what is it with europe and throwing acid at each other? is it like america with our gun thing?
Honestly haven’t heard of this happening in Europe before, but also haven’t done any research before now, and I don’t read a lot of news.
Seems it’s a surprisingly (for me, at least) big thing in the UK, but until recently was more associated with gang violence, with young men being the main victims, as opposed to the more classic “man has precious ‘honor’ and feelings hurt by woman, manly and honorable man scars woman for life so everyone can see how honorable he is”-scenario.
Worldwide, 80% of victims are still female.
It’s worth noting that, according to these statistics, the second and third European countries on the list, France and Italy, have a combined 14 attacks, which is less than the 20 in USA.
If only the economic rift between the indigent and the insanely wealthy Americans wasn’t so great, you’d all be able to afford guns, and not have to resort to these disgusting “European” tactics 😓
Maybe we should start a GoFundMe campaign? If it works for paying for healthcare, maybe it will work for getting everyone a gun?
Also worth noting that France and Italy combined have a population roughly a third of the US’s. So, normalized by population, it’s much more prevalent there than in the US
Touché 👍
Acid is not intended to kill, it’s intended to mark, shame, and terrorize.
When Europeans want to kill, they use butcher knives, machetes, crossbows, stolen guns, or more rarely hunting shotguns.
Gun controls only make cops less paranoid about everyone being armed.
Haha as a Belgian this comment is hilarious. Like we’re all scrambling for ways to kill each other here without our poor guns.
Well… Belgium had about 1.1 murders per 100k population in 2022. For comparison, Spain had 0.6 per 100k, and Italy 0.5 per 100k.
It’s not the 6.3 per 100k of the USA, or the 53.3 per 100k of Jamaica, but yeah, people still find a way to kill each other.
It’s actually mostly a South Asian thing, not really a European thing. There are plenty of immigrants from areas where these attacks have been popular in Europe, though especially in the UK, as acid seems quite popular as a means to mutilate in countries like Bangladesh and India. That doesn’t mean only immigrants commit these specific crimes, of course, but it’s how these types of attacks became prevalent in Europe.
Acid attacks seem particularly popular in London, though most of the world’s acid attacks still take place in Asia.
I’d say the European equivalent to gun violence would be knife violence, which is why the British police has cracked down on all things capable of stabbing others (and resulted in silly news articles about policemen posing with confiscated screwdrivers and such, because those are becoming alternatives for knives in areas where knives get confiscated effectively).
Now I’m imagining UK having a National Acid Association that lobbies the government and promotes acid ownership.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a flask of acid, is a good guy with a flask of acid?
Or maybe the good guy’s flask should have a buffering agent?
You got a loicense for that acid, gov?
I always keep a vat of acid around just in case something were to go wrong – which it won’t – but just in case.
