Strict gun control in france.

[I_am_not_mafia]

You're clearly not looking for what you don't wish to see then.  We do bitch endlessly about our increasingly fascist police state.  That said fascist police state is beginning to think, and convince the public,  that they should be the only ones with guns........is made even more disturbing, in that context.  Here's a parralel situation, that might bring that closer to home for you.  The US likes to poo-poo nuclear states, and prevent states from up-arming, while maintaining a massive nuclear arsenal itself.  I would assume that this disturbs you, as it disturbs me, and as our changing attitude toward gun ownership disturbs me.

Not as much as Americans bitch about their guns though.

First thing I asked my husband when I got through the door was this.

"Question. On discussion forums, which country is obsessed with which single subject?"

Without hesitation he replied "America" and "guns".

I remember being on a naturist forum where one of the mods threw a tantrum because people were fed up of gun threads and wanted them banned. He ended up deleting the entire discussion forum and it needed to be retrieved from back-ups. In fairness though I think the number of gun threads are so high because a new one is created each time there is a mass shooting (of which there are many in America).

I understand the fears of a fascist government, we have it here in the UK as well. But it is an excuse. The UK is far further down the road of a fascist government than America. Yes you may have the NSA but we also have GCHQ which is effectively a regional office of the NSA. We don't have the same checks and balances that America does because our government has evolved piecemeal from the feudal system of the middle ages. Our democracy is a joke. The only power given to the people was that given to them to stop them from rebelling. We have an unelected House of Lords and a queen that has to give consent before a law is passed. We have the British establishment that exists to serve itself and will even cover up for paedophiles and murderers. We were dragged into a war that no one wanted. We're about to pay 100 billion pounds for a useless defence system while many thousands of people die because of cuts to services. Mass surveillance is rife and we don't have a constitution protecting our freedom of speech or privacy in the same way the Americans do. And now they're trying to take us out of Europe and we're now being sold into slavery to corporations via TTIP. But you still don't get lots of Brits repeatedly posting threads on forums demanding the chance to arm themselves. Yes we are sleep walking into corporate feudalism but even those aware of the situation do not want to arm the population (possibly because they know what happens outside pubs on a Friday and Saturday night).

The truth is that America has a gun problem and people do not want to be the first ones to leave themselves defenceless knowing that it will take a long time to reduce the amount of guns that can be obtained by the criminals. But you can't argue that without leaving yourself open to the accusation that you yourself are part of the problem. I understand that. I would worry too if I lived in America. It's why I never moved there for my career.