xavier999,
True. I seem to recall the UK having fairly strict laws regarding handguns and thus it follows that you would have less gun violence.
You can own shotguns, & pistols up to .22 calibre. Maybe more, I'm not sure. Certainly no semi-automatics.
Although I accept the reasons for violent crime, even gun crime, are complex. It just seems silly to us outsiders to hear people defend gun ownership in the US when your chances of being murdered are something like ten times greater than anywhere (per capita)in Europe (off the top of my head, remembering a radio prog from a month back).
It is difficult to attribute the disparity to anything other than the gun culture that exists in the US & not Europe. The reasons for the need to bear arms are unconvincing. We manage without them perfectly well in Europe. The crime rates are not elevated because we don't have guns to defend ourselves with, nor do we particularly feel the need to protect ourselves from our governments, we just vote them out if they piss us off. Certainly there's no reason to allow the elevation the murder rate by a factor of ten just
in casethere's a coup.
This does NOT only mean from other governments, but from our government itself. Like I said, I do not see the need to overthrow our government any time soon, but things can change.
A few popguns won't protect you from the material might of the US Army. Even if you had the right to bear tanks, it would just get you killed quicksharp.
Mark
There are 10 kinds of people in this world; those that understand binary, & those that don't
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