They are not civilians. I meant ban guns for civilians, with the exception of policemen etc of course. There is not private gun ownership in the Netherlands. There are only two exceptions I know of and that is some people involved in shooting sports and hunters. And they have to get physiological tests and stuff before the can request a special license.
If the shit started going down hill the layers would be headed for home themselves, the Joes in the Military won't disarm the American Public, they found that out a few years ago, they ran a survey, and found out the Troops believe in the Constitution as it is written, in the common language. And Blue Helmets aren't welcome here at all, by the Military or the Population. as to the layers of Military, most of those are over seas, not in CONUS. The biggest military force in CONUS, is the National Guard, and their loyalties are local.
The truth of the matter is beyond our apparently limited ability to do the "right thing." The Russians could not be allowed to attain Nuclear Weapons, at any cost. In 1949, Little Joe made his Commie debut. The rest is of course, history. The truth is, we created it. Doesn't matter the debating otherwise. If there is ever a catastrophy involving the proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, the United States is ultimately responsible. We invented it, we let it escape, that's the cold hard truth. WW2 was not over. The most important struggle was set before a war-weary world, and we failed. Don't tell me it could not have been done. Even with the images of Red Cross Women handing out donuts to Russian soldiers, and calling Stalin "Uncle Joe", the truth was known; The Russians were never our friends. Ever. We should have turned around and beat the Hell out of them, which we could have done handily. If nothing else, just ponder for a moment the thought of Russia never having attained the technology, and the subsequent spread of the same Worldwide.
Once Einstein wrote e=mc^2, that genie was out of that bottle forever. If we hadn't built the first operational nuclear weapon, somebody else would have. Look around. Pakistan, India, and several other countries not noted for being on the leading edge of science have developed the technology independently. It was bound to happen. If we hadn't invented the A-bomb, the Russians might have done it first. Now is that a scary thought? The Brits, French and Israelis would certainly have done it on their own whether we had one or not. e=mc^2. It all started there.
Ahem... I hate to admit this, but Canada gave them Nuclear technology. I'd like to think it was a conniving attempt to stem immigration from these lands...but Canada was actually stupid enough to think they'd only use nuclear technology for power.
Hell the Germans weren't that far from their own bomb in WWII, and there seems to be some evidence that the Japanese may have had a working A bomb, and tested it in Korea, it was called F-Go, and was conducted at Konan, in what is now N.Korea, and other then this little information, and a few articles, most is still classified, 63 years later. Atomic program of the Imperial Japanese Navy But as you say, once Einstein came up with E = mc2 , the race was on.
umm u guys, i can make a different thread about what would happen after the cold war if it went hot, because this is not the place to talk about it and it is off topic.