck by the fact that the gun control debate in the United States has stepped up a gear. President Obama has spoken out numerous times on the issue, calling for more gun control reforms to make mass shootings “rare as opposed to normal”. Now it has become a “big difference” in the Democratic race between Hilary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

This is an issue that clearly needs to be addressed. In a country with more than 300 million firearms, there were at least 13,381 firearm deaths in 2015. Its relevance, though, in the lives of most Europeans seems, at first, to be nothing more than macabre fascination. What does America’s love affair with the gun have to do with us?

Certainly, there are major differences in cultural and legal approaches. Ireland’s government accepts what the US struggles to – that gun control works. Recent changes in the firearms law testify to this, with Minister for Justice Frances Fitzgerald saying: “I am determined to prevent any proliferation of handgun availability in Ireland.” And while many of the civilians who own an estimated 300,000 guns in Ireland might find the current laws too strict to their liking, few acknowledge the US model is one to be copied. As one Irish firearms dealer said, they wanted nothing to do with US gun culture for whenever the subject was brought up it ended up discrediting law-abiding gun owners in Ireland.

But even if you are not a gun owner, the US gun debate should concern people beyond America’s shores. The fact that many gun sales can be conducted there without background checks has profound international consequences. This was most directly felt in Ireland at the height of the Troubles when many of the IRA’s guns came from the United States. US-made AR-18s and AR-10s were common – some even smuggled over in coffins.

http://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/why-the-us-love-affair-with-guns-concerns-us-all-and-25-curious-facts-1.2526747