I agree pretty much with the holistic approach. (Gun) Culture, social make-up and the legal system all play a smaller or bigger role. Violence like murder is much more frequent in the US then in any other western country and the prison population is for a number of reasons much higher too.
While I won't comment on a so called new assault gun ban I want to remind the reader that Europe has, despite some EU alignment multifaceted policies on gun control. In general it is much harder to get one while a permit to carry one in daily life is extremely rare. I don't think there is much of a difference ( at least in my opinion) of what you can buy let us say in Germany, Italy and the US when it comes to rifles, even semi-automatic ones. The big differences are the entry barriers, carry permits and the sheer amount of firearms in circulation.
Standard military size magazines, even some with 120 rounds can be bought in Italy. Semi-automatic 'sporter' or 'hunting' rifles and carabines are also perfectly legal if you have the license for which you pay roughly 150 € a year. As usual there are differences between the regions/provinces on what is legal to go hunting with and what is a thus a 'hunter' rifle. ( Mostly semi-automatics hunting rifles and shotguns are subject to the 2+1 rule, two shots in the magazine and one in the barrel)
In general Italian law is a legal maze and while the controls are generally relative lax for most sometimes there are very rigid checks and some absurd legal cases. Eduardo Mori is considered to be arguably the foremost legal expert on the weapon issue, and has a collection of some. For example while you have to inform the Carabiniere of your area even of any purchase of ammunition this is in most cases far too much paperwork and is not enforced. From a hunting perspective I really see no need for any change in the gun laws apart from a big general clean-up of the often badly worded and sometimes conflicting legal norms. Suppressing the muzzle blast would be nice, but I'm now used to electronic hearing protection.
In short it is potentially not too difficult for a overtly sane person with no suspect record to buy similar weapons as used in the latest terrible tragedy. A mentally disturbed person faces a much higher barrier to get personal weapons and the general low amount of firearms, especially of semi-automatic rifles with large magazines makes it also much harder to get such from (close) relatives. In the latter case it is also relative uncomon to spend much time handling and shooting said weapons.
P.S: Illegal weapons are of course also available but it should take considerable effort and money for a 'normal' mentally disturbed personto get them.
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks