Thursday
(0)I recently returned from an extremely relaxing weekend in the fine Spanish city of Barcelona with my girlfriend. I have fallen for the great Catalan metropolis, the home of the weird and wonderful architecture of Gaudi.
During a stroll around the old city centre, I came across one of the most astonishing shops I have ever seen. It was a shop selling just about every kind of sword, knife and gun. Samurai swords nestled among racks of old Winchester repeater rifles, copies of 15th century broadswords, cutlasses, calvalry sabres, hunting knives, old pistols. Amazing.
I do not speak Spanish very well, so I wasn't able to discover from the shop owner as to what kind of laws exist in Spain regulating the sale of such weapons, but it was clear that laws in Spain are far, far more liberal than is the case in Britain. And on the basis of trips to other parts of Continental Europe, it would appear that the law is also more liberal than in the UK.
Why this is so is something on which I don't have an easy answer. Spain is a country less infected, so it seems to me, by political correctness and the culture of 'victimhood'. Whatever else you think of it as an activity, a country that embraces bullfighting as one of its most popular 'sports' clearly has not fallen under the rule of Guardianistas (although I find bullfighting pretty revolting).
We often slip into the comforting notion that we in the free Anglosphere are so much less regulated than our European peers, and in the realm of business and finance, this is true, on the whole. But let's give credit where credit is due. It appears that in certain aspects of life, Europe is actually more liberal.
Oh, and the tapas tasted fantastic.
"It appears that in certain aspects of life Europe is actually more liberal."
*Europe* as a whole??? Or Spain in this particular way?
Just curious about the sudden generalization ....
Posted by rkb at August 28, 2003 01:20 PM
Back when I was in Germany defending the world against the Evil Empire, sorry could not help my self. I spent 2 and a half years in Bamberg, Germany. Went to Llorrett de Marr, twice, which is not far from Barcelona. I loved it there, went to see a bull fight in Barcelona and loved the city.
8 days in Spain cost me the same as a New Years, 1989 in London, ouch. But I had a great time.
I do so hope to take my wife to Spain one day in the near future.
Posted by James Stephenson at August 28, 2003 01:58 PM
A few years ago mum and dad spent a few weeks in Spain. Although both of them liked the countryside very much, the only comment I ever got from dad was that it was "closer to America than Europe". Needless to say my jaw bounced off the floor a couple of times as dad was a union-man through and through.
Posted by Shaun Bourke at August 28, 2003 02:16 PM
I also love Spain. It's beautiful, friendly, relaxed, cheap, and without the hassles of Italy. Barcelona is one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. The food is good, but the food in the Basque cities of San Sebastian and Bilbao is even better. (San Sebastian is much smaller than Barcelona, but is another gorgeously beautiful place. Bilbao isn't pretty, precisely, but is a very interesting place.
Posted by Michael Jennings at August 28, 2003 02:18 PM
I am Spanish and have been living in Barcelona since 1993. I am not so sure that Spanish laws are more liberal what I think is that they are enfored more liberally. During the civil war (1936-39) this city was under the rule of werid leftists groups such as the "anarcosindicalistas". During the last years of the dictarotship in the early 70s, Barcelona was at the vanguard of all disidence (cultural, political, religious, etc..). This an a very Mediterranean un-squaredheadness gave a rather liberal touch to this city. However, the city is loosing thrust while Valencia and Madrid are speeding up.
Barcelona is a great place to visit, not so much to live.
Posted by Toni at August 28, 2003 02:53 PM
I think Johnathan refers to firearms laws being "far, far more liberal," rather than law in general. I'm away from home and my files, but I am certain that while aspects of Spanish firearms legislation might well be more liberal than those of the UK (it would be difficult for them to be otherwise) it is no haven of gun-friendly liberalism. ALL European countries have stringent regulation of firearms: while they are more liberal in general than the UK in this respect, all have their idiosyncracies, such as the Italian ban on "military calibres" which compels manufacturers to offer their guns chambered for weird non-standard calibres for the civilian market. Re Spain, I think you'll find that while shotguns and their ammo are very little controlled (applies in most of the world, actually), handguns require licences that are policed very strictly.
Expect standardised (i.e. upward, to the strictest current laws of individual states) firearms laws EU-wide any year now.
Posted by Tony H at August 28, 2003 05:54 PM
I find it odd that shotguns tend to be so much less regulated than rifles or pistols. I can easily fire 5 rounds of 00 buckshot from a 12 gauge shotgun in 6 or 7 seconds. That's 45 very deadly pellets in pretty short order. I find that a LOT more intimidating than a semiautomatic 9mm.
Posted by bob mologna at August 28, 2003 09:22 PM
I'm Spaniard. Bullfighting isn't considered a sport, but an spectacle. BTW, I don't like it.
Posted by Atreyu42 at August 29, 2003 05:34 AM
It's an interesting topic. What the visitor from a North European Protestant country often forgets is that Catholic countries don't view regulations in the same way. This would be that regulations provide a rhetorical, symbolic, model to which all should aspire but understandably few reach. I did a post on this last month. It may not be that the law itself is more liberal but there is a different attitude towards compliance and enforcement in Spain than there would be in, say, Sweden.
Posted by Frank McGahon at August 29, 2003 11:22 AM
I've been living in Barcelona for 2 years. An Irish Catholic background, but lived all my life in the UK. The difference is that here in Spain, rules are meant to be broken, so you can "sin", but you just have to go to confession afterwards, say sorry, a Hail Mary, and you're forgiven. In the UK (more Protestant?), laws are made to be adhered to. You always carry your sins with you and there's no forgiveness, so you'd better not sin! The Spanish culture is SO very Catholic in this respect.
Posted by ruby at October 10, 2003 07:06 PM
I've been living in Barcelona for 2 years. An Irish Catholic background, but lived all my life in the UK. The difference is that here in Spain, rules are meant to be broken, so you can "sin", but you just have to go to confession afterwards, say sorry, a Hail Mary, and you're forgiven. In the UK (more Protestant?), laws are made to be adhered to. You always carry your sins with you and there's no forgiveness, so you'd better not sin! The Spanish culture is SO very Catholic in this respect.
Posted by ruby at October 10, 2003 07:06 PM
I am from Barcelona and I have never been in a bullfight. This thing is only for turists.
Barcelona is the capital of Catalonia and very different from the rest of Spain.
Here we love the animals and we would live better if we were an independent country
Posted by Josep at December 3, 2003 12:25 PM
