Banned in the United States

The U.S. has been rocked by two mass shootings over the weekend in El Paso, Texas and Dayton, Ohio.  At least nine people were killed after a gunman opened fire in Ohio, mere hours after a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas that killed at least 20 people, by a suspected white supremacist.

In many states, including Nevada, you don't need a permit to buy a gun - nor are you required to get a license, register a firearm and there's no limit on the number of guns you can buy at one time.   Donald Trump has repeatedly declared his love for the Second Amendment, and has rolled back a number of President Obama's restrictions on the purchasing of deadly weapons.

Here are a few items that are more difficult to get in the U.S. than a semi-automatic rifle:

Kinder Eggs:  While the rest of the world enjoys the sweet chocolatey taste of a Kinder Surprise - America’s no-fun Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has banned them on the basis that the toys inside the eggs could be a choking hazard. Americans craved the chocolate eggs so much that they returned to the US in 2017 in a different form: Kinder Joy.   It consists of two individually packed halves - one containing the chocolate and the other containing the toy.

Haggis: Continuing on their no-fun theme, the FDA has also banned Haggis imports. Americans can make their own but the US won’t let any food into the country which contains sheep lung.

Shark Fins: A traditional Chinese delicacy, they have been banned in California since 2011, and remain banned in 12 other US states. Once their fins have been removed sharks are often put back in the ocean where they are likely to drown because of their restricted movement.

Nigella Lawson:  The celebrity chef was stopped from boarding a British Airways flight to America in 2014 after she publicly confessed to taking drugs. The ban was later lifted in preparation for her show "The Taste."

Dog Hair: It is illegal to import, export, sell or transport cat and dog fur products

Nipples:  The movie poster for Sin City 2 featuring Eva Green was reportedly banned in the U.S. for being too provocative.

Dictionaries:  The Merriam-Webster 10th edition was removed from classrooms in southern California in 2010 following a parent’s complaint that children could read the definition of the term “oral sex”.  

Lengthy Bingo Games:  In North Carolina bingo games are not allowed to last more than five hours unless they are held in a fair.

The Ice Bucket Challenge:  The State Department has banned its diplomats from doing the ALS ice bucket challenge. The State Department has said that people in public offices such as ambassadors could not use them for private gain "no matter how worthy the cause is".