[Info-vax] [OT] Guns Was: Re: Nice printers for OpenVMS?

[Paul Sture]

On Thu, 09 Aug 2012 15:53:51 -0400, David Froble wrote:

> But I have to wonder.  Until at least recently, Switzerland REQUIRED
> people to have military training, and to keep their weapons at their
> homes.  Why am I not hearing some huge denunciation of the Swiss?  If
> you say that they don't have any problems, then you're also saying that
> it isn't the guns, it's the people.

Because those people are part of the military and subject to military 
discipline.  As I inferred in an earlier post, once they are retired from 
the military they have to hand their weapons back.   I can't remember 
whether they are allowed to keep ammunition at home, but you can bet your 
bottom dollar that every round has to be accounted for.  In wartime 
(Switzerland is land locked and was completely surrounded in WW II) and 
perhaps during the Cold War, things would have been different.

There's a good story going back to WW I.  Someone pointed out to a Swiss 
diplomat that the Kaiser's army was twice the size of the then Swiss army 
and asked what they would do if invaded.

The answer was "Shoot twice then go home".

Oh BTW, conscientious objectors who refuse to join the military aren't 
thrown in jail or anything.  They get a tax surcharge because they 
haven't contributed their time to the country's defences :-)


-- 
Paul Sture