As of 2018, Vietnam’s homicide rate was 1.52 per 1000 people, the 57th lowest in the world. Compared with the US, where the homicide rate was 4.88 per 1000 and we were the 157th lowest in the world, it’s no wonder that the biggest threat for many living in Vietnam is being victimized by pickpockets and bicycle thieves. Vietnam’s homicide rate is lower than France, Finland, Canada, and Thailand. In 2015, when Vietnam restricted civilians from gun ownership, a black market of gun distribution predictably followed. While little has been written on Vietnamese gun control due to the country’s violent history and unreliable existing documents, the gun policy that’s been in effect for at least these past five years is reflective of the turbulent cultural and historical influences that have prevailed over Vietnam for nearly a century.
Sampan recently had the opportunity to speak with a Vietnamese native about the gun culture in her country and how she perceives the story gun violence in the United States. Lan is a twenty-seven year old graduate student studying in Boston. Like those before her in this series of conversations with people from countries where guns are restricted, she has become increasingly frightened by the gun violence in the United States. Her concerns, like those of the others featured in this series, are a direct reflection of who we’ have become.
SAMPAN: What were your initial impressions, as a child, about guns in the United States?
LAN: My initial impression of the role of guns in the culture of the United States was through the movies that I watched when I was a little kid in Vietnam. It was always about Texas, gold mining, gun fighting between the gold miners and bosses. I thought this is a completely exotic way of living and it is so cool to be a perfect gunfighter who can beat all other bad guys. I did not perceive the danger of guns at that time.
SAMPAN: What role did guns play in your life as a child growing up in Vietnam?
LAN: From childhood, I rarely saw a person with a gun in Vietnam or hear the sound of a gun in real life. Perhaps the Vietnamese police have guns with them all the time but I did not see any police wandering around my neighborhood. Therefore, guns were things that just appeared on the tv screen when I watched news from around the world or I watched documentaries about the war in Vietnam before I was born. In short, guns have no significant impact on my daily life in Vietnam.
SAMPAN: Describe the punishment for illegal ownership and distribution of guns in Vietnam
LAN; Honestly, I did not know anything about the punishment for ownership or distribution. It is never discussed among Vietnamese people or heard of on national/regional channels. Guns are unfamiliar objects to ordinary citizens as far as I know. In Vietnamese music or film, sometimes we see the use of guns with only two kinds of users: Policemen or criminal gangs. And we did not see these uses as glamorizing gun use at all. These gun scenes are just to say that we are using guns to fight for justice or revenge.
SAMPAN: How long have you been in the United States? Were friends and family scared knowing that you’d be coming here and probably susceptible to more gun violence here than in Vietnam?
LAN: I have been in the United States for three years and nine months. My friends and family never mentioned any kinds of fear towards gun violence here. Sometimes they heard the news about a shooting somewhere in the US, they just told me, “Wow, that’s terrible!” But they did not tell me to be careful or anything else. They were more curious than scared about how people own and use guns here.
SAMPAN: Do you think the importance of guns in American culture is an unavoidable part of who we are? If we consider that the West was “won” by pistols and six-shooters, and guns have been constant from the beginning, how can we change? How can we steer our children away from the impression that guns are the only way to solve problems?
LAN: It is not clear to me what I think about the importance of guns in American culture; as an unavoidable part of who Americans are. I think it is on paper in the Constitution rather than in the minds of all Americans. Therefore, Americans can change that obsession by changing the Constitution. Children learn about the use of guns through games/movies/plays/stories or anything that is visual or audible around them. Show them the failure of using guns in solving problems and provide them with other non-violent solutions through these means. They learn through imitation. Therefore, provide them problem solving models to imitate.
SAMPAN: Are you confident that US legislators and our President, now or later, will be able to write and pass some sensible gun legislation? Can the US gun problem be solved in your lifetime? If so, how? Tell us the ways Vietnam has kept their gun violence so low. Are there any suggestions you have for the immediate and long term safety of the United States re: gun accessibility?
LAN: I am not confident that US legislators and the President, now or later, will be able to write and pass some sensible gun legislation. But I still have hope. The US gun problem might or might not be solved in my lifetime. It needs the boldness and sacrifice of the leaders.
Vietnam has kept its gun violence so low because of our history of being poor and connected to agricultural culture. People just think about how to have enough rice to eat instead of saving money to buy guns. People live in a communal life so they all know each other and appreciate the presence of others in every corner of their lives, at home, at church, in the market, etc. rather than suspecting the violation of privacy as in the US. Therefore, why do we need to use guns as it is completely unnecessary. Moreover, most Vietnamese follow Catholicism or Buddhism that promote love and peace so that no one dares to violate these rules to the extent of using guns. I just have one suggestion for the immediate and long term safety of the United States about gun accessibility, which is not letting anyone own a gun, except for the purpose of fighting for the country’s wellbeing
SAMPAN: How do you feel about potentially being a victim of the violence you see in the US?
LAN: I have been very scared of it whenever I am out of my house or when I sit beside a glass window in my house as I think I might be shot for no reason.
