It's also a point of note that most, perhaps all, police forces other than the US have only a special armed unit who carry weapons. Your average Guard, Bobby or Gendarme does not. So with police not being armed as a matter of course, certainly that shifts the balance of power against them but it also means your average criminal knows he can probably get away doing a robbery etc without a gun. From their point of view, I guess, the more chance you have of being shot at, the more reason to bring a gun to the party. Like you say, the rest of us just don't have that gun culture. I don't hear of gun clubs in Ireland (though they may exist) and there are certainly no gun shows, or shops.
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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018
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