Why don't the European countries give their citizens the freedom to own guns?

1) We don't want more guns. We don't want more freedom to buy guns for ourselves or other people. I certainly don't want a gun and I don't know any single French person who does. (There are some, of course, but they are rare enough that there are none in my social network, to the best of my knowledge.) I enjoy a lot the fact that it is more difficult for criminal and mentally unstable people to get their hands on a gun. If it was not the case, then it would only be logical that more sound of mind, law-abiding citizens get guns too, but I and most of my fellow Frenchmen immensely prefer the current situation where there are less guns everywhere.

2) People who do want a gun here can have one, they just have to apply for a license and register said gun. In order to get the license, you have to show that you are affiliated to a licensed shooting club and practice regularly, or to justify that you need a gun because of serious personal security concerns (linked to your professional activity for example). In other words you have to show you know what you are doing; it's not so different from a driving licence. Cars are not even designed to kill people, but they can if they are misused and for that reason you need a licence to be allowed to operate them. It seems only logical that a similar rule applies to powerful tools which are designed to efficiently kill people.

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