TigerEye,

It's incumbent upon someone to say outright that attempts to infringe upon the individual right to keep and bear arms must proceed with extreme caution and not without much informed debate, simply because until utopia arrives on earth, laws and regulations which amount to a de facto disarming of law-abiding and innocent people merely hand the advantage to the physically strong or those who enjoy strength in numbers.  This is hard to dispute, whether we are speaking of neighborhood thugs preying upon women and the elderly, or armies commanded by despots that exist to fight civilians. 

As for the relevance of bringing up the fate of other societies, I do not see a valid objection unless an obvious attempt is made to mislead.  Nazi Germany represented a society where some "problems" were solved with simple and sometimes "final" solutions that brooked no dissent. 

And, I have yet to see a reply from someone who feels "gun-free" prisons are safe.  Prisons are societies too.