People of Reddit. What are your views on ownership of firearms and why?

Depends on the purpose, if you are employed as freelance hunter for natural Reservations or forest guarding, it could be pretty convenient to have a license.

Also if you are living at remote places where there aren’t emergency services available in the near distance, and you have a real risks of getting attacked by animals or such, armed defense is then pretty convenient.

However, in urban environments, stricter licensing and controll is necessary. The solution is not in banning the means but getting better regulation in order to stop abuse.

I’m saying that as an European in the Netherlands where we apply such controll. Ownership of arms is possible, but only under strict regulations in such a way that you’ll think twice if you really want to go for a gun. Nowadays young people rather carry knifes here to “protect” themselves.