Politics and Culture

OK guys, have at 'em. Below are some of the German comments. Here's the forum.

"Just because America 'saved' Europe once doesn't mean that they have eternal carte blanche for anything they want to do or that we have to always embrace them," writes Franziska Müller from Mörlenbach. "Those who live in a functioning democracy shouldn't need weapons, and I'm glad things haven't gotten so bad in Europe that we would need them."

"The comments that we Europeans should stay out of American affairs is pure mockery," writes Stefan Schmitt. "Who gets mixed up in everything, everywhere, anyway? It's too bad, that a great country like America has been led astray by its government and a few starry-eyed, foolhardy people. Right now the dear Americans should worry about cleaning up their own backyards before continuing to go around the world needlessly messing things up and then turning around and asking the Europeans for help."

"I just can't comprehend the outrage," writes Georg Addison. "Every act of violence should be condemned to the fullest. In Iraq dozens of people die every day through acts of terror. Where is the outrage from the US government and the population? In Africa people die from civil war, sickness, thirst and hunger -- where is the outrage from the US citizens? I love the USA, but their president, Mr. Bush has ruined the country's good reputation."

Follow up:

"I am deeply concerned aout how ill-conceived the letters to the editor have been from the USA reacting to critical comments from Europe," writes Markus Karbaum. "While these people unfortunately display a severe lack of self-reflection, they are troubled by the sudden antipathy that the US is encountering in many parts of the world. But behind that lies a fundamental fear of an attack against the American Way of Life. And what makes everything even worse: it seems justified and can't be argued away with vulgar populism from the world."

"The angry responses from American readers to the European editorial pages show clearly the extent to which America has lost touch with reality," writes Thorsten Schnittke. "Protecting the right to self-defense and the value of every individual seems to have been given greater emphasis than the real problem: Humans are intelligent, but this intelligence is more developed in some than it is in others. I don't want to assure people of a right that relies to such a large degree on the sensible behavior of the individual. Of course the gun law contributes to security -- even if it is only a perceived sense of security. But the issue of whether people are sensible enough to own guns, to keep them in rooms maybe close to children and thereby allow guns to become part of family life, that issue remains largely unadressed.

"Of course it is people and not guns that kill people," writes Norbert Morgen. "What you don’t seem to understand is that responsibility comes with carrying a weapon. Do yourselves a favor and get rid of the things. Sure if all the students had been armed, then he wouldn’t have been able to kill so many. But how many people would he have been able to kill if he hadn’t been able to get a gun at all?"

"The e-mails from the US underscore in the clearest way the self-centered attitude of a part of American society --including references to their (rightly) admired past," writes Marc Mausch. "It's not surprising that they have lost any sensitivity to other voices and therefore have run off course into their far from admirable current policy. Luckily not all Americans are like that. My sympathy is naturally with the whole of the American society."

"To accuse us of emotional coldness and a lack of gratitude is some cheek," writes Arne John from Hamburg. "I only find it alarming that after these kinds of incidents our American friends' views and ways of thinking have still not changed nor will they change. The readers' letters (with one or two exceptions) still attest to intellectual poverty and a mercilessly exaggerated opinion of themselves."

"The fact that there is criticism in Europe of the lax gun control laws in the US doesn’t mean that we have no sympathy for those affected by this tragedy. It is a fact that here in Europe we don’t have these kinds of problems on this scale. Hardly anyone carries a gun as a private individual and they cannot be easily purchased in any hardware store. Of course it is the person, not the gun, that kills. But the state should not assume that its population knows how to behave itself. The increased glorification of violence through videos and computer games definitely plays a role. However, no one should be allowed to find it so easy to 're-enact' these kinds of scenarios. The responses from the US give me the impression that the Europeans, who don’t have any idea about America, shouldn’t interfere and should leave the US to solve its internal problems on its own. 'Calm down' -- people who hear these kinds of phrases don’t just stop giving their criticism, but also their condolences. That’s a pity."

"Everyone here in Europe feels sympathy for the victims of the shootings," writes Volker Lauterbach. "The press reports are not expressing any Schadenfreude, quite the opposite. But what constantly astonishes us is the vehemence with which the right to own a gun, even after such a crime, is defended. The arguments that are constantly produced (people, not guns, kill people) disguise the fact that it is people with guns who kill people. The statistics on murders with firearms repeatedly show that making it more difficult to gain access to guns significantly brings down the number of deaths due to gun violence, in both percentage and absolute terms. Cases like the one in Erfurt represent a truly terrible exception, but don’t change the facts. As friends of the US we have a duty to constantly point these kinds of things out. That is not meant to be anti-American or hostile. It is always in the hope that these kinds of incidents will not occur again, whether it be in Germany, the US or any other country, so that we don’t have to mourn more victims. There is great sympathy in Europe and all of us mourn with you."

"It's very interesting how conservative bloggers and pundits in the US have such a thin skin: they perceive lectures and humiliation at the slightest attempt of analysis when debating the issue of gun control, which has been successfully turned into a word with entirely negative connotations like "cancer" or "terrorist," writes Christian Habeck. "The gun control debate is driven by pure ideology and a severely skewed, context-free interpretation of the 2nd amendment. Why can't hand guns and assault weapons be banned, while issuing permits for rifles and shotguns for hunters? Why can't this even be debated?"

"Please know that most Americans are not right-wing fanatics," writes Brian Boomgarden of Wisconisin. "I and most of the people I spoke with regarding your article tended to agree with the opinions in Europe. This response by the right-wing, fundamentalist Christians only adds to the dislike of the US by people in other countries. I'm certain many in Europe believe that we Americans are all armed and dangerous like Bush and his regime. I am in favor of having a firearm if I choose, but it is not in our society's best interest to have semi-automatics being used by anyone. Am I going deer hunting with one of those?"

"Keep in mind that your original article was linked to the Drudge Report, a conservative news site with mainly conservative readers," writes Alex Zvinakis. "I wouldn't call it clearly representative of the US."

"It is unfortunate that the loudmouth arch conservatives have access to so much money to propagate their agenda of guns for 'law abiding' citizens," writes George Hunziker. "They are in absolute denial of the consequences of guns and crime. Evoking the 'Founding Fathers' as justification of such reactionary thinking shows the absurdity of their thinking process. That opinion, formed at a time when gunslingers and 'savage indigenous' people roamed much of this vast land, has no place in a modern society and the wise Founding Fathers they like to quote, would be the first one to declare, 'thank God, the society has evolved to a more civilized level.' In an age of of cell phones and high speed police responses in an emergency, these 'self defense' weapons are purchased mostly by criminals, not the average citizen. The gun lobby abuses words like 'freedom,' 'individualism,' 'manhood,' and 'independence' as slogans to market their 18th century ideas. Never mind that these ideals are in direct opposition of these killing machines: automatic handguns and submachine guns with armor penetrating bullets."

"When will you publish commentary from the many many people in America who feel the need for gun law reform? For change," asks Kris Iden. "The governor of Virginia ran on a platform that included this issue. Couldn't you please present a balance? I am deeply troubled by the impressions left on your readership as a result of the limited commentary you chose to publish here. Many Americans, many Virginians feel very, very differently and are heavy-hearted over the difficulties we face in changing gun attitudes and the pervasive violence of our society. We are hurting. We want change, we have worked for change."

"I think that the way that Spiegel is portraying the gun control debate as left vs. right is too simplistic," writes Holly Nazar of Montreal, Canada. "I am a Canadian, and a social democrat, but I do believe that every regulation or restriction of a citizen's freedoms should be weighed very carefully against the danger of giving the government too much power. It seems that Europeans are not as sensitive to this danger as North Americans are. In this case there is very little evidence that gun control leads to less violence, and so the balance is not in favor of tight gun controls. That said, there is no reason for anyone to own some of the sophisticated assault weapons that American law still allows."

"I am a second generation American of German ancestry," writes John Gutsmiedl of Fountain Valley, California. "I will soon be 67 years old. In all my years, not only have I never held a gun, I have never even seen anyone with a gun other than law enforcement officers. Reading the European press, one would think that there are millions of Americans running around pointing guns at each other. If that's what Europeans believe, they've been grossly misinformed. Please tone down the rhetoric."

"It saddens me to hear of your inboxes being flooded by cookie-cutter yanks marching to an ideological drum-beat," writes Paul Hogan of Columbus, Ohio. "There are some of us over here who regularly read your stories because of their content, for a different point-of-view from what we normally hear. I hope some fringers berating you at the behest of special interest groups doesn't engender any negative stereotypes of americans. Most of us really are normal people; most of us don't respond to senseless tragedy with political platforms and angry letters to the editor. Please keep up the good work."

"Your article says that you are receiving many messages from the conservatives in the US denouncing European criticism of our worship of guns," writes Philip Hefner of Chicago. "Millions of us here are just as critical of the gun lobbies and the widespread glorification of guns as any Europeans. For us, Charlton Heston and his ilk are an embarrassment. It is a travesty to place the so-called 'right to bear arms' on a par with the other freedoms of the Bill of Rights. Some of the European criticism is off the mark and just as extreme as Heston's, but we need the reality checks that international voices give us."