The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #152163   Message #3557839
Posted By: Little Hawk
10-Sep-13 - 12:54 PM
Thread Name: BS: Do we need stricter gun laws?
Subject: RE: BS: Do we need stricter gun laws?
He's perfectly sane, Bill. ;>) I can attest to that from personal acquaintance. He does, however, enjoy pulling various of the greybeards around here now and then.

The main problem is the psychological attitude of the general population...and the attitudes expressed in American entertainment, mass media and the government, all of them violence-obsessed, in my opinion. Create a paranoid, angry, fearful, stressed-out population, many of whom are in acute financial distress, and the probability is very high that some of them will react to a situation in an extreme way and misuse their guns.

In Somalia, you have a considerably more extreme condition of desperation and poverty in the population...and a vast number of guns. See what happens. It's far worse than in the USA.

In Switzerland, on the other hand...

"Gun politics in Switzerland are unique in Europe. Switzerland does not have a standing army, instead opting for a people's militia for its national defense. The vast majority of men between the ages of 20 and 30 are conscripted into the militia and undergo military training, including weapons training. The personal weapons of the militia are kept at home as part of the military obligations; Switzerland thus has one of the highest militia gun ownership rates in the world.[1] In recent times a minority of political opposition has expressed a desire for tighter gun regulations.[2] A referendum in February 2011 rejected stricter gun control.[3]"

And the gun related crime situation in Switzerland...

"Further information: Gun violence and Crime in Switzerland

Government statistics for the year 2010[15] records 40 homicides involving firearms, out of the 53 cases of homicide in 2010.

The annual rate of homicide by any means per 100,000 population was 0.70, which is one of the lowest in the world.[16] The annual rate of homicide by guns per 100,000 population was 0.52.[17]"

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See? The real problem is not the presence or availability of guns. The real problem is the social and cultural attitudes of a population...a far more subtle and complex matter than the mere physical availability of a weapon. The social and cultural attitudes in the USA stem from a long tradition of unlawful gun-related violence, and that tradition is perpetuating itself.