On this topic at least, you can refer to wolf's opinions to get mine. Slang too, iirc. Guns=good. Lock away those who misuse guns, and leave the rest of us alone.

That is a great point, Shawnee!

Why, thank you. I'm staying out of the debate because I've had all the conflict I can take for one week, but I thought it was important to note!

Not EVERY household, just those where men between the ages of 18 and 60 reside. Switzerland has a true militia. All adult men train for 6 weeks every year or two years (I forget which). They keep their guns at home in case there is a national emergency where Switzerland must quickly deploy to protect its borders. Obviously, the Swiss do not issue a gun to a guy who is schizophrenic or something, but other than that...

This armed citizenry was one reason Hitler never invaded Switzerland. He could have done it, probably, but at an extremely high cost which he was not willing to pay.

As others have mentioned, the problem here in the US is cultural. We are a far more diverse country than Switzerland. Switzerland also has far less stringent drug laws. You can walk into a Swiss pharmacy and buy nearly anything you want WITHOUT a prescription. And finally, Switzerland does not suffer from the legacy of slavery which we in the US must stil deal with every day. For example, one in six black American men between the ages of 18 and 30 are in or will be in prison.

We need to work on US societal issues, not ban guns.

My great grandfather should have stayed in Switzerland.

No, she would shoot someone if she thought she was in threat of losing her life.

So those folks don't think they are in threat of losing their lives? Really?

Why do we always blame guns instead of the crazy bastards who use them to commit atrocities? Would we want to outlaw hands if he'd just raped and strangled them after?

Crazies are crazies. Tragedy is tragedy. The biggest tragedy in the Amish case is that the crazy SOB didn't just kill himself first and leave the innocents out of it. Some broken people can't or won't be fixed, and they do really bad things. This guy was a self-professed child molester from his teenage years, apparently, and it just went downhill from there. If he hadn't had access to guns, how do we know he wouldn't have just gone and stabbed them all to death, or bludgeoned them?

An interesting question. Is a drug dealer shooting a rival drug dealer constitute a justifiable shooting in self defense?

That's pretty easy ... the answer is "no."

There's a word for people like you, you HANDOPHOBE you! :rolleyes:
:)

Hey, I'm all for a Federal Hand Control Law. I think the way they do things in Muslim countries would also belie the old saw, "When hands are outlawed, only outlaws will have hands"...'cause they cut 'em off.

Oh yeah? Well, you can have my hands when you pry them from my cold, dead...uh, hands? (sheepishly backs away)

Classic.

That's a pretty broad brush you're painting with, Wolf.

Except that, in sandier parts of the world, that phrase is more like, "You can have my hands when you hack them from my warm, blood-gushing wrists".

It's your brush, I just dipped it into a different color of paint for you.