American students studying abroad in London have discovered what it’s like to live in a gunless society for the first time in their lives and have witnessed what the United States could be like with more gun control regulation. These experiences have offered them, as well as their instructors, a unique vantage point from which to view one of many controversial issues in this month’s presidential election.
“It’s nice to not have to worry about guns, especially at night or in unfamiliar areas,” said Kate Owen Dildine, a theater major and English minor at Diablo Valley College in Pleasant Hill who is studying abroad in London this fall. “It’s refreshing to walk around knowing that, while I still need to be cautious, the fear of someone having a gun isn’t hanging over me. I do catch myself staying as alert as I would be back home, almost expecting the same risks. And even though dealing with things like pickpocketing isn’t ideal, it’s a lot better than worrying about guns.”
Gun violence is a topic that is as complicated as it is serious. According to a John Hopkins report on Annual Firearm Violence Data, 48,204 people died from gunshots in the U.S. in 2022, the second highest year on record. More than half were suicides. This means that, on average, someone was killed by a gun every 11 minutes with seven young people dying every day.
Republicans have pushed for less government intervention, stating the Second Amendment as their protection while Democrats have advocated for stricter gun laws to keep the population as a whole safer.
Former President Donald Trump said he strongly believes in the Second Amendment. “We have to have a Second Amendment that’s meaningful. If we don’t we’re going to have levels of death and destruction like this country has never seen before,” he said at an NRA rally in Texas.
At a gun violence prevention event on National Gun Violence Awareness Day in June, Vice President Kamala Harris said, “I’m in favor of the Second Amendment, and we need an assault weapons ban. I support the Second Amendment, and we need universal background checks. I support the Second Amendment, and we need red flag laws.” Red flag laws allow authorities to seize guns, often temporarily, from people who may be a danger to themselves or others.
Raised in Concord, Study Abroad student Dildine understands the fear of a school shooting like many other American students. “Growing up with that, it’s so normalized it’s hard to remember a time when that wasn’t on my mind at least once a day,” she said. They remember always having an exit route in their classrooms in case a school shooter came on campus. Her father is a teacher, so she doesn’t just worry about herself, but her family.
A Santa Rosa Junior College student who is also studying abroad in London shared a similar sentiment. “It’s nice because I don’t have to worry about the constant fireworks possibly being a shootout instead, or just getting shot in a robbery while entering a store. I still worry for my safety at times of course, but it’s nice not to have to worry about guns,” they said, wishing to remain anonymous.
“Getting to come here has eased how I feel in public,” said Sam Violich, a mechanical engineering major at Diablo Valley College who is also studying abroad in London this semester. “I feel that in part is because there are no guns. It also helps that the CCTV is always active too. So if something does happen, they have some evidence. Both these things put my mind at ease. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being hyper-aware of my surroundings at night but that’s just part of the struggle of being a woman. I will say that being here has caused me to feel more safe, especially when I walk back from the club at night,”
Diablo Valley College English Instructor Christian Morgan, who is teaching in London through the American Institute for Foreign Study this fall, believes there can be regulations without limiting gun ownership rights. While Morgan is a gun owner in California, he said he is not exactly proud of it and his views on gun ownership have evolved over the years. “I am a full-throated supporter of gun control,” he said.
Morgan’s inquisitive nature has influenced his relationship with gun ownership, mainly his decision to purchase a semi-automatic pistol out of pure curiosity and his interest in the process that went into obtaining a gun. “It was part of an educational step and process on my part. It was also just out of interest and recreation,” he said.
When asked if one presidential candidate and both vice presidential candidates owning guns supports or hurts their campaigns, Morgan said, “I don’t think it helps…With Kamala Harris’ background as a prosecutor, it stands to reason that she would have some sort of protection. So I think it helps her as far as the middle and the right are concerned, but I’m not sure it helps her as far as liberals who are [not] in support of gun ownership. It’s not going to change my opinion on who I vote for.”
Teachers have the difficult job of being responsible for their students in life-or-death scenarios and facing danger head-on instead of running away. Morgan said the last training he did was focused on lockdowns and the best ways to approach them. “One of the controversial aspects of this training was not running away from but running toward as a kind of last resort,” he said. “I’ve not heard of any situations where that has occurred but that’s a terrifying thought. You’re responsible for a huge group, a huge population of people.”
Joseph Videan is a communication studies teacher through the AIFS Study Abroad program in the United Kingdom, where he has lived most of his life. Born in the United States, he moved to England in 1989 at age 24. Vidian has seen gun violence as a citizen in America and seen the effects of it in America from his vantage point in the U.K.
“From my point of view, riffles can be used to hunt animals, handguns are used to hunt human beings, and that’s really the only purpose of a handgun is to kill another human being,” Vidian said. He believes that handguns are a major issue for individual crime while automatic weapons are the main problem for mass shootings.
“Almost all of those mass shootings, the Republican Party attributes to some sort of a psychological disorder or some sort of momentary insanity or whatever the case may be,” he said.
Looking at the other side, Vidian said, “The Democrats have, generally speaking, never proposed that guns would be taken away from you, full stop. That has never been on the table. What has been discussed, is to have common sense laws that pertain to gun ownership, and the thing that is the most prominent in that discussion are red flag laws.”
Vidian points out a key misconception in the debate about gun control. Some Americans believe that stricter gun laws will lead to a ban on all guns, effectively nulling the Second Amendment in its entirety. However, the debate in politics today is how much regulations guns should have.
As the debate continues in the U.S., the study abroad students and instructors have one more month to enjoy a gun-free society.
