The Gun Debate

The gun debate seems to me to have been unrelenting
during my lifetime. We do have a nation to look to
for an example of even more gun keeping households
than the United States. That nation is Switzerland.

The Swiss are a neutral nation. Still they maintain a
military and require universal military service of all
their male youth. Roughly 66% of their young men
are deemed suitable for military service, the remainder
are required to participate in other national programs
that benefit the country as a whole.

When men have completed their mandatory service,
they are reqired to take home and maintain the equipment
they were issued. That equipment, in the case of  military
personnel, includes a firearm. So some 66% of all male
Swiss citizens have, in their posession, a military grade
firearm, for the rest of their lives.

Still, the crime rates in Switzerland are significantly
lower than some of their neighbors. Ergo, it is not the
availability of firearms alone that leads to crimes. If
we learn to manage the other factors, the presence or
absence of firearms in the home will no longer have
any impact on crime rates.

We have to bear in mind that criminals will always be
criminals, and we're only talking here about the
general population, mostly law abiding citizens, the
ones who some elements of Congress are wanting to
further regulate in their ownership of firearms.

The unspoken problem with gun control is that the
crazies, with guns unavailable, would revert, as they
have in the past, to bomb making. Can you imagine
the additional carnage had the Newtown mas murderer
built a sizable bomb? And if you remain unconvinced,
please take the time to read about the Rwandan Genocide
where in 100 days somewhere between 500,000 and 
1,000,000 people were killed by machete.There is no
question that a disarmed population is vulnerable to 
the most primitive threats.
 
Please note that your humble correspondent here publicly
advocates neither for nor against "guns," but merely
publishes "the rest of the story" that seems to be going
unnoticed and undiscussed in all the hype that is flying
around these days.

Bill Vajk