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Guns are banned in most countries of europe.

This is a funny issue and I'm not sure where I stand on it. It's also seriously off-topic. I'm not trying to make an argument for one side or the other, just stating a few (weird) facts.

Guns are indeed banned in most countries of Europe. Here in Scotland, hand guns are totally banned following the Dunblane school massacre, and licences for sporting guns (shotguns and rifles) are extremely difficult to obtain. Carrying knives is also banned, even quite small pocket knives. Nevertheless, we still have a pretty serious problem with street violence and particularly with domestic violence, compared to other European countries.

In the US, of course, guns are not banned, and lots of people have them; and, not very surprisingly, the US has more gun crime than anywhere else in the developed world.

So, hey, more guns in people's hands means more gun crime? More weapons in people's hand means more violence?

Errr, no.

Right across the border from Germany there's Switzerland, and it's a very odd place populated by very odd people. Not saying anything against them... but they're odd. Every man is required to keep an automatic weapon in the house. You walk down a high street and there's weapon shop after weapon shop: not just firearms, but also swords, knives, crossbows, longbows, battle-axes - battle axes, I kid you not - Japanese ninja type things, armour, you name it they've got it. You could easily equip an expedition to Mordor in the streets of Geneva.

So do they have a problem with violence? Well sort of. They have more violence than they used to, more shootings than they used to. And they're getting worried about it. But they still have not only less violence but even less shootings than practically anywhere else in Europe.

Very odd.

If it wasn't so tragic, I'd make some quip about how London deserves this sort of result after turning themselves into a nation of disarmed victims. But no city 'deserves' a high crime rate, even if they have instituted the equivalent of "OSHA for criminals"

Maybe in your picket fence suburb you can afford to kick a criminal's ass, but over here it's becoming real risky business.

So even if I hear that laptop alarm go off I'm gonna ignore it and take the insurance.

I recently ran across an interesting paper, Fear and Loathing in Whitehall: Bolshevism and the Firearms Act of 1920, that argues that the Firearms Act of 1920, the first law that seriously restricted gun ownership and the carrying of guns in Britain, was passed due to a fear of Bolshevik revolution, not because of the misuse of firearms by criminals. As in the United States, a bogeyman was used to justify a law that turned a right into a privilege that was granted at the convenience of the state.

Hi.

The following is quoted from The Labour Party's Evidence to The Cullen Inquiry in May 1996. Full text may be found at http://www.cybersurf.co.uk/ ~johnny/dunblane/labour.html. Population is in millions. Compare especially the US, Switzerland and the UK. Oh, and take them with a pinch of salt because they're only statistics assembled by a political party and are a few years out of date.

First column: Country
Second column: Homicides involving firearms
Third column: Population (million)
Fourth Column: Firearm homicides per million pop.

Homicides involving firearms (a)

Country......Firearm homicides..Pop.....Firearm Homicides / population
UK.................137..........58.4.............. .2.3
Switzerland.(b).....96...........6.94............. 13.8
Japan...............38.........125.0.............. .0.3
United States....16315.........260.7..............62.6

Notes:
(a) May involve deaths where a firearm has been used as a blunt instrument.
(b) Figures for Switzerland are for 1993.

Sources:
Japanese Embassy
Swiss Embassy
Population trends 1996
United Nations Monthly Bulletin of Statistics, Feb. 1996.
US Department of Justice
http://www.fbi.gov/ucr/ucr95prs.htm

You may not believe it, but the statistics say you would be safer [with more guns]

According to this article, you are wrong. And I quote their tables (see article for references):

------------| Rater per millions of
%Households | Homicides.... | Suicides .... | Country
owning guns |overall|withGun|overall|withGun|
......48.00 |...75.9|...44.6|..124.0|...72.8| USA ......32.00 |...12.1|....3.6|..142.7|...38.7| Norway ......29.10 |...26.0|....8.4|..139.4|...44.4| Canada ......27.20 |...11.7|....4.6|..244.5|...57.4| Switzerland ......22.60 |...12.5|....5.5|..223.0|...49.3| France .......4.70 |....6.7|....0.8|...86.1|....3.8| England and Whales

Now I edited fro brievety. First of all I did'nt know there was so many arms in my country. Just half of the US. Then it's a joke to claim that there are countries with more gun owning than the US: it's just not true. Then, if by reading this table or this graphing, you still believe that the crime rate has nothing to do with gun control ... well ...

You may not believe it, but the statistics say you would be safer [with more guns]

According to this article, you are wrong. And I quote their tables (see article for references):

------------| Rater per millions of
%Households | Homicides.... | Suicides .... | Country
owning guns |overall|withGun|overall|withGun|
......48.00 |...75.9|...44.6|..124.0|...72.8| USA ......32.00 |...12.1|....3.6|..142.7|...38.7| Norway ......29.10 |...26.0|....8.4|..139.4|...44.4| Canada ......27.20 |...11.7|....4.6|..244.5|...57.4| Switzerland ......22.60 |...12.5|....5.5|..223.0|...49.3| France .......4.70 |....6.7|....0.8|...86.1|....3.8| England and Whales

Now I edited fro brievety. First of all I did'nt know there was so many arms in my country. Just half of the US. Then it's a joke to claim that there are countries with more gun owning than the US: it's just not true. Then, if by reading this table or this graphing, you still believe that the crime rate has nothing to do with gun control ... well ...

In fact Santa can do it and you will discover how if you read http://www.cybersurf.co.uk/johnny/sant a.html