On Thu, 18 Apr 2013 20:21:38 -0700, Doug Winterburn
Well, to be country specific, the U.S. has a little thing in our
Constitution called the Second Amendment. Our citizenry has been
(mostly) armed for the last 300 years or so.

I'd suggest that your point was valid those 300 years or so ago.
Society has change quite a bit on 300 years. The firearm is not
necessary for survival, at least not in a food sense. And considering
the close confines of people in cities, a gun can be a dangerous thing
to have around.

given up the remedy for misuse of firearms of hanging the perpetrators,
and therein lies the problem.

From some of the easy convictions handed down these days, I'd tend to
agree with you.