Dad Shares The Honest Moment When He Realized He Didn't Want To Raise His 4-Year-Old Daughter In America Anymore

A dad candidly opened up about the moment he realized he didn't want to stay in America and raise his child.

In a TikTok video, Luna Ashley filmed her husband's opinion on how he felt about America after explaining that he had been hesitant to move abroad and leave their hometown in St. Louis, Missouri. However, after taking a trip to a European country, it didn't take Ashley's husband long to change his mind.

He shared that the lack of safety in America convinced him to raise his 4-year-old daughter out of the country.

In Ashley's video, she explained that her husband had been on the fence about moving to Spain, while she had been expressing interest in moving out of the country for some time now. "He did not want to move abroad. What changed your mind?" Ashley asked her husband while the two sat in their car.

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Before deciding to move to Spain, Ashley and her husband had taken a trip to the country to visit. While they were there, her husband witnessed something that immediately changed his perspective about living in America.

He recalled the two of them being at a crowded coffee shop in Spain, and originally being from St. Louis, her husband had been a bit nervous about the crowd. "There's a ton of people walking around. Being from St. Louis, that's not a very comfortable place for me to be in,” he said.

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Probably sensing her husband's nerves, he recalled Ashley turning toward him and telling him that no one in this crowd has any guns. "You turn to me and say, ‘Have you seen all these people?' And you're like, 'None of them have guns.'"

As soon as he heard his wife say that, he instantly realized that the fear of gun violence in America was something that had weighed heavily on his chest as someone who had grown up in the country and was now raising his 4-year-old daughter in it too.

"I realized this weight that I had been carrying around my whole life wasn't necessary. Like what we think is normal is not normal,” he continued. 

The laws surrounding owning a firearm are vastly different in Spain compared to Missouri.

When it comes to citizens being able to own a gun, the laws in place are not similar in the slightest between Spain and St. Louis, Missouri. 

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Spain has some of the most restrictive gun ownership laws in the world and people in the country are only allowed to own a handgun if they are in verifiable danger. On top of that, the possession of machine guns, submachine guns, and any other kind of automatic weapons is strictly forbidden except for military personnel in Spain.

When it comes to Missouri, the state is a permitless carry state as well as a shall-issue state. There is no permit, background check, or firearms registration required when buying a handgun from a private individual.

There is also a growing number of people in America who feel unsafe in the country. According to data acquired by SafeWise, the United States' rate of high daily concern about safety jumped three points in 2021 — from 47% to 50%.

Following suit, the percentage of Americans who feel safe in their state fell five points year over year, from 55% in 2020 to 50% in 2021.

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In the comments section, many people shared the same opinion about feeling unsafe living in America.

"We lived in Japan for 3 years. Feeling safe in any neighborhood or at any time of day or night was amazing," one TikTok user shared.

Another user added, "For real though! Now that my kid is starting kindergarten, I feel even more anxiety. I’m desperate to find a way out."

"Been on a vacation in the UK for a month, and I'm convinced that even if I don't move here right away, I will be moving here once I have kids," a third user pointed out.

A fourth user chimed in, "We currently live in Germany and it took about a month to realize that that’s what felt better. Like just feeling safe is such a relief!"

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Nia Tipton is a Chicago-based entertainment, news, and lifestyle writer whose work delves into modern-day issues and experiences.