I'm gonna pop in here and give my 0.2¢ on gun laws in the US, because it seems everyone and their mom is trying to approach the situation, on both sides, in a very broad and black/white manner. The issue isn't about gun control. It's never been about that, it's been about society, culture, and education. Why do you think there is so much variance to countries with different kinds of gun laws as to their effectiveness at lowering crime? There are some counties that have gun laws very similar to more "gun-liberal" states here in the US. In Switzerland, gun ownership rate is about 25%, a lot because men have to go through required military training, which includes firearms training. At the end of their service, they can request to privatize their firearm and make it legal to own. Licensing a firearm requires a background check that ensures that their applicant doesn't have any previous crime, or isn't psychologically impaired/has past problems with psychological issues. Their homicide rate is 0.49 to 100,000 people. Their education is pretty top notch too, with a second largest percentage of the population, 2.5% (compared to the rest of the world), having PhD's. Their tertiary schools have the second highest percentage of abroad students coming in to learn, right below Australia. The issue isn't restricting firearms, it's making sure stupid people don't have firearms. Man, it seems like a loving given but the path to fixing that is so loving monumental.
