Unfortunately, much of the US is going down the road you described. I won't live anywhere that criminalizes self defense and that eliminates quite a few states.

Undisciplined

econ

Deconstructing Mileinomics

Now that you mention it, having a gun became a concern in Argentina for many reasons:

- You could not use it to defend yourself. Justice was to crush the hell out of anyone who dared to defend his life and family. Horrible stories of the unfortunate souls who had to commit the crime of defending themselves discouraged people.
- Since you couldn't use a gun to defend yourself, having one only served to make you a target for criminals, to which you had to hand the gun if attacked, because criminals are legally allowed to use them, as long as it's to commit a crime.

All in all, having a gun became so much riskier than not having one, which caused people to voluntarily hand them en masse to authorities.