McPherson: Austrians Heart Guns

After World War I the British government began to disarm its citizens. Within two decades there would be reason to question the wisdom of that move.

Anyone who paid attention in History class knows that the British government begged the US government for weapons during World War II. Less well known is that British citizens were placing advertisements in American Rifleman magazine begging Americans to send them rifles, pistols, and shotguns, so they could defend themselves against a Nazi invasion.

Forgetting the lessons of history, and long enjoying low crime rates, many in Western Europe turned their noses up to the idea of private firearms ownership for self- or national-defense. In a Nanny State, people forget they must take care of themselves.

But as the saying goes, “Where you stand on an issue is often determined by where you sit.”

Europeans today are experiencing a mass migration from the Middle East and North Africa – thanks to the many and seemingly endless military misadventures of western governments. With these waves of migrants comes an accompanying fear of rising crime. And just as one might expect, this fear is driving people to arm themselves.

In Austria – which lies in the “path” of hundreds of thousands of migrants seeking refuge in countries like Germany and Sweden – gun stores are having trouble keeping shelves stocked. One Austrian gun dealer told a reporter, “people want to protect themselves.”

Austrian law does not require a license to buy a shotgun so that is the weapon of choice, and women in particular are leading this surge in gun-buying. “[L]ines of people outside government offices applying for licences to buy guns have become an everyday occurrence,” reports Breitbart. Alan Gottlieb of the Second Amendment Foundation told World Net Daily that “all over Europe people now want the means to defend themselves. Self-defense is no longer a dirty word...I can tell you first-hand that people in Europe now wish they had a Second Amendment.”