harry wrote:

Crime is so bad in America that everyone needs to sleep with a gun
under his pillow. Kids in the USA find these guns and shoot
themselves or one another.
It's actually paranoia, the American fear culture. The boogy under the
bed syndrome.

Well, actually, by any measure we have less crime than the UK.

You're right that sometimes the little ones are the victims of gun
accidents. That is, regrettably, the price we must pay for the ability to
waste a goblin (which happens FAR more frequently than kids getting shot
with the family gun).

And in spite of what you hear, guns are not that pervasive in the USA. The
agency that regulates guns and gun sales estimates that only half of the
U.S. population lives in a home with at least one gun. Fifteen years ago
this same agency estimated that there are about 223 million guns in the
country. Recent figures report that about 37,500 guns are sold daily in the
U.S. For the 15 years intervening since the last estimate, that means an
additional 200 million guns have been added.

Of course some have worn out and been trashed. Some have been taken from
gang-bangers and destroyed. Some have even been turned in during gun
"buy-back" programs (including toy guns just this week in Providence, Rhode
Island).

There are more cats in the U.S. than dogs, but fewer cat owners! This is
because cat owners tend to have multiple cats, whereas dog owners are
satisfied with just one. Point is, gun owners tend to have multiple guns and
hoplophobes have none. This accounts for only 50% of households having a
weapon. (Its worth pointing out that some households contain felons,
mentally unstable people, domestic abusers, or Democrats.)