People considered untrustworthy include those convicted of a crime for which imprisonment was over one year if less than 10 years have passed since that conviction; a crime resulting in personal injury while using a firearm or who was sentenced to 60 days or more in jail for violating the Weapons Act; or if facts suggest that he will misuse the gun or use it carelessly or allow it to be used by someone without a permit.

Another requirement for the license is aptitude--again defined only negatively. Aptitude is lacking if facts show the applicant is: incompetent to use firearm; an alcoholic or otherwise substance dependent; psychologically impaired; or if there is basis to fear the applicant will use the firearm to harm himself. Applicants who are under 25 and are applying for their original permit must (at their own expense) furnish a certificate from a doctor or government agency of their mental fitness.

Applicants must also take a state examination showing firearms knowledge. And they must demonstrate a need for the firearms permit that outweighs any danger to public safety. Examples of requisite need include hunting, gun collecting, gun club membership, gun dealers and makers, security guards, and those who have been threatened.

Citizens who obtain a firearms permit have one year in which to purchase a firearm (of a type covered by the permit only) and then two weeks to report the purchase. Ammunition must be acquired within six years but can be kept indefinitely.

To actually carry a firearm you have to have a Waffenschein (gun carry license), which requires demonstrating a need to carry the firearm outside of the home. To get a permit requires an applicant to show that his or her life is in more jeopardy than are those of the population generally and that gun carrying will lower this risk.

So it is true that there are many differences between the gun laws of the U.S. and those of Germany and Austria, but the latter are not more restrictive. Indeed, sometimes they are less so. To legally possess a gun may involve more red tape. But having a handgun for self-defense is no more impossible.

And getting a permit to carry is far easier than in most of our most populous states. Austria, for instance, has three times more carry licenses than California with its 4.5 times greater population.

Moreover, the U.S. has literally thousands of felonies, many of them for relatively harmless behavior--anti-trust violations, cheating on your taxes, embezzlement or growing pot, for example--and a person convicted of any of them is barred from gun ownership for life. In Austria or Germany they would not be barred at all or, in more serious matters, for no more than 10 years.