Doesnt matter. Comparing America to Germany, UK, Australia -anyone else- doesn't work. Different countries, different geography, different political climate, different cultures, different population, more diversity, different problems.. you name it.
I can't speak for citizens in other countries, but in the US we're pretty set in stone with many of the main points in our constitution. And the right to keep and bear arms is one of the biggest next to the freedom of speech. There's a large portion of people here that see the bigger picture and don't let the media guide us into knee jerk emotional reactions to terrible situations. And it's important that it stays that way.
Blaming Guns for violence is dumb. It's as pointless as blaming cars used in gangbanger driveby's for the drive by -which doesn't happen, but it's an example of something being improperly identified as the cause/root of something terrible.
The real issue with the guns is that it's become a political talking point used to pull people in whichever direction the puppeteer wants to sway its masses. Ban the scary black AR-15 because 'no one should own a weapon designed for war' -never mind the fact that one of the reasons for the 2nd is in the event the people should have to rise up and, you know, make fucking war. Also never mind the fact that these terrible acts can be carried out with any number of other guns that are in existence. It's a distraction at best and at worst a falsely accused suspect in a murder investigation because the authorities can't solve the real crime and just need a fall guy.
There are no real solutions here -to find one, you'd have to find a cure for human nature itself. And, good luck with that.
america has great similarities with Australia, Canada and European nations. To simply discard this is facile.
The second amendment was created to protect against insurrection and slavery. That is the entire point of the wording. It says security of a free state, not nation. The citizenry was expected to keep their weapons, and for the most part, not the ammo. Ammo was kept in storehouses. The whiskey rebellion was a good example of this sentiment, in practice.
If you want to see why the second amendment was worded that way, and what it was for, read the letters between Patrick Henry and James Madison.
It was not created to fight tyranny, it was for the protection of state power. The tyranny argument is laughable today, considering the power and sophistication of our military.
Henry makes his sentiment clear:
"Let me here call your attention to that part [Article 1, Section 8 of the proposed Constitution] which gives the Congress power to provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United States....
"By this, sir, you see that their control over our last and best defence is unlimited. If they neglect or refuse to discipline or arm our militia, they will be useless: the states can do neither ... this power being exclusively given to Congress. The power of appointing officers over men not disciplined or armed is ridiculous; so that this pretended little remains of power left to the states may, at the pleasure of Congress, be rendered nugatory."
George Mason:
"The militia may be here destroyed by that method which has been practised in other parts of the world before; that is, by rendering them useless, by disarming them. Under various pretences, Congress may neglect to provide for arming and disciplining the militia; and the state governments cannot do it, for Congress has an exclusive right to arm them [under this proposed Constitution].... "
Henry, further:
"If the country be invaded, a state may go to war, but cannot suppress [slave] insurrections [under this new Constitution]. If there should happen an insurrection of slaves, the country cannot be said to be invaded. They cannot, therefore, suppress it without the interposition of Congress.... Congress, and Congress only [under this new Constitution], can call forth the militia."
"In this state, there are two hundred and thirty-six thousand blacks, and there are many in several other states. But there are few or none in the Northern States.... May Congress not say, that every black man must fight? Did we not see a little of this last war? We were not so hard pushed as to make emancipation general; but acts of Assembly passed that every slave who would go to the army should be free."
