So, ban all guns. Pass a law. How do you actually get rid of them? Do you support having the military and police go door to door and search everyone's house? (In America we have the Constitution and Bill of Rights, which protects our free speech, our right to own guns, and are protected from unreasonable searches and seizures as well as protection of privacy.) So the government should destroy itself to accomplish this?
So, if you're not advocating the government to destroy the Bill of Rights and the Constitution to ban all guns, and you're not advocating that America turn into a police state, what are you suggesting?
Waving a magic wand to remove guns from the earth?
Pass a few laws and hope that criminals will abide by them?
Are illicit drugs in your country widely available? Can you get pot, meth, heroin, Xtasy, or whatever? Are they illegal? That means they're banned. Of course, if you want it you can probably get it. Passing a law opens up the illegal black market and gives organized crime a reason to start smuggling guns. Criminals still get access to firearms. Law abiding citizens do not. Organized crime syndicates make more money and gain more power. Is that a good thing?
I would have to inform you, by their very nature, criminals do not obey the laws, generally law abiding citizens do. Rape, Murder, Theft are all already outlawed. You don't do it, I don't do it, and most of the people here won't either. Does that deter criminals from committing crime?
Do some genuine research on this. Australia passed strict gun bans. Their rates of crime, burglary, assaults, home invasions and firearms related crimes rose. Look at the UK, since banning handguns and severely limiting long guns, their firearms related crime has jumped exponentially. Look at Japan, where guns are banned. Crimes with firearms are on the rise, and they've even had to form their own rapid response teams to deal with firearms related crimes... yet handguns are banned in all of these countries.
You cannot legislate behavior. Rape, Murder, Child Molestation, Burglary, Assault... are they not illegal in your country? Those acts have been banned, yet they continue to occur. Perhaps passing more laws will stop it?
I know you guys hate the US as it is. Would you rather see America become a real police state, ruled by the military, or a dictatorship, or perhaps become a socialist union?
So, ban all guns (snap your fingers) and they're gone?
Anyways, prohibition doesn't work.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics [3], in 1985-2000, 78% of firearm deaths in Australia were suicides, yet only 5% of suicides involved firearms. The suicide rate has only fluctuated, not statistically changed, from 1993-2003.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Australia
The banning of firearms has done nothing in Australia. Suicide by firearm isn't a problem, but suicide still is.
Passing laws, banning guns, legislating behavior... it is not a deterrence to those that do not abide by laws or would commit crimes or acts of violence. Passing laws only affects those who would abide by them.
As for the Virginia Tech shootings, it's a very sad thing. Unfortunately, guns are banned from school grounds. It did not stop a psychopath who had no intent of following the law. It only kept teachers and students who might otherwise have been armed from ending the situation before the death toll grew.
School security was there. They didn't stop it. The police were even on the campus. They couldn't stop it. The FBI was even on campus, they couldn't stop it. The police are not always there to protect you, and your safety is your personal responsibility because the police or security cannot guarantee your safety.
To guarantee your safety, they would have to have police and military personnel in every hallway, every street corner, every shopping center, etc... That is not a free society.
You have laws in Germany banning bombs. Yet, you've had bombs kill people in nightclubs. You even have laws about killing people and strict ownership of guns, yet 11 Israelis were murdered in Munich, at the Olympics even. Laws don't stop those who are willing to ignore them. They only lock them up after the crime has been committed.