X-Ftn-To: Bruce Mills 

aj233@freenet.hamilton.on.ca (Bruce Mills) wrote:
>: Otherwise, we would have a militarized society, which nobody needs,
>
>Tell that to Israel.  Tell that to Switzerland.

I found an interesting article on this:
http://www.igc.org/raenergy/guns.html

"The extreme of government involvement is Switzerland where everybody
over fifty is in the militia and has semi automatic rifles at home.
This is the beehive effect as far as a conqueror is concerned and it
does have an equalizing effect and people have a general respect for
one another."

and

"There was a town in 'Tennessee that made it illegal to not carry a
gun. Crime went to zero and they were able to close their police
department. "

I tend to agree with this, because it's all a matter of psychology: if
everybody owns a gun, everybody feels safe from others and at the same
time unmotivated to compromise the others. But, since guns pose a
threat to safety (accidental injuries), it would be possible to just
remove the weapons altogether and the feeling of safety would remain.
Right now, I live on an island where the crime rate is exactly zero,
because it would be morally unthinkable to commit it. Why? Because
everybody knows each other, and even stealing matches from a store
would completely ruin one's reputation, so nobody ever does anything
morally questionable. And nobody owns any weapons.

-- 
Homepage: http://www.danijel.org