American Gun Culture Gerry OShea I have spent about half my life in the United States and the remainder in Ireland. From early on in New York, I was struck by the glaring differences between the two countries in the area of gun ownership. In America, there are more guns around than people; to be precise, every hundred residents possess, on average, one hundred and twenty firearms. By comparison, in Ireland the number of people owning a gun in the same proportion comes to just seven. The historical context for this Irish number merits reflection. After the Anglo-Irish Treaty was approved in the Dublin parliament in January 1922, a strong minority, who believed that the agreement was a sell-out, took up arms in defiance of the new government and a short but often savage civil war ensued. To help deal with the crisis, the ruling cabinet set up the Special Infantry Corps (SIC), an armed group of about 4000 men divided into eight battalions, to impose law and orde