Richard Friedlander: Shoot 'Em or Sue 'Em

Great Britain has a unique place in our cultural history, but Richard Friedlander says when it comes to guns and lawsuits, we couldn’t be more different.

Hardly a day passes without front page news of a lawsuit or a mass shooting. We are a very aggressive people.

The United Kingdom has no such problems. One-fortieth the size of the United States, it has a population one fifth that of its former colonies with eight times the density per square mile.

And yet, on a crowded island where you would expect people to be constantly bumping into each other and in each other’s business, less than half a million firearms are in private hands. As four percent of the world’s population, we own 40 percent of its guns: four hundred million.

Because Britons don’t see gun ownership as an inherent right, they have been able to pass laws that almost eliminate mass shootings. 2019 saw 33 deaths by gunfire in the U. K. compared with 22,000 in the U. S.—969 of those thousands involved the police. But because British cops must show cause for a gun case by case, their body count totaled … three. So we know there are ways to prevent deaths by gunfire.

The relative magnitude of lawsuits filed in the two countries has kept pace with guns and the inclination to use them. In 2019, a 140 million civil lawsuits waited for a place on the docket in our federal and state courts; in Britain, it was four million all told. In fact, 94 percent of the world’s lawsuits are filed here. While an actual trial usually takes only a few days, the median nationwide from complaint to verdict is 22 months, plus a year or two for an appeal. And yet for millions of Americans, seeking legal redress is as reactive as firing a gun.

We’re still searching for ways to explain these discrepancies. My guess is that guns are an inheritance from our violent march westward. And while 95 percent of lawsuits are settled out of court, it’s often the threat of a lawsuit that gets them there.

Shoot ‘em or sue ‘em: I’d like to think this isn’t who we are, but it is.

With a Perspective, I’m Richard Friedlander.

Richard Friedlander is a writer, actor and mediator. He lives in the East Bay.