[seibelj]

> and lastly, it having a multitude of popular proponents with extreme viewpoints such as “animals have no rights”, or the right to bear arms which strikes me as vile, unethical, and borderline insane

The right to bear arms is an extreme right wing viewpoint? This is quite the rant but the author is all over the map

[8fGTBjZxBcHq]

Wealthy democracies have a fairly wide range of acceptable views and policy decisions about firearms but in almost all of them except the US "civilians should have nearly unrestricted access to personal weapons" is an extreme view yes.

[overscore]

Based on their bio, the author appears to be based in Belgium. Although I have my own thoughts on the matter, outside the US, the right to bear arms is indeed an extreme right-wing viewpoint.

[beaconstudios]

I'm in the UK - I used to belong to a gun club and could have easily gone forward to own a rifle if I wanted to, including a semi-automatic (only in .22). I believe most countries in Europe have similar policies. The main difference between here and the US is the categories of weapon you're allowed to use; here it's primarily sporting or hunting weapons where in the US, using guns for defence (and using serious calibres for sporting/hunting) is within the Overton window.

Note that you can get serious calibre rifles in the UK but only in bolt or lever action. Case in point: https://www.gunstar.co.uk/desert-tech-hti-bolt-action-50-rif...