Gulliver, it is as bad as you say. Kids here know it.

In Boston I was returning my Sbbaro pizza tray to the enclosed trash bin when I lifted the lid too fast and the lid made a loud BANG.
8 children no older than 13 ducked for cover or ran hunched over for the exits.

The US has 30,000 gun wounds a year. That is about a 100 a day.
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The day following the Coumbine Schoold shooting there was an NRA convention in Columbine Colorado. The then president of the NRA was Charelton Heston who opened his speech with "FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!"

which is part of a NRA slogan - 'If you try to take my gun away from me, you will have to pry it from my cold dead hands'.

I guess some people in the UK are not familiar with the popular slogan 'cold dead hands' so I just thought I would elaborate.