>>This is a violent place. Crazy people here are more likely to do violent things than they are in say, Switzerland, because violence is a basic fact of life here.

Fair enough. So you agree with criminologist Lonnie Athens who said that the violence has more to do with "violent socialization" meaning the behaviors and expectations with which people grow up, than with insanity. Attributing it to craziness avoids the need for soul-searching, whereas violent socialization is a social criticism that doesn't win any votes. So you're going to keep seeing slogans and easy answers like "gun control." I would have to say that walking into Cabalas to buy the largest handgun in existence ostensibly to shoot deer, is a twilight zone concept for the Europeans.