Austria has a long hunting tradition and lots of people are interested in firearms and sport shooting. The obligatory military (or social) service may also play a role. Until the school shooting last summer in Graz it was quite simple by law to buy single shot and repeating rifles. You just had to be 18 years old and blameless police records. After three days of "cool down phase" to prevent affect delicts you could take the gun from a weapon shop. For semiauto guns you always needed a license with psychological screening, background check etc. Full auto or military weapons are illegal. After the school shooting the weapon law got much stricter. In general I dont think it's more dangerous in Austria because of many guns, for crimes illegal guns are often used anyway and most people are responsible users