Practical Doomsday

27 Understanding Firearms

In a hyperpolarized world, ignorance becomes a point of pride, and there are few places where the phenomenon is more evident than in the ongoing debate about the individual right to bear arms. In the United States, which has more guns than people,¹ deliberate firearm illiteracy is the only explanation for the comical errors in big-ticket Hollywood productions or the endless stream of befuddling and contradictory gun control bills.

Meanwhile, in Europe, where the history books document centuries of near-constant conflict and conquest, the prevailing dogma is that citizens will never again have to take up arms to ...