Some posts in this threat really scare me. Are you real people??
And where does this idea come from that "europeans" want "americans" to be less safe?
Maybe less arrogant and better informed, yes. But less safe?
What a stupid thing to even consider...

Reading this thread, I thank God for the Atlantic ocean.

"Unless you're proposing a constitutional amendment authorizing Congress to place restrictions on some classes of arms, it doesn't even matter if people need it. Congress was given no such authority, and moreover was specifically excluded by the 2nd amendment."

Yes, and that's why I insist on my right to bear nuclear weapons in my house here. Are they not arms? And with what a bang I could express myself and oppose unjust authority!

Oops, you probably wouldn't accept that, in which case I submit that the Constitution did not have in mind giving individuals the unlimited right to any weapons they want. In fact, the most likely interpretation of that ammendment is that the "people" have the right to keep and bear arms, not individuals at all. The people as a group of people, as in the militia, the police, etc. Remember, the American Revolution was not just a bunch of colonists behind trees -- it was an officially declared action, not guerilla warfare, and not waged by individuals but by groups that considered themselves legitimate representatives of the people, and had in fact been recognized as such by the British before the revolution.

folks: Does anyone here know the origins of the whole gun control thing? Yes I have an answer but I'd like to see if anyone knows.

Oh! Oh! I know this one! Racism!

The goal was to keep firearms out of the hands of the freed slaves. The laws simply wouldn't apply to whitefolk.

I don't remember Marshall Dillon in Gunsmoke mentioning anything about freed slaves when he collected the guns of cowpokes, but it still sounds like a good theory.

I think machine guns (and flamethrowers) were invented in the Civil War, so there were certainly reasons to restrict early wmds.

As a Canadian who gets exposed to these scary ideas regularly, I envy your vast Atlantic.

I'd be scared in Canada. - Why don't you build an iron-curtain-style wall along the border as the Mexicans did? You might feel at least a little safer then.

We love General Antilles!

Well I should have been more specific.."Modern" gun control.

Well, the 1968 ban was more of the same.