glad i dont live in that capitalist, gun ridden hellscape

In terms of violence, I think The Onion puts it best:

Arming every cop is also a uniquely terrible idea. We do have armed police in the UK, but they're specially trained and only really brought out for exceptional cases.

In terms of surveillance, well, you're not that much futher ahead of the rest of the world. The UK is similarly becoming a bit of a panopticon.

I get my news mostly via RSS, but I also check the headlines online and hear things through the grapevine. My main sources are:

• Freedom News
• The i Paper
• The Herald
• 404 Media
• The Ferret
• BBC News (just for headlines)