By the way, if you think you pay taxes in the USA, you don't know the tax hell in Europe.
In practically all countries you pay more than 20% to buy anything, plus another 20% that they take from your salary. If you have a high salary, more than 100k euros the state already takes more than 50% of your salary. Add to this taxes on everything.
As a general rule, European states collect more than 50% of their GDP in taxes.
These are the consequences of not having guns.