The reason gun control is effective in Europe, or say Japan (and China) is that every one of the countries where it is practiced at some point in the recent past (or present, in the case of China) they were highly controlled ruthless dictatorships. The people were not used to the civil right to own guns, and, gun ownership—in Europe and the far east—has ALWAYS been tightly regulated. Even Switzerland, the most democratic country on Earth, has universal regulation—i.e. this nation of small towns knows exactly where every gun is.
This approach simply cannot work in the immense United States. We’re bordered on the south by a corrupt 3rd world country—where millions of persons are smuggled in yearly, not to mention literally billions of dollars in drugs—and who knows what else, and our northern border is immense—also not difficult for determined smugglers to breech. There are something like 300 Million guns here already, so given the raw numbers, unless we initiated an absolute totalitarian dictatorship, and suspended the civil right of search and seizure, gun control as they have it in Europe would be utterly impossible.
My point is, even if we did not have a 2nd Amendment—or, even if it will be ignored by the Supreme Court—AND even if someone sincerely believed gun-control is a good thing, it is simply TOTALLY UNREALISTIC given the facts in the United States. Our history as a frontier country, our defeat of hostile tribal peoples... (yes, particularly in the West, that’s what did happen), our heritage in being born from a war, and being reborn from a civil war—all these essentially American things, were dependent on the civil right to own and use firearms.
Gun control simply is not American, it never will be. The more we try gun-control, the more we will disarm the law-abiding citizen, making them the victims of criminals and the criminally insane. But for the right of private citizens to carry—this last murder spree would have been the worst one of all.
The anti-gunnies need to take the blindfolds off, as denial ain’t just a river in Egypt!
Excellent post!!