Yes, it is controversial, especially so in your country and somewhat so in ours.

I *think* we outlawed (most) automatic weapons outright. This was after a nut-case killed 12 (I believe) women at an Engineering dept. of a university. He used an automatic weapon and many surviving people said they didn't have a chance to take him down because it was all over way too fast. I don't remember there being much upset about that.

Connected to that incident, our Federal government also instituted mandatory registration of ALL guns.
This raised the ire of many, not only because our murder rates (by firearm) didn't seem to warrant such a measure at all, but also because there was a significant cost to each owner to do so. I believe that that cost was the major problem and it caused lots of other "concerns" to be trotted out, like 'criminals won't register theirs' and 'now the government can just walk in and take them away' and things like that. I suspect that there remain many law-abiding citizens who have UNregistered guns in their homes. Personally, I don't blame them.



>There is so much controversy on this issue. While it is true that automatic weapons did not exist when that was written, the principal behind it still holds true. I personally (and I know MANY disagree with me including some of my friends) do not see automatic weapons (I've actually seen worse myself) as having anything to do with the right to bear arms. It is not the gun but the person that holds the gun that commits the crimes. I don't think outlawing weapons in the public's hands will solve crime or even deter it much after the initial period when they become prevalent on the black market. Then it will only be those who REALLY SHOULDN'T have weapons that have them. I don't think there is a clear-cut solution on this issue. This is a decision better left to the polls.
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>>>>Freedom to bear arms... written a couple of hundred years ago when automatic weapons were not even invented.
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>>>>Do you own a gun? Most Canadians don't.
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>>>Yes.
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>>While "most Canadians don't" IS an accurate statement, I'd hazard that many Canadians do is also true.
>>
>>Here's an extract from a Google search I did just now:
>>“It is estimated that there are 7.4 million firearms in Canada, owned by 3.3 million civilian gun owners. Approximately 24% of Canadian households (or 2.7 million in total) contain one or more firearms.”.
>>It was written by an MP (equivalent to a congressman) who researched the issue.