On their way to Bloomington last Monday, German students Anna Seikel, Miriam Wüst, and Jackie Albrecht, along with the rest of the world, heard the tragic news of the most recent school shooting in the United States, this time at an elementary school in Nashville, Tennessee. They were already feeling a bit strange in a new place, but the event made them realize that it feels more like a different world.
The three students are visiting IU Bloomington on a fellowship from Berlin, allowing them to travel and learn as students of Broadcast Journalism. In their home country, gun laws are very strict. The country holds approximately 83 million people, and has had only one mass shooting in recent memory.
The United States is already over 130 this year.
They were coming from New York, where they were already taking precautions because of the country’s comparatively lax gun laws. “Throughout the Broadway show, I was thinking, ‘Okay, if someone has a gun in here, there is no way to get out,” Miriam said. She wasn’t the only one in the trio thinking this way. Jackie shared similar fears about going to a baseball game a few days prior. Where in some places in the U.S. you don’t even need a permit to carry, in Germany, you must have a license.
To get a permit in Germany, you must be at least 18 years old, demonstrate knowledge of the weapon you are registering, and show a substantiated need for the weapon itself. You must get a permit for each gun you own as well. But it doesn’t stop there. In Germany, you are also required by law to store the weapon properly. Officials are permitted to come and inspect your home to make sure you are doing so.
In Indiana, you don’t even need a permit to purchase a handgun anymore.
Student Anna Seikel discusses what American freedom is, and how freedom is thought of differently in Germany.
Anna says her understanding of freedom is fundamentally different than the ways some Americans view freedom. From her own observations, a lot of the culture around freedom in the United States focuses on one’s freedom to something, whether that be the freedom to speak, or, more significantly, the right to bear arms. But in Germany, Anna finds that policy is constructed around giving people the freedom from something. Like the freedom from danger, and the freedom from gun violence.
That philosophy seems to be working for Germany and many other European countries, where mass shootings are very low. In fact, the United States ranks 50 times higher in firearm homicides than Germany does.
All of them share a similar sentiment about the United States, that it feels almost like a different world sometimes. Miriam loves going to the movies in Germany, and was shocked to hear how some students at the university felt unsafe going to the movies. “The reasoning behind it, because you’re scared of being shot there, it makes so much sense,” Miriam said. Being proud of owning a gun is not something the students agree with. Miriam says that a lot of the people who own guns in Germany are seen as weird or strange. Where gun ownership is often endorsed in the United States, it is more often looked down upon in Germany.
Student Jackie Albrecht discusses her thoughts on the Second Amendment, and weighs the fears of some colleagues she has met in the States.
Recently, Jackie was in Florida. She was astonished to see guns being sold in a local Walmart. She noticed that the store was missing some key items, including fruit. When she approached a store worker for help, the worker apologized and said that they only carry the essentials. “My god. You have guns, but you don’t have, like, an apple?”
Jackie shares that in Germany, they are safe. “If no one has a gun, we don’t need a gun to protect ourselves,” Jackie said.
