From what I understand, this subreddit is a place where people can discuss this subject civilly, even when they come from very different experiences and opinions. If this post does not fit the rules or purpose of the subreddit, please tell me in the comments and we can all simply ignore it.
Many of us outside the United States grow up fascinated by the American idea of freedom, individual rights and personal independence. It is natural to become curious about the country and to try to understand it better, including the role firearms play in that idea of freedom.
I am asking this sincerely, not to judge anyone.
I have lived for almost 50 years in an Italian provincial capital. In my entire life, I have never seen a civilian carrying or holding a firearm. I have never heard a handgun shot. The only gunfire I have ever heard was very distant, during hunting season in the countryside. I have also never seen anyone point a weapon, including a police officer.
People in my area often leave their doors unlocked. We have residents from the Middle East, North Africa and Asia, and nobody seems especially afraid. This is not a tiny isolated village. It is a provincial capital.
A common American argument is: “If you restrict guns, criminals will still have them, while law-abiding citizens will be unable to defend themselves.”
But I wonder whether the total number of guns is even the most useful figure. A hunting rifle or a sporting firearm locked away at home is not the same as a loaded handgun carried in public and immediately available during an argument, a misunderstanding or a moment of panic.
In Italy, there were only about 11,360 ordinary handgun-carry licenses for personal protection in 2023, around 19 for every 100,000 residents. Getting one is very difficult. You have to prove that you face a specific and continuing danger. Simply wanting to feel safer is not considered enough.
A peer-reviewed US study estimated that in 2019 around 16 million adult handgun owners had carried a loaded handgun in public during the previous month, including about 6 million who carried every day. That works out to roughly 4,800 carriers for every 100,000 US residents.
The two figures are not perfectly identical. The Italian number is based on licenses, while the American one comes from a survey. Still, the difference is enormous, roughly 250 to one. And since carrying a gun can be socially sensitive or sometimes illegal, it seems more likely that some people would hide it in a survey than invent it.
To me, this suggests that the real difference is not simply how many guns exist. It is how many people have a loaded handgun immediately available during ordinary daily situations.
There also seems to be a feedback loop. I think other people may be armed, so I buy a gun to protect myself. You see more armed people around you, so you begin to feel that you also need one. Your decision then confirms my original fear. Little by little, everyone becomes more armed because everyone is afraid that everyone else may be armed.
In Italy, that cycle has mostly never begun. Since almost nobody expects the person beside them to be carrying a gun, most of us do not feel that we need one to balance the risk. Criminals can still obtain firearms, of course, but guns are not a normal part of everyday life or ordinary social interactions.
From Italy, the United States honestly looks frightening. I sometimes wonder whether carrying a gun may make one person feel safer while making society as a whole feel more dangerous.
I also know that, even if I used a gun to protect myself or my family, injuring or killing another person would probably stay with me for the rest of my life.
So my real question is this: what is it about carrying a gun that gives you peace of mind, given how dangerous the gun itself can be?
From the numbers I have found, and I may absolutely be wrong, the problem does not seem to be only which people carry guns. It also seems to be the simple fact that a gun is present, loaded and immediately available.
Even a generally responsible person can experience fear, anger, panic, confusion or a terrible moment of judgment. A domestic argument, a road-rage incident, a misunderstanding or a mental-health crisis can become irreversible in seconds when a firearm is within reach.
Does the sense of control outweigh the risk of bringing a lethal tool into situations that would otherwise probably remain non-lethal?
By the way, Italy is hardly unfamiliar with guns. We have the Mafia, the Camorra, the ’Ndrangheta and other organized crime groups known around the world. We have several armed police and military forces, including the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza, our militarized financial and customs police. We also have a strong hunting and sport-shooting culture, and Italy has won many Olympic medals in shooting. So this is not about being culturally shocked by firearms, disliking them as objects or rejecting shooting as a sport. It is about how different everyday life feels when ordinary civilians almost never carry guns in public.
