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Comment by sandstrom | Hacker News Reader

I agree with you that things are worse now. I wouldn't say that the world has gone insane though, rather that the US attitudes have shifted over time. There are countries that does things differently though. For example, the worlds fourth and eight largest economies:

http://www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2012/07/a-l...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19641398

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If the US government followed the example of the Japan or the UK in banning virtually all domestic firearm ownership, the cries of "police state" would be even more deafening...

It's not strictly accurate to say that "virtually all domestic firearm ownership" is banned in the UK - it's just highly controlled and restricted. There's roughly 800,000 people in Great Britain (Northern Ireland has it's own, separate, firearms laws) with firearms licences about 80% of which are for shotguns.

In practical terms, firearm ownership is restricted to shotguns and rifles and you've got to be able to demonstrate why you wish to own a firearm - i.e. pest control, sports shooting, etc - and you've got to have a clean criminal record and pass a background check by the police. It's also at the discretion of your local police force to grant you the licence or not, which is likely to depend on things like how suitable the choice of firearm is to it's stated purpose - you'd be unlikely to get a licence for .50 calibre rifle if your stated purpose is hunting rabbits for example.

While the UK doesn't have a huge gun-culture, they're far from banned - as evidenced by there being roughly 1 legally held gun for every 70 people in Great Britain (GB - The UK less Northern Ireland, as noted above NI has different licensing laws).

- https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/firearms-law-guid...

It's more about culture than guns. Russia is violent despite strict gun laws, and you could probably give every Japanese a handgun and a case of ammo and nothing bad would happen. This is not to say Russia would do better with more guns, or that America would not benefit from more controls. But changing the culture might be even more effective than laws.

So, here's the best bit from the BBC article:

"Arming the force would, say opponents, undermine the principle of policing by consent - the notion that the force owes its primary duty to the public, rather than to the state, as in other countries."

That's what we're missing more of in the US.

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