Agreed totally. In Canada, until 1979 (Firearms Acquisition Certificates were required from then on), anyone over age 16 could simply walk into a decent sporting goods store and buy themselves a decent hunting rifle or shotgun and ammunition and no questions were asked. Violent crime was virtually unheard of for many years until about the early to mid 1970s when it went on an upswing (like most other places in the Western world, but still lower than New York City or DC or Chicago). My great uncle who died in 1984 aged 93 kept his guns in full view in the old family farmhouse and as a kid visiting there, I was quite captivated by them and liked learning about them. No eyebrows were raised at all over this at the time.
I think about things like this whenever I hear shallow, sanctimonious talk about how Canada is distinct from the U.S. because gun ownership is not a right up here. What utter garbage. Particularly when you consider, as you say quite rightly, the “psychological benefit of having a responsible citizenry”.
Liberals’ disdain for pro 2nd amendment people goes so far as to ridicule people with Alzheimer’s, as George Clooney did to Charlton Heston, who was 10 TIMES the man Clooney will ever be. I dislike him and his Israel hating wife very much.