People Want End to Mandatory Law Requiring Swiss Citizens to Own Military Rifles

Once again Says Uncle links to another interesting story. Apparently some whiny bitches concerned citizens are looking to change the law in Switzerland that requires males serving in the military to store a military rifle at home. Because of research what happens when you disarm a country I’m bias against laws restricting firearms. But I’m also willing to hear the debate so let’s take a look at both sides. First off the side of logical thought civilians owning guns:

But it wasn’t the militia that sparked Heim’s interest in guns as young man. It was an unassuming trip to a holocaust museum.

HEIM: I was going through all the exhibits and the soaps and the lampshades made of people’s skin, and while I was looking, I heard a funny noise, and there was an old woman, maybe two metres from me. She was trying not to cry. She was sort of sobbing very quietly. She was sort of holding it back. If she had been a few more meters away I wouldn’t have heard her. And that’s when it all hit me. I promised myself I will never be in her situation. I would want to be free and never in a situation where they could just march us off to ovens or prisons.or just take away our freedom.

Heim gets it. See Nazi Germany required civilians to register all guns with the government. Shortly afterwards the government confiscated all the registered guns. After the guns were confiscated and the civilian populace was defenseless the government started rounding up “undesirables” and sending them to death camps where they were gassed by the millions. Had the civilian populace been armed they could have fought back against the government.

OK let’s hear the other side of the argument:

However, not everyone sees guns the same way.

While gun crime is relatively low in Switzerland, more than 300 people a year are killed military rifles, the majority of them suicides. Recently efforts for more regulation have been picking up. And a certain faction of people want military rifles stored in army barracks, rather than peoples cellars.

So you’re saying that people taking their own lives with firearms is justification for disarming the populace? I have a newsflash for those who think this, people taking their own lives can do so without a gun. If a lack of guns had anything to do with suicide rates how to you explain Japan where guns are practically forbidden but the suicide rate is very high? This might come as a surprise but if I wanted to kill myself I could hang myself or slit my wrists with a knife. But the harsh truth of the matter is if somebody takes their own life that is their business and so long as they aren’t trying to take somebody else with them it’s their choice. Meanwhile if you disarm the populace you create a situation where people can not defend themselves against an outside force meaning to do harm.

Also the sheer idiocy of trying to compare 300 deaths by firearms to six MILLION deaths by government hands is ludicrous at best. Those deaths in Switzerland are .005% of the number of deaths caused by the Nazi government in Germany. How can people say the situation of a disarmed populace is better? How can people honestly be that stupid?