OK, let's take guns out of the equation then. Would you say that what stops bad guys using knives and fists is good guys with knives and fists? Why or why not?

OK, let's take guns out of the equation then. Would you say that what stops bad guys using knives and fists is good guys with knives and fists? Why or why not? What makes guns different? (The gun debate is my favorite one because there are IMHO strong arguments on both sides. Also, there is no way the US would have ever existed as an independent state if the US hadn't used guns to defeat the British, so it's stuck in the DNA of the United States for good.) Personally my contrarian opinion is that we should make it very difficult for men below the age of 25, and any man going through a divorce and/or who lost a job, from being able to obtain a gun (in the latter case, "for some period of time" to be left for others to define). That would rule out like 90% of the problem, even if the solution is sexist.