When it comes to guns, folks in Europe tend to try and look down their noses at Americans. After all, far too many of us have these quaint ideas about civil liberties and self-defense. The decades upon decades of tyranny that held sway over a significant portion of their continent should be overlooked because now they know better than we do.

Of course, despite their strict gun laws, criminals there have found ways to access guns easily enough, including turning non-firing gun replicas into working firearms.

Now, they’re starting to worry about 3D-printed guns.

In Europe, where gun control laws are much stricter than in the United States, the threat posed by unlicensed firearms is also a concern. Counter-terrorism experts say more should be done to curb their spread, and recent violent incidents suggest these weapons are of particular appeal to far-right extremists.

On October 9, 2019, in the German city of Halle, a young Neo-Nazi wielding homemade firearms tried to storm a synagogue during the Jewish holiday of Yom Kippur. He failed to get in, but killed two bystanders and wounded two more.

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But 3D printing has changed everything. Gun enthusiasts now only need access to the internet and less than €100 to build a plastic firearm that’s illegal, yet untraceable and able to go unnoticed through a metal detector.

We’ve talked about how 3D printing has effectively killed gun control here in the US.

If it can do that here, where there are so many more options available besides printed guns, why would anyone think it would work in Europe?

The talk tends to surround “the wrong types” getting firearms, but that ship has long sailed. Now, the best bet for Europe is to recognize that gun control is a losing argument and to embrace a more pro-liberty viewpoint on the topic of self-defense.

In other words, average Europeans should be able to arm themselves and have the means to defend themselves from the criminals who are clearly not deterred by the existing laws.

Gun control in Europe never worked quite as advertised, but now it won’t work in the least. As more and more people begin making their own guns, fewer and fewer illusions can be allowed to stand in the way of reality.

Especially when you so folks in the Eastern half arming themselves in the face of blatant Russian aggression.

Maybe it’s time for Europe to give up the gun control experiment and try something else for a change, like freedom?

And don’t try to tell me Europeans really are free. A dude in England got charged for his dark sense of humor after teaching a dog to raise a paw at a certain time, for crying out loud. Even though I didn’t find it funny personally, and I have a dark sense of humor, he still had a right to be tasteless. He was charged, nonetheless.

Which means they’re not particularly free.

Then again, without guns, it’s not like people there can object too strenuously, now can they?