Quote Originally Posted by M-A Lagrange View Post
Slap,

I think you are falling in the pit of the image d'Epinale about Europ, just as other are about USA.
I do not see where the right to own a M60 at home is a valid argument in the debat about are you free or not to think and believe what you want.

My only contribution will be that in most (if not all) western europ countries you can send your kids to school without worrying about is there or not a crazy guy with a gun who will kill him. And I believe that is, in Europ but also in USA, what a vast majority of the people are looking for.
That said the internal/domestic debat in the US over fire armes looks quite surreal seen from where I am, in the dark heart of Africa...
Just a technical note to start with. People legally can and do have fully automatic belt fed machine guns in the US. They are limited in number and are subject to more laws. They, except for one time I think, have never been used in a crime since the 30s.

There have been several school shootings in Finland and Germany in the last 10 years or so. Plus the incident in Norway.

You are right, people in both places are looking for physical security. But many more people in the US would rather look more to themselves for that security than to the government. Governments can't be fully trusted.

In that part of Africa, most of the people living there could probably attest to that.