Switzerland Votes to Retain Guns

I have been watching this over at Theo Sparks site, and I am happy to report that the Swiss rejected gun control. You can read all about it at the link.

It is interesting to me that this seems to have been framed as a "womyn's issue" as feminist groups seemed to be pushing it. Frankly, I think every woman should have a gun, and know how to use it. Mrs. PolyKahr has one, different from mine, and she can hit at what she aims. I especially encourage mothers to have a gun, and carry it with them at all times. Someone needs to be able to defend the children, and mothers are the ones who are with them most of the time.

I often encounter women and young mothers who seem, like lawyers, to believe in the magic of words.  In an effort to deny their responsibility for protecting themselves and their children, they will say things like "Oh, I don't want icky guns around my children at (McDonalds, school, the park, fill in the blank.)"  I point out that while you can outlaw guns in one area or another, outlaws could care less about your laws and will have them anyway.  For those of us who understand this, the incident in Cary last Thursday stands as a cautionary tale.  Banks are a gun free zone by law.  Yet someone entered the Wachovia bank in Cary claiming to have a gun and held everyone hostage for several hours.  The standoff ended when a sniper took the bastard out.  (While it was later determined that he didn't have a gun, he said he did, acted as if he did, threatening people with an object that looked like a handgun.  So convinced was everyone, that when he emerged with that object pointed at a woman's head and forced her to kneel, the sniper took the shot.)

So, the real question is will a mother be able to defend herself and her children effectively if someone should start shooting.  Sometimes I get them to at least think about it, but not often.  Still, one can only try.  To those who say the police will protect them, I usually ask them to look around and tell me how many police they see.  I point out that stuff happens often in seconds, while the police are, at best minutes away.  Sometimes that gets them thinking.  To be honest, I have never had someone come back to me and say that I had changed their minds.  But I sow the seeds.

I found this paragraph from the linked article interesting:

Although Switzerland's overall crime rate is low by European standards, the country has the highest rate of gun suicide in Europe.

Note that Switzerland doesn't really have a problem, having one of the lowest crime rates in Europe, but the article highlights the "gun suicide" rate. The country with the highest suicide rate in the world is also the country with one of the strictest gun control schemes, Japan. Like everything about gun control, this idea that somehow if the instrumentality is not available, nobody will be able to commit suicide, is a misdirection and is false.  The trick is not to compare "gun suicide" rates, but overall suicide rates.

The Swiss have made a decision for reality in self defense.  A famous progressive President, Theodore Roosevelt admonished us always to "walk softly, and carry a big stick."  The same applies to individuals.  We should all be at least civil to one another at all times, but have a handgun concealed on our person just in case.