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Don't worry about your English Ismael: I don't know many Spaniards that don't live in English-speaking countries that would do better than you just did.

I've spent the last 10 years of my life in the American Midwest, and around here guns are pretty common. Some people have them stored as home as personal protection. Others take shooting as a hobby. Many people hunt, given that the game population around here is much bigger than the one in most of Europe.

I for one think that, as far as the personal protection angle goes, it's just that the average American is much more afraid than your average Spaniard. I've seen way more crime and violence in Madrid and Oviedo than I ever see in the suburban US, yet it's those suburbanites that tend to claim that they feel so much safer with a gun than without. And that was before Eastern European mafias moved into Madrid.

They are very different countries, I'll tell you that.