> In other words, if availability of guns were really the most important factor, then wouldn't we expect Europe to have a similar number of attacks but conducte

> In other words, if availability of guns were really the most important factor, then wouldn't we expect Europe to have a similar number of attacks but conducted with knives, cars, etc? Depending on how you count, here's some support for this (argument against at the end): A number of European countries has or has had large numbers of actual assault rifles (not the semi automatic ones that are legal in USA) distributed in the population. Switzerland, Austria and Norway are three countries I know have or have had this. Neither has had this school/church/mall shooting thing that USA has. On the other hand these weapons weren't sold, they were distributed only after mandatory training.