I said rate as in per z amount of population. The guns are part of the problem - remove the guns, you kill the gun culture.
You'll never completely remove anything that man once invented. Human nature doesn't work like that.
No - but it certainly reduces the damage they cause.
We elected the government which voted on it. No one has really complained since either.
Except for the gun owners, of course.
My deepest sympathies - just listen to those accents!
IMHO representative "democracy" is a fraud that was invented when you could no longer fool most people that the rulers got their power from God.
The average moron has to be kept in line somehow. Unless we get rid of them of course - the world after all is overpopulated.
You can keep a gun in your home over here - just you are not suppose to use it outside of the shooting range/ workplace. As for true democracy - is there such a thing?
Direct democracy comes close, though I'd like to abolish modern "society" as a whole. It's a trap for human spirit as well as for physical freedom.
So would I - personally I feel imprisoned in it.
Actually - I know people who are in the volunteer police force, they do it because they want to make a difference. Plus being an (unarmed) police officer is not exactly a huge source of power. The army would rebel if the government told them to go after the citizens in the manner you are suggesting.
"Terrorist" laws? "Patriot" Act?
I frankly don't care about whether or not we have a democracy. What I care about is whether or not we have the best people in charge of the state..
With representative "democracy" you get neither. The fooled and scared people vote for the least evil, not the best good. An enlightened despot would be better in that case. "Democratic" Britain was first in Europe with licensing guns (1903), while the "dictators" in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Russia and Ottoman Turkey let people arm themselves without infringements.
When did I say I wanted democracy - I would like the enlightened despot myself.
In which case, why do you need guns. Kinda pointless against an atom bomb.
So you should surrender forever because the wrong-doers can wipe you out? What a great moral principle. 
Most governments would hesitate to nuke their own country, if not for anything else than their own security.
Two wrongs don't make a right.
