I question the statistics you provide: most countries don't know or care how many guns are within their borders. Australia's government didn't until 1996 and I still don't. But the rest is as imbecilic as our impression of yanks. Given the doctrine that 'crisis is an opportunity', could it be deliberate?

I mean, apart from so many vets taking their 303's home after the first world war, then private purchases during the second war (it turned out the first war wasn't the war to end all wars after all so government had better hold onto a lot of guns), most guns in Australia were bought due to some idiot importing rabbits: whole suburbs of the cities organised themselves into army style units to go shoot them during the rabbit plague in the 1930's. It was with active government support and saved farming and environmental damage.

Then came american political doctrine, dressed up as moral, like crisis above, so crisis management by government departments that don't allow people with technical and professional knowledge of what the department does to run them, as had been the case, as they prevented crisis from happening (there's also this suss issue here: [michaelwest.com.au] I think donations and cushy jobs). And to keep it short, doctrine from Ayn Rand: "The weak should fear the strong, the strong should be bold, the strong should take from the weak." There's no greater weakness than being disarmed. So in the late 90's to about 2016, desperate social climbers in Sydney's north, who need a political party for their jobs, expressed (I don't remember the exact words) that governments don't go to war with each other, they only do to their own people! To understand reality was mental illness and the Australian Submarine Corporation was closed. It made our own subs, but its staff and management were critics of that political party, so they're all defenestrated: may not be on a professional income nor part of the middle class. That sounds myopic but I was threatened with it ("Denied the benefits of society", the first of which is money) and have lived it.

You two have argued this before: [www.plus613.net]

But if the list of factors here is known, and nothing done about them... [www.plus613.net]

And the Icelandic testing requirement is known to work but not adopted (tests also in Canada and New Zealand) [www.plus613.net]

And imbecilic is putting it politely, this is an american doctrine: [www.plus613.net]