Guns on Crete set back Greek efforts to save lives

All the road signs in the mountain villages in the regional unit of Rethymno on the island of Crete are riddled with bullet holes. Visitors stop to take pictures of what is in the eyes of many a sign of Cretan exoticism, usually with a mix of awe and shame. What kind of places are these, where primitive customs like the vendetta still survive in 2020? Why do Cretans feel free to roam the streets carrying guns, with heavy ammunition, from AK-47s to hand grenades? Anyone who's ever celebrated Easter in those most remote areas of the so-called Megalonissos (the big island) knows that fireworks are here often substituted by live ammunition and that, at local weddings, youngsters occasionally fire off live rounds in the air so as to get accustomed with the local tradition known as "balothies" from an early age. (By the way, gun possession is not rooted in some revolutionary tradition;...