Very interesting.

Erik, have you ever seen a report or study estimating the number of guns owned by Europeans that "fell from the sky" or were recovered and hidden during or immediately after World War 2?

I have not, though anecdotal evidence in speaking to folks I know from various countries {specifically, Norway, France and Finland} seems to me to indicate that there must be a large number of guns possessed by European farmers and others, guns which are unrecorded in the various government registrations and guns that are not involved in crime.

As I understand it, some of these guns were indeed involved in various criminal acts after the war and they do pop up every now and then but once the political situation settled down they have in essence remained "underground" and while their existence is not reported, they would add to the number of guns owned by individuals, guns that are largely not used in crime, EXCEPT for the mere fact that owning them represents a crime.

And I am not speaking about singleshot shotguns, but rather STEN's, US Carbines, Enfields, MG42's, MG34's, Suomis, Beretta SMG's, MP38/40's, and in the "East" I suspect PPSh41's, Sudeyevs, Maxims, etc, in short, a smattering of the weapons issued in the war.

And that's not even talking about the Mills bombs and various other grenades, Panzerfäuste, land mines, etc...