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There is little or no european tradition of private gun ownership as there is in the US. Therefore, this argument is factually true but does not really address the greater question.

I would like to ask the author what he thinks would have happened if just a few Jewish shop owners had posessed firearms. Would Krystalnacht have happened, or would it have been nipped in the bud when one of the Brownshirt flying columns ran smack into an armed shopkeeper? To jump to another analogy: how many government agents were tied down, and for how long, by David Koresh? I'm only focusing on the armed standoff. See my point? Private gun ownership need only be legal -- it does not necessarily have to be very widespread -- to have an impact in checking government action.

There is little or no european tradition of private gun ownership as there is in the US. Therefore, this argument is factually true but does not really address the greater question.

If I'm not mistaken, the Swiss have had a strong and lengthy tradition of private arms ownership for about 400 years, which is probably why the Nazis wouldn't march into Switzerland, depite being the banking capital of Europe and perhaps the world.

While the French public were sans firearms, due to gun control laws of their own, the Swiss were commonly armed.