Other countries have mentally ill people too. No other country has so many shootings.
Yeah, kleinbl00 basically expressed the viewpoint I hold as well. I just feel that OftenBen's comment is another one of those trite phrases people use to excuse the US's gun policy.
As someone who supports both the owning of firearms as well as better laws and policies for them, I find the rhetoric on both sides absolutely maddening. People are constantly parroting bullet points without actually thinking about the whether or not the logic behind them is sound. It does nobody a hint of good.
As a German seeing gun-ownership defended just seems like such a bad idea. I don't invest myself much in those debates because the pro-gun camp seem so obviously wrong, you know? Like, you have all these security measures at airports, but hand out guns to people? In my opinion if one life was saved by nobody owning guns it would be worth it. But since you support gun ownership, why do you think having them is a good idea?