Reply #48: Some problems here...

[SteveM]

The Brits certainly wanted civilians to have them in WWII. Do you have any evidence to suggest that millions of civilians with guns (albeit temporarily) made it "harder to maintain domestic order in a time..." of the Blitz?

As to your cost/benefit "analysis," "guns (would) kill a lot people..." Actually, it is the person WITH the gun who may kill, so you would have to look at the murders by PEOPLE for any kind of "analysis."

You say guns "do very little good to anyone, so we heavily restrict them." There is considerable recent data on the number of acts of self-defense by Americans, esp. since the institutionalization of concealed-carry laws in most of the states over the last 20 years. These data indicate that many hundreds of thousands (perhaps a few million) of self-defense acts are carried out by citizens every year. The vast majority do not involve firing a gun; yet crimes were thwarted. This needs to be figured into your "analysis."