[browsin]

The only issue is registration.Australia has higher per capita gun ownership(with 30% registered,70% unregistered) than all west/northern European nations besides Switzerland but became the NRA whipping boy because of registration requirements by the government.The fact that the 70% of Australians who choose not to register are liable to jail makes the difference.

[Ringman]

Actually I'm not so sure registration is the most important issue. Again In Sweden the current gun control laws were enacted in the 1930's to keep guns from the "working class". In short they didn't want viable fighting weapons around in case of a communist revolution.

Even though the only purpose of the law was to keep the number of guns down, the ownership rate grew steadily thanks to a strong hunting and sports schooting tradition. What I'm trying to say is that with or without registration the most important thing is to have a strong culture of gun usage and ownership.

If those are in place restrictions probably won't go beyond registration. Of course gun licenses and registration have no place in a democratic society, though in Sweden they have atleast proven a point: Criminals are the ones behind gun violence as the 2 million registered guns are almost unrepresented in crime statistics.