[KingOfJericho]

I am not a right-winger by any means but I sleep with my Sig P220 .45 in my nightstand. Do I think I'll ever need to use it? Almost certainly not, but it's nice to know it's there if I need it. I also own it because I enjoy target shooting, though I would rather pick up a 9mm for those duties. Oh, and I also own it because I can.

The differences aren't as cultural as people make them out to be as you have the luxury of assuming that an intruder in the UK is not armed where we are more than likely faced with a heat-packing hooligan. The pin is already out of the grenade and we can't stick it back in. The criminals have guns so we must arm ourselves to thwart them. Chicago is a great example... it was made so that registered and fully legal gun owners (those who are printed and registered with the FBI) were not allowed to carry guns which left only the criminals armed. Remember, they typically don't register a weapon that they plan to use in a violent crime. It's simply flawed logic.

The bottom line is that England is an unarmed country which gives the criminals and the victims a level playing field. The US is an armed country and eliminating all guns at this point is simply impossible. We can go back and forth for days over the "cultural" aspect but the truth is that it's impossible to reverse course at this point. Remember, we're 300,000,000+ people in the 3rd largest country, by area, in the world. If they banned guns in the US then they would simply walk them over from Mexico (the new lawless "wild west").