Joe, i'm not taking shots at you...just merely pointing to the facts:
Firearm-homicide rate per capita per year is substantially (understatement) lower in those countries you named compared to U.S....even if they are increasing (according to you). Unfortunately, we are not talking few percents or even tens of percent here..we are talking
magnitudes.
Want me to dig out actual numbers?
Here:
Germany: 381
France: 255
Canada: 165
UK: 65
Japan: 39
USA: 11127
...note a certain disparity here? Divide that with number of citizens and you'll get per capita figure. Numbers won't get much happier tough.
Now, i wish you a happy X-mas to you and all your family, and if that gun really helps you to keep them away from harm so be it, but i really doubt that that our figures would get better if we loosened our firearm-laws.
Cheers.
P.S.
And yes, Palme was killed in a open street by a madman...while walking on the sidewalk, going to the movies with his wife, side with side with ordinary people and without any bodyguards (he didn't find them necessary and nobody found it weird up till then)...