A Study Abroad Reflection on Gun Policy: Spain vs USA
By: Serena Ray
07/07/2024
As a person curious about how policies impact the way communities live, and the founder of Austin Youth Gun Violence Awareness, I live in a state of inspiration for how I can seek change while advocating for the voices around me. This summer, I decided to do something truly new to foster and stimulate my interest in travel: a study abroad excursion to Spain. Of course, one key goal in embarking on this journey was to gain a new perspective and practice my Spanish-speaking abilities while relishing in the unique culture that surrounded me. As a firm believer in the power of art and advocacy, I was quite literally in the center of art, creativity, and culture all blended together into one. Yet, beyond just rich culture, I was reminded a few days into my trip while hearing the distant perspective of American lives why I started Youth GVA, and why issues of policy became so important to me as not only a student but an advocate. This led me to conduct a policy examination surrounding the impact that firearm policies have on a country, and local level scale from a cross-continental level. Specifically, I wanted to compare the policies that are true to home in the United States, to my new experience living and understanding the country of Spain.
I did not wake up one day feeling a sudden interest in delving into the world of public policy as a teenager. Instead, my interests were truly sparked in my Sophomore year of high school on a school trip out of the country through the Academy of Global Studies. Among the talk of travel, and comparing the livelihoods of other countries to the United States as a precursor to the experience, one clear thing stood out to me. As teenagers that have a presence on social media, we often see jokes made about how youth from other countries sincerely believe in the idea that in America, guns are an ever-present threat. This same perspective could not be said for other travel expenditures. While it is definite that there lies other problems within varying countries, especially the ones I traveled to, the problem of very blaring and highly accessible firearm violence in a highly developed country is unheard of.
It was on my first-weekend experience on the trip where my perspective about how truly impactful policy can be on a community shifted. It was a warm Saturday evening filled with fragrant Spanish food and tight-knit family traditions, and I was sitting on a folded outdoor table talking alongside my roommate and my host mom’s sister who happened to be a judge in Madrid. Among introductions, talking about the inner workings of our journey to Spain, and learning about local culture (all in Spanish of course), we began to delve into other issues such as the politics and policy comparisons between Spain and the United States. I found it to be a blaring sign that the first thing that she mentioned was the sense of irony that she felt existed within local policies in the United States. In the United States, adolescents cannot be trusted with alcohol until the age of 21, but one can own a gun, a weapon that has a clear capability of harming others without proper precautions, at the age of 18 in over half of the states in the US. This common sentiment was reflected and brought up time and time again in a lot of the field studies I would later conduct among individuals from Spain.
From this conversation, I was motivated to dive into unique perspectives surrounding policy in Spain truly. For me, the best way to begin a project such as this is to conduct an in-person field study to truly get a feel of the sense of community and individualism that lies behind an issue. Upon furthering my conversation with the judge, I continued to prompt questioning of how gun violence impacts her job on a day-to-today basis. As a local judge, she has seen it all. From incidents of heinous crime to family law, there is not a true set end to what her job entails. One thing that was clear, is that in Spain access to firearms among the general public is strictly prohibited, and this is reflected in the differences in the types of violence that she deals with, whether it be domestic or another sector. She pointed out that in her eyes, the true differences lie in foundational constitutional differences, but also social-cultural standards that differ on a country-to-country basis. In Spain, firearm law (translated) states that “you cannot carry or possess firearms in Spanish territory without the corresponding authorization or license issued by the competent authorities' ' (Guardia Civil). The license itself is not an easy thing to obtain and requires strong accreditation of physical and mental capacity and validity of safe storage practices including a secure firearm loss or destruction reporting process. Spain, in comparison to the US, has one of the tightest gun restrictions in the world, and only 1% of the population processes a firearm (most of which is police or security force). Prohibited weapons include automatic weapons, weapons disguised as other objects, firearms designed for war, and firearms with a caliber of 20mm. Spain's constitution outlines that the government reserves the right to regulate firearm access. The constitutional differences between the United States and Spain reflect the importance of foundational differences in determining policy effects on demographics such as youth.
With this information in mind, I decided to deepen my studies into an area central to youth around the world: mental health. Throughout the month of May, I have worked tirelessly alongside local phycologists to create my comprehensive “Parent Guide to Gun Safety: Mental Health Addition” to distribute around my local community back in Austin, Texas. As firearm laws are distinctly different in Spain (and frankly most of Europe), in comparison to the United States, I wanted to do a deeper examination on how violence and mental health tie into local policies. This worked out to my advantage as on week three of my study abroad Spanish immersion class, we were tasked with creating a campaign covering a significant issue to youth today inside and outside of Spain. This opened the door for me to not only be able to delve more into the issues of mental health, but also truly look beneath the covers of how youth are affected by local policies in Spain. Upon jumping into mental health, a lot of the root causes within Spain remained the same as the United States, from bullying, insecurity in the household, sudden tragic events and pressure within one's life. What I found in my investigations to be the most distinct was the effects that amounted from an adolescent struggling with mental health. I decided once again that it would be valuable to turn to a native Spaniard for an opinion on mental health and its effect on youth, as well as an opinion on the subject of firearms in general. Starting off by prompting the conversation about firearms and their presence in Spain, I asked how common it was to see firearms be a form of violence turned to among youth. The reply was that it simply was not the case at all to ever see a child withholding a firearm of any kind. While it was conceded that problems of mental health are as present if not more present among youth in Spain as it is in the United States, the aftermath and effects appeared to be very different. The numbers amount to be that in Spain, death rates by firarms per 100,000 population is 0.57 in comparison to the United States of which is 12.21. Furthermore, death rate by firearm suicide in Spain is 0.43 people per 100,000 in comparison to the United States which is 7.32 people.
To compare statistical differences between Spain and US gun policy, there are a few key distinctions that I wanted to highlight. Firstly, since 2000, there have been 4 general mass shootings in Spain, whereas in the United States, there have been 413 school (not general) mass shootings since 1999. In Texas alone, from 2014-2022, there have been 23,764 shootings and 13,021 deaths by firearm. As Spain is a part of the European Union, it has worked to enact numerous action plans as well as militaristic firearm control strategies to mitigate the risk of unlawful firearm circulation. These documents include the 2020-2025 EU action plan on firearms and Common Position 2008/944/CFSP, which both work in unison to define strategies to combat gun trafficking within the European Union. Spain is legally bound to the UNTOC, Firearms Protocol, and Arms Trade Treaty, all of which have a heavy influence on local policy. What this means for Spain vs the US is that Spain has a lot more binding national/regional policies, as well as municipal laws set in place to prevent unlawful firearm transaction and handling, of which is largely left up to the individual states beyond national law in the US. This is shown through the stark differences in data.
The reality is that every country has its problems, and foundational differences. For example, as I was studying in Madrid, the largest city in Spain, we were quite literally given a lesson on how to not get pick-pocketed, warned that petty-crime is a common occurrence in tourist traps. However, I think that the sentiments of my group leader truly sum up the reality behind the differences in firearm policies. She stated: “I remember sitting in a plaza with the other group leaders talking about pick-pocketing and other incidents that could happen to students, coming up with plans to maximize safety. One key thing that never crossed our minds, though, was the fear held by many educators in America: the loss of a student’s life.”
