UK Gun Laws

I have a lot of posts I've been putting off posting...and I will put them up soon...but for now I have another topic I feel needs to be written about.

Murders by firearm per capita are nearly 3 times higher in the US than in the UK. Why? Well, probably a collection of reasons, but an obvious one would be the difficulty of procuring firearms in the UK. It is uncommon for someone in the UK to own a firearm. People in the UK apparently view Americans as all owning guns. My American friend and I were chatting with one of our professors last week and he asked us if we both owned guns, which seemed really funny at the time.

Procedure for obtaining a firearm in the UK
- must demonstrate valid reason for owning gun (self-defense is not a valid reason)
- verification of identity
- two references
- approval of the application by the applicant's doctor
- inspection of the premises where the gun will be kept
- interview by a Firearms Enquiry Officer
- background check

Procedure for obtaining a firearm in US
(note: this varies by state, so I have arbitrarily chosen Ohio)
- 12 hours of handgun training
- background check

My mom's coworker was killed on Sunday. Her husband shot her 7 times before killing himself. Her 17 year old daughter was the one who found them.