>>>>It is not that it is impossible to carry a gun up here. As you said you can buy a gun elsewhere and illegally get it into the country. However it being illegal makes the availability of guns low. So suicide, accidents and impulsive actions are less likely to occur with guns. Criminals still will carry guns.... that is not something we can prevent. We cannot prevent people getting shot by illegal guns. However we can prevent all the other crap that goes with the widespread availability of guns.
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>>>Perhaps we just cannot simply compare our small country with a large country. Here allmost all people have police posts nearby. I think that even most Dutch farmers have a rifle around.
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>>You can compare europe with the US. As far as farmers... I doubt it. I know a lot of farmers (hey I'm living in such area) and the only thing I ever saw was an air rifle (luchtbuks). Only hunters (my friend was one) I regulary see with rifles.
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>>But handguns??..... only the police.
>
>That's why I used 'rifle'. You can bet on it that most farmers have one. And sure, the rifle may be very old.
>
>BTW, I told Tracy that there's no place in our country where you don't see a church tower when staring at the horizon. How about this where you live? Even there this is true, right?


Absolutely. Maybe if you live on the veluwe, but there of course your view is blocked by trees...

Walter,