I don't accept that the government can be trusted to keep me safe, but you do. That is the fundamental difference. Guns used to be everywhere in the US, including in schools, and nobody was overly concerned about crazies with guns attacking schools. The reason is, anyone going crazy with a gun would be shot dead by any self-respecting person rather quickly. Our kids are more likely to die from any number of freak accidents than school shootings. If schools kept a few armed guards or even armed teachers and had secure fences and doors, the chances of someone doing a mass shooting there would be near zero. We have gun free zones that render everyone but criminals completely defenseless. It's a shame that people do not understand or appreciate the many benefits of being armed.
The classic gun-free society is the UK where even decorative knives or anything resembling an effective weapon will land you in prison. The place that sends people to jail for such things as witnessing a protest, or posting mean tweets online. Once you give up your guns, you have given up any hope of actually curtailing government power. The people who want to take our guns all have guns and professional armed security.
Another point to consider is, guns are only one possible weapon. In gun-free societies like China, they face mass stabbings instead. Then there's always someone willing to run people over with a car. Too bad the victims of those crimes did not have guns. They might have had a chance.
So in summary, I don't want gun-free culture. I want everyone but known violent criminals and mentally deficient individuals to be armed. The gun is the great equalizer, and it insures your freedom against all kinds of brutes. Without a gun, the average person doesn't have a chance against a typical criminal.
>It is much easier to stop a stabber than someone armed with an assault rifle, and it’s much harder for the assailant to stab a dozen people.
You're wrong about this. A knife does not need to be reloaded and many knife wounds can be more deadly than gunshot wounds. A person with a knife can stab random people in the back and run off, probably indefinitely. If they decided to stab them all at once then they might have a bit of difficulty and have to do it in a confined space. But this does happen in China.
As for stopping someone with basically any gun, any other person could stop them with a gun. It doesn't matter if the guy with the gun is an elite soldier and the defender is a little old lady, so long as the lady has decent aim. Guns are only a problem because people scoff at their right and duty to defend themselves.
>Is there any other country in the world where there are more mass killings per inhabitant than the US?
So-called "mass shootings" are not the only violent crime you need to worry about. The definition is skewed to make the problem sound worse than it is, by including gang violence and gang wars in there. You need to consider violent crimes vs. violent crimes. And frankly, the agencies that report violent crime have a conflict of interest when it comes to that. You also don't get stats about violence prevented or mitigated because of guns, because it is not tracked.
I think there are other factors that go into violent crime prevalence beyond gun availability, that make it impossible to reach any meaningful conclusion about whether banning guns would lower crime overall. Guns were very common in the entire world until recently, and nobody was really concerned about mass shootings. Any perceived violence problem is really a cultural issue or a perception issue. Even if banning guns did lower crime somehow I would not be interested, any more than I would be interested in banning cars because someone might get run over or banning printing presses because they can print offensive words. Self-defense is a human right and we all need effective tools to defend ourselves from all enemies. Some amount of regulation seems to be a necessary evil, but a ban on guns is as preposterous to me as a ban on pointy sticks.
The classic gun-free society is the UK where even decorative knives or anything resembling an effective weapon will land you in prison. The place that sends people to jail for such things as witnessing a protest, or posting mean tweets online. Once you give up your guns, you have given up any hope of actually curtailing government power. The people who want to take our guns all have guns and professional armed security.
Another point to consider is, guns are only one possible weapon. In gun-free societies like China, they face mass stabbings instead. Then there's always someone willing to run people over with a car. Too bad the victims of those crimes did not have guns. They might have had a chance.
So in summary, I don't want gun-free culture. I want everyone but known violent criminals and mentally deficient individuals to be armed. The gun is the great equalizer, and it insures your freedom against all kinds of brutes. Without a gun, the average person doesn't have a chance against a typical criminal.