Well, so far as I know, nowhere in the US grows a marketable supply of coca, and yet we can't seem to stop the flow of cocaine (or many other drugs that don't orignate in the US) despite harsh drug laws and a fairly sizable law enforcement/interdiction campaign for a few decades now. There are an awful lot of guns manufactured outside the US, many of them quite affordable. I doubt that the absence of the 2nd Amendment would ever have significantly reduced the number of firearms in this country being used by criminals. At one point I believe even England got into the game of illegally transporting firearms to the US, back around the time of our civil war I think it was.

So long as there is a demand, there will be a supply. The laws won't do much to change that, except to keep guns out of otherwise law-abiding citizens' hands.

If what you say about the lack of assault rifles in the UK is true, then I would be disappointed. In Australia, the illegal possession of assault rifles is almost as prevalent as for handguns. Based on my experience there, a lot of folks still have both. Most of them just got rid of their old POS worn out 303s and shotguns and such.

The laws don't seem to have much effect on criminal behavior one way or the other. Even if availability were significantly reduced, the maniacs would just use something else, like at my daughter's school last week, where no guns were involved because apparently the kids couldn't get their hands on any in time, but were able to build a couple of bombs nonetheless, one of them so constructed it posed a serious threat. We have so many criminal laws on the books now even the lawyers are struggling to keep up, and yet our prisons continue to fill with people who know they are breaking the law and go ahead with their felonious activity anyways.

I will have to stand by my original tenet; the surest deterrent to criminal violence is effective use of lethal self defense. That seems most likely accomplished this day and age via the proficient and determined use of a firearm.

BTW, this is my first ever post from Singapore, on my way home.