This is the same reason a lot of Europeans in isolated or rural areas own guns. Most of Europe is empty, after all. That doesn't change the fact that we don't have the same sort of glorification of violence. That's purely cultural and a peace dividend. It's tangible over there. Even growing up on Army bases and all of my German male relatives being in the Bundeswehr or serving military duty did nothing to prepare me for the gun-fervor I witnessed in the States. The people in Finnland aren't gun slingers. They are just glad to have a reprieve from fighting the Russians. Sarah Palin can see Russia from her house, I know, but when is the last time Anchorage was overun?