Let Aggressors Have All The Guns

It is only a matter of time until politicians of all stripes start using the recent attacks in Norway as a pretext for clamoring for an even more thoroughgoing coercive disarmament of the societies of the world. Let us leave aside the standard question that suggests itself in this context, namely, whether we should be more afraid of the so-called "private criminals" or of the institutional monopolies of violence, entities responsible for some 200 million civilian deaths in the 20th century alone. Let us ask a simpler question: how many of the victims of the Norwegian killer would still be alive if any of them (let alone many of them) were equipped with a gun?