We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12832266 and marked it off-topic.

You do realise guns have other uses other than shooting people don't you. There's nothing remotely shocking or abhorrent about guns.

Police officers in the UK don't even carry guns! They do just fine without them.

Only specially "firearms units" carry them.

While that's very unusual even in Europe, it goes to show that as long as not every idiot can buy a gun, things are just fine without such a deadly weapon.

That said, shooting at a range is immense fun. ;)

Yes I'm aware. I live in the UK. Guns are used for sport, pest control, shooting laptops, etc.

Most guns are designed to kill people. Very few guns are designed to disable laptops. GP's point would have been valid if he had said "typical and pathetic" or "cliched and unimaginative" rather than "shocking and abhorrent". b^)