Ah, I think we are misunderstanding each other a little here, or maybe it's just me.
I didn't (mean to) say that there are no gunfights in Europe. Of course people are killed, sometimes by guns. That thing about too civilized was an attempt at a joke. A lot of people over here seem to think it is uncivlized to defend oneself. They really believe in the system, and to see someone take charge of their own life is a sign that the system doesn't work as these people think it should. A lot of us think differently, but carrying guns is as restricted here as in some US cities. Our systems are not all that different, I think, we just use different language to describe them. It's a potato - potahto thing, when you say liberal, I say socialist.
Yugoslavia was never a nation, it was a state containing several nationalities. The way I think of civilian gunfights there weren't a lot of them there, either. When only one side has the guns, it isn't a fight. If both sides have guns and uniforms, it isn't civilian.
As to Norways military history, those Colts were not dropped twice. We were neutral in WWI
As far as WWII is concerned, we held out longer than some frog eaters I could mention, but that may not impress you a whole lot
Most of the fighting was done by civilians who put on a uniform and often brought their own rifles. They did well enough to impress the Wehrmacht, German soldiers claimed during the campaign that the "Kopfschuss" was against the Geneva Convention. As for the fighting that happened during the occupation, I didn't think of it as "civilian". Our resistance were, considering the circumstances, a well trained and highly diciplined military force, with a staff in Norway and under the command of the Norwegian political and military leadership in exile in London. They in turn were a part of the overall allied war machine. This force was one of the reasons there were 350,000 Wehrmacht occupation troops stationed in a country of 3 million. That the occupation force considered the resistance to be "bandits" and tortured to death those they could lay their hands on, is a different matter. They didn't catch many.
Anyway, I can't see myself fighting off hordes of armed criminals trying to shoot their way into my house any time soon. If I have to take up arms, it would more likely be as a reservist (conscript) in a military scenario. Not that I see this happening next week either... but going back to the magazine releases we were talking about; in a military cituation my job would not only be to win a gunfight, it would be to survive to fight another day. It would be difficult to fight another day if all my magazines were dropped on the ground (or in the snow for six or more months a year). And to the original topic of this thread, I would think the important thing is to hit the target, whether with two hands, strong hand or weak hand, rather than how "tactical" the gun is.
If you still don't understand what I'm rambling about, don't worry, I'm not sure I do either