No wonder there's so much violence over there if half the people own
   guns... Hmm... kind of reminds me of that 'Trigger Happy' song...
It's not hardly that simple.  Household gun possession is
substantially greater in Switzerland (just about every ablebodied male
has a government issued full auto capable battle or assault rifle and
ammo, and must demonstrate proficiency every year or so, or take a
boot camp refresher course).  Israel also has a high gun posession
rate and a low crime rate. 

I guess it all just depends on who is able to own guns ... it seems that
in the US any sicko can own a gun, like there is no gun laws or no 
system to check people who own guns. 

There *are* gun laws and a system.  But if you really want a gun they are
very easy to get around.  Besides, the National Rifle Association is a very
powerful lobby (read $$$ to Congressmen) in Congress, and in the past
they've gotten pretty much what they want.  (example: someone tries to pass
legislation against bullets that pierce police body armor (IMO, no real use
for these bullets except to kill people); NRA starts yelling about how that
infringes on someone's rights/ability to hunt (hunt *what* I ask?); NRA does
behind-the-scenes arm twisting on Congressmen by threatening to not
contribute to their campaign coffers next time around; legislation doesn't
pass.)

It all comes down to power hungry groups like the gun lobbies and the
government... *shrug* And people who love money more than lives.

You know the phrase 'sex sells'?  So does bad/sensational news.  A few years
ago there was a study done of the content of TV news broadcasts.  TV
stations that showed lots of "bad" news got high ratings, TV stations that
broadcast a high proportion of "good" news got poor ratings.  TV stations
that changed their format to show a higher proportion of "good" news had
their ratings drop.  TV stations that did the opposite had their ratings go
up. Somehow I suspect this ratings trend would follow in many other
countries as well.

Possibly, quite possibly... but it's the only thing we can really rate
another country on as 'real' ... even the 'real life' style movies from
the US shows, very often, that the US is full of people with guns and
slums and gangs of young idiots with nothing better to do than shoot
each other... So I guess it's the news and the US-produced movies that
give the US it's rep in other countries.

Even in The Rock (saw it today), it had just some woman who was in the
people captured, going on about 'Even *I* have a gun! If I'd have known,
I'd have brought it along!' ... That just reinforced the 'everyone and 
their dog have a gun' image that the US seems to give itself.

And someone shooting "more than 5 people in one shooting" is a bit
sensational over here too.  I really doubt Australian TV (or any place
else's TV for that matter) be all that interested in news about something
good/nice/happy happening in another country.

It's even rather shocking news if a guy with a gun turns up in school
and threatens people (even without shooting) ... also when kids bully
each other, too ... that's been in the news a lot, recently... But all
the news we hear from America is that this is 'normal' in America and
that we need to stop what's happening, somehow, before we become like
America, too... *shrug*

It's all the media, the entertainment business and the government's 
fault... :p

ObFanFic:  I agree with Harold's comments about Cris Davies' SM fics.  :)

Kun-chan...