French dealt with Algerian independence around 1960 as the French dropped their other colonies too, but "foiling terrorist threats" is quite tthe opposite of suffering frequent Islamic attacks & mass killings or in the US regularly having mass shootings every 2 weeks or maybe more frequently now. So yes, he's still extremely wrong in his opinion and it should be obvious. The French night club atrocity was very rare (Bataclan is already 6 years old - name one that happened since). And gun control is certainly a big part of that success. US gun deaths are every day. Someone feels postal, they just go kill a bunch of people. Like Vegas. Like Orlando. Like countless schools. Like Chicago and Milwaukee and Minneapolis and St Louis inner cities... 

Malcolm Gladwell had a bit on suicide in "Talking to Strangers". We think suicide means are fungible, but he notes how decreasing the deadliness of home gas in ovens didn't increase sad housewife suicides some other way - they just decreased. Someone who would put their head in an oven wouldn't likely jump off a bridge (which got better secured) or a gun to their head or swallow poison (though opioids may be an acceptable alternative for some), and i don't think car emissions are fast enough for suicide these days. Similatly decreasing easy to deadly weapons greatly lowers their likelihood of use. Passion shootings or criminal activity, they both get harder. How many 7- year-olds would shoot their siblings if they didn't find a gun lying around? My whole time growing up there was never an armed burglar in the neighborhood or any shooting, but 2 unpleasant could-have-been tragedy from home weapons (ignoring shooting bb guns at each other)