The typical strategy among gun control activists is to point toward Europe as the shining example of gun control. It’s a hoplophobe’s Nirvana were most firearms ownership is banned, and Europeans seem to be happy relying on the government to provide police protection. That narrative, however, has started taking on water as the wave of Middle East refugees have started flooding into Europe. Reports are surfacing about Europeans — especially women — buying guns well above the normal rate expressly for the purpose of defending themselves against possible unsavory characters who have come in with the refugee population . . .
From oe24.at (via Google Translate):
The Austrians have always been one of the most armed countries in Europe. But now all the dams are broken. More than 70,000 weapons over the same period last year were sold. The most common reason for the upgrade: fear of refugees and before dawn burglars.
[…]
The Tyrolean arms dealer Stefan Mair of Fulpmes confirms the boom, which has increasingly used the beginning of September. Because of the social changes, the people would want to protect. Especially women bought weapons.
The desire to protect one’s family is a fundamental and universal imperative, something that we encourage here in the United States with the Second Amendment. The idea of someone being self reliant and self sufficient is part of the American heritage. But in Europe the same concept is often seen as an anachronism. Reliance on the state is the modern progressive model, which explains why our gun ownership (the ultimate symbol of self-sufficiency) is seen as such an alien, incomprehensible phenomenon.
With a massive influx of undocumented immigrants moving into countries with formerly heterogeneous populations, some Europeans are changing their minds about their reliance on state-provided police. Many, it seems, would prefer to have the means of their own protection within their own control. Now that’s what I call progress.