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"America Has Lost Touch with Reality"

The debate about gun control in the United States that began in Europe immediately after Monday's shootings at Virginia Tech angered many of our American readers. We published their letters, and now we're posting some of the responses we've received here in Germany.

"You are heartless and thoughtless," one American wrote to SPIEGEL ONLINE after reading about European criticism of his country's lax gun control laws that came immediately after the Virginia Tech massacre that left 33 dead. The tenor of the message that followed implied that Europeans lack sympathy and sadness as well as gratitude for the historical role that America played in Europe during and after World War II.

The response to the letters here in Germany was enormous. Today, our German readers write back :

After posting our first letters to the editor on Wednesday, we also received a number of e-mails from our readers in the United States and Canada offering pro-gun control opinions and also taking us to task for publishing the masses of e-mail we received without posting balancing viewpoints. You can read their messages here:

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