Try going into "the hood" and taking anything away from them "boyz". You'll find it difficult to even find a automatic in their homes.You're ideas are good but implementing them is very difficult.
But that is only because the US let the situation grow out of control. Obviously once control is lost you cannot easily regain it.
I think the US is a good case that signifies the importance of some kind of level of gun control.
Let me now present you with the scientific principle behind gun control. The all important principle of the arms-race.
Criminals do not need guns if there are no guns in a society. Gun use increases among criminals when guns become more available.
The power principle of arms-race dictates this. A criminal is taking a risk by being a criminal. He has much more to lose than the average citizen during an encounter.
For instance; in a burglary the criminal is trespassing. He is entering the domain of another person. This person will feel threatened. The criminal is only doing his 'job' (that's how they see it; we don't and hence we feel violated and threatened). If there is a high chance that the owner of the house has a gun the principle of arms race dictate that the criminal must have a gun too, and preferably a bigger gun. He has much more to lose than the house owner. The house owner will lose his stuff. The criminal will lose his life.
This is comparable to the rabbit/fox arms race. The rabbit is running for his life, while the fox is merely running for his dinner. Hence the rabbit must be faster. He has more to lose.
The criminal is that rabbit, the citizen the fox.
In the last decades there has been an arms race going on in the US. More guns. Bullets that have gone from standard, to heavily modified, to cop killers etc.
The principle of arms race is a costly one. Both parties invest heavily in the arms, while at the same time both have reduced resources to invest in other areas, and in case of gun control, both parties suffer from the mental consequences of the arms race.
In evolution there is no way to stop an arms race besides extinction. The rabbit and the fox spend a considerable amount of their resources on the arms race. Resources that cannot go to reproduction.
In the human society the arms race can be stopped.
The soviet union crashed mainly because of the arms race. The US economy is not doing so well, because of the new arms race, although in this case it is an imaginary one; the arms race between the USA and the world of terrorism.
Most nations in Europe gave up competing in the arms race after WW2. They profited a lot from that because resources that would have been spend on the arms race went back into society. They stopped the arms race (although there is a trend to resume it in some nations).
And to put an end to the arms race of guns in peace time society would require a lot of effort. But in the end it will be worth it, because inaction leads inevitably to progression of the arms race.
Unfortunately, nobody cares about scientific principles, because they think opinion is the way to decide on matters of importance.
