A thoughtful article indeed. One minor correction : Hamilton, the Dunblane killer, had been refused membership of local shooting clubs being deemed undesirable.
Ultimately populations have to decide just what kind of society they want : an authoritarian "lock-down" sort in which all activity is minutely and rigorously controlled or a relatively free society such as most democracies have.
The price of allowing personal freedoms is - for example - a considerable number of traffic accidents where people are killed. Same with weapons (not just guns). There will be occasional outrages. Life is not a risk-free business.

David Thomas, Burnham, UK

Among the data overlooked by Mr. Linklater is the fact that the Virgina Tech gunman was not a U.S. citizen.

David Adrian, Pontiac, Michigan, USA

What a thoughtful article by Mr. Linklater. I did not expect such honesty from any British media outlet on the gun issue.

I would like to point out that mass shootings in the USA were extremely rare in the era when gun control was non-existent. They have definitely increased as we have tightened our gun laws. There are some difficult cultural issues at work here and they are unlikely to be solved any time soon. In the meantime, I believe it is a crime to deprive any responsible law abiding adult of the most effective means of self defense. Please lock up all the criminals and lunatics first, then ask me nicely for my guns and I might give them up.

I would also like to thank all Britons for acting as subjects in the great gun control experiment. Sorry your absolute gun ban did not work out for you, but it teaches us all a good lesson. I doubt if you will ever get your rights back now. Sorry about that.

Dr. Michael S. Brown, Vancouver, Washingon, USA

Right - we've had the usual rants and instant solutions and we might as well get them out of the way before focusing on the real underlying problem : how to recognise early the sociopathic personality and how to ensure that the person concerned is in some way monitored or, in extreme cases, given some sort of custodial teatment. This is agonisingly difficult in a "free" society where it is abhorent to contemplate locking someone up before he or she has committed a crime. Police services all over the world are grimly familiar with this conundrum and react as best they can. Politicians, by and large, don't want to think about it.
But a proper informed and intelligent debate is long overdue. Could it please begin soon before everyone gets sidetracked into "gun control" ?

David Thomas, Burnham, UK

I think the Americans (unlike our ranting Daily Mail style tabloids) are wise enough to recognise that banning just doesn't work., look at alcohol prohibition or anti-drugs laws. The university was strongly anti-gun and banned guns on campus, but as ever criminals don't respect gun laws, only the law abiding do!
Washington DC and New York with strong anti-gun laws are rife with armed crime.
Take a look at our own country, 10 years from a virtually total gun ban, and more armed crime than ever. Children are being shot on the streets every week, guns are more available than ever. The risk of another Dunblane is greater than ever.
Enough innocent people have died, it compounds the crime to use their deaths to punish millions of law-abiding American gun owners.
We in Britain let the lynch mob attacks of the politicians punish 57,000 innocent people, I hope the Americans are more sensible.

Paul, Stourbridge, England

C'mon now. England - where they speak of "knife crime".
Deadly intent does not stop with the gun. As usual, the same people who want to control the lives of others are the same who want to disarm the public.
Guns were around long before incidents like this. It's only in the last 20 years, after social engineering and general societal breakdown, that these things happen.
But now its all about gun control. What about this nihilistic death culture that permeats the Western world? Don't see the people behind that looking to change. What of the gangster rap and the correlation to black on black crime? The hip hoppers closing up shop yet? What of all those kids from broken homes who grow up to be criminals? Anyone bringing back those values that worked for so long or is the same mentality ready to ban guns going to stop making it easy for families to fall apart thanks to their socialist programs? Nope. Just the guns. It's easy to blame an object than it is to admit 40 years of idiocy.

Doktor_Jeep, Seattle, WA

When Mr. Linklater rhetorically asks "Would gun control in America have prevented the carnage at Virginia Tech university?", might I suggest that the answer he immediately (and unreflectively) gives is one without any evidentiary basis whatsoever, but rather premised purely on "cultural" preferences? The university campus itself was a "gun-free zone" and this fact clearly did nothing to prevent the massacre. On what basis does Mr. Linklater believe that expanding said "gun-free zone" to the entirety of the US would be more efficacious?

Moreover, it was reported yesterday that the serial numbers on the weapons used in the attack were filed off. This strongly implies that the weapons were purchased illegally and thus renders, in my opinion, the immediate focus on gun legislation quite otiose. Just earlier this week the mayor of Nagasaki was shot and killed even though handguns are banned in Japan, yet this event slips notice in the hand-wringing press analysis.

Jason, Eugene, Oregon, USA

Regarding Mr. Linklater's assessment of American gun laws, it is NOT simple to buy an "Uzi Machine gun" in the US. If a person wishes to buy such a weapon, and the State in which he resides allows it, the process takes about six months. You must obtain the paperwork from the Federal government, under go an extensive background check, and finally when approved pay a $500 tax for that weapon.
Regarding the AK-47 rifle, the automatic version of that weapon follow the procedure already mentioned. If it weren't for the Vietnam War, the AK-47 would have been just another Russian rifle. The spread of 'freedom fighters' around the world and the media have given the AK 47 its noteriety. By itself, the rifle is just another rifle.

Peter Jezierny, Seymour, Connecticut

Mr Linklater fails to observe that a gun ban was in place on the campus. Like all gun bans and gun control measures it only applies to the law abiding.
Some better research would have made the article somewhat more worthwhile.

Bill, Lincoln,

So if we don't get stuck on the gun issue what is it culturally that creates violence in a society?Someone mentioned the many different cultures within the USA. It isn't politically correct to say so but perhaps migration is difficult. Perhaps it is difficult for the migrants and the host communities Perhaps also gathering together in huge connurbations is unhealthy.Animal studies would support this. Perhaps there are just too many people.
One thing I do think we could take into account is the effect of visual media on all of us.We know it sells things effectively violence included.It makes violence normal .It also distances us from reality and real human feeling.We must not lead virtual emotionless lives.

frances , Tunbridge Wells, uk

As an American and a firearms owner this is a tough pill for me to swallow. How is it that a nation as strong as the United States is in every concievable way can't formulate a policy that allows arms to be borne by those who are good; and denied to those who are bad. How is it that we invest so much in education, but cant't find some way to allow a responsible party to be permitted to carry a pistol to stop a slaughter in supposed "gun free zone." A small .32 pistol in well trained hands is all that is requried to slow down and stop this evil soul.

Gregg Scott, Katonah, NY

In actuality, you have glossed over several things and totally ignored another. Despite the virtual ban on firearms in Britain, your murder rate has NOT decreased. In fact, it has not budged. In addition, the rate of assault with firearms has INCREASED (in spite of the ban). What has been ignored is that if just one professor or student had a personally owned firearm, the shooter would not have continued on his killing spree. In another school a few years back just such a situation occurred. A vice principal DID have a firearm in his possession, in violation of the law. When a deranged student assaulted the school with a firearm, the vice principal STOPPED the student's rampage. The ideas of increasing gun control laws, which are ALREADY being ignored anyway, flies in the face of reason. Seems like following the lead of Neville Chamberlain vice Sir Winston Churchill.

Mark Pfeiffer, Trinidad, Colorado, USA

Thomas Hamilton had been a member of a gun club, but was not liked or trusted by fellow members. He lost his membership and with it his permission to keep the weopens used in the Dunblane massacre. The Firearms (Amendment) Act 1997 was unneccessary. As the Cullen inqiry pointed out, the pre existing legislation was sufficient to have prevented Dunblane, had it only been applied in this case.
How Hamilton persuaded the Chief Constable not to apply the law (against the advice of the gun club and the firearms licensing officers) remains a mistery. All claims of Masonic influence and paedophilia among Scotlands elite are strenuously denied by the British Government.

Simon Hough, Widnes, Cheshire

Aside from Mr. Linklater's woefully inaccurate misstatement of US gun law, one simple fact remains, and this is probably most incomprehensible to Europeans: It is nobody in Government's business to determine who "needs" a gun. It is we, the Citizenry who tell Government what it can do, not the other way around. Far too many people think Government is the bestower of Rights. This could not be further from the truth. Government is the taker of rights, hence our Constitution which limits how many Rights Government can usurp. Utility is not an excuse for a wholesale redefinition of RIghts.

Tony Pieta, Pittsburgh, USA

A thoughtful and reasonable article , Magnus, but quite spoiled by your last two paragraphs. How would even a wholesale shift in culture have any effect on madmen? Your example from Switzerland demonstrates the illogic of this idea.

Glenn Haldane, London,

Swiss gun-owning policy in relation to the armed forces has come under close scrutiny in recent years and is subject to ongoing heated debate, due to an increase in shootings, many of which have obliterated whole families. An estimated 30 to 50% of the perpetrators used their military weapon.

Not every able-bodied Swiss adult is required to keep a weapon at home, only actively serving members of the armed forces. A senate committee is currently debating introducing legislation banning the 120.000 man militia army from keeping ammunition at home.

Imogene, Bern, Switzerland

An interesting article by Mr. Linklater, unfotunately, he makes several misstatements. 1. It has been illegal for a private citizen to own a "machine gun" or any fully automatic firearm in the United States since the late 1930s. 2. All purchasers of firearms, must undergo a background check in several databases, including those of the FBI and various local and State law enforcemnt agencies. 3. All firearms purchases must be made in person and show two forms of photo id at the time of purchase

Loren Kizzia, West Covina, CA./USA

Gun prohibition would be very unpopular in this country. It would intiate a situation as bad, if not worse than the prohibition on alcohol.
I am a decendant of the Acadians and French Canadians, where self protection was always necessary. It`s just as dangerous today with the boldness of criminals.
Just a short note, I found out something I didn`t know before. I`m 11th cousin of Camillas Duchess of Wales. I was rather surprised. I was informed about this by my first cousin this year while working on our genealogy.

Thomas Meyer, Cheboygan, Michigan

You should ascertain your facts before issuing blanket statements about gun ownership in America. For instance, one cannot buy a handgun at 18; Federal law requires a minimum age of 21 to buy such. One cannot buy an Uzi "machinegun." The Uzi design firearm that is available here is a semiauto, long-barreled carbine, not a full-auto machinegun. Lastly, no-one in America can buy a gun "online." Guns are advertised in online catalogs, but the purchase and delivery of any legal gun must be transacted at the business premises of a Federally licensed gun dealer.

A little more research, and a little less hysteria, would go a long way to getting your stories right.

Steve McPartland, Tampa/Florida, USA

There is a much deeper malaise in the American way of life, It is in its culture, films, dreams. Something that banning guns might not resolve but might make people start thinking. I'm for banning movie posters containing guns, that is a beggining.

Tulio, London, London

A wholesale shift in national culture would be difficult in this country becuase we are not one culture but many. Occaisionally, there are collisions between them but this was not one of those cases. This was the case of a very disturbed person who was going to hurt someone, somehow. That he could purchase a firearm 36 days before the shooting is an unintended consequence of our second amendment.

Our legislature cannot simply pass a law to negate this amendment. It must be overridden by another constitutional amendment which was intentionally made difficult by the framers of the constitution so as to prevent it from becoming a mess (like our tax code). And as the amendment if one of ten of our Bill of Rights, it would be especially difficult.

But Linklater is right - blaming the guns hardly addresses the underlying issues. I'm not sure we even really know with certainty what those issues are.

Bob Dearman, West Bloomfield, MI, USA

Those of you in Europe who advocate the banning of guns in the U.S. should remember that it was the sons of the American "Gun Culture" that saved you from German domination in two world wars and Soviet rule during the cold war. Also, it is the current generation of these men and women who are bearing the burden of defending the western way of life from radical Islam. Meanwhile, nations like France sit back and rely on appeasement to protect them from their enemies.
Americans cherish their freedoms, including the right to bear arms. In fact, it was an attempt by the British to confiscate weapons from us that led to their expulsion from the colonies and the establishment of the United States. All politicians should remember that fact before they attempt to impose their will on us.

Ron Clemment, Salem, Alabama, United States