>The U.S. may have many guns per capita but countries like France, Switzerland, Finland, Portugal, etc. all have huge percentage of gun owners. They also regul

>The U.S. may have many guns per capita but countries like France, Switzerland, Finland, Portugal, etc. all have huge percentage of gun owners. They also regulate and restrict guns to a degree that would be impossible in the US. And have cultures with social cohesion where rights are understood to confer responsibilities - again, impossible in the US. >"It (guns) insures that the people are the equal of their government whenever that government forgets that it is servant and not master of the governed." They do no such thing. The American government has shown absolutely no compunction whatsoever about putting the boot to their citizens heads whenever it likes, be it through illegal domestic surveillance, plutocracy, experimentation on its own citizens, endless unpopular wars, unjust incarceration or a militarized police force that all but robs them openly and hunts them for sport. Indeed, recent history even demonstrates that many American gun owners will welcome authoritarianism with open arms (pun intended) so long as the boot doesn't come down on them. Guns are not a substitute for a well informed, engaged populace, and the fantasy that guns equal liberty is poisonous to society. The government fears a well informed, engaged populace. It does not give one single rat fuck about the pistol you keep under your pillow.