I have some experience with guns. In my misspent youth [a century ago. Ed.] I was into Dr Hunter S. Thompson's fun trio of drugs, firearms and loud music. Get ripped on reds 'n' white and go out on a dark night and blast the shit out of some inanimate object -- good times, good times. The key word there is "inanimate". I was never a hunter. I did shoot skeet, but Mrs Walt found it hard to clean and cook. But there was something mighty satisfying about firing a good shotgun, like this Ithaca 51.
I used to keep mine, safely stored, in my cabin in the pines, a good half-hour by car from the nearest town of any size. I have always subscribed to the theory that a man's home is his castle, and was secretly hoping for an opportunity to defend my little castle with the Ithaca or either of a couple of pistols I kept for just such an occasion. The shotgun would have been best. Cut the intruder in half with a deer slug. Yeah. Just as Bill Burr says at the 2-minute mark of this video.
Eventually I discovered that the Authorities and Forces For Good in the community don't want us to defend ourselves and our property. If someone breaks into your home or place of business, they say, don't challenge them, especially with a weapon. They could use it against you! Just call 9-1-1 and the police will take care of you. I call BS on that! I tried it when a young punk walked into my office after hours, looking for trouble. I gave him what he was looking for -- a warning shot across the bow, so to speak -- and then called the police. Guess who wound up in the dock (not the kind where you park your boat)? That's right. It was me! [Should be "It was I!" Ed.]
Right, Ed. We must watch our grammar. But we have no time for that now. To get my train of thought back on the rails, imagine what would have happened if I had actually shot that kid! I would likely be writing this blog with a pencil on prison stationery. [But that's what you... oh... never mind. Ed.] Law-abiding citizens who exercise whatever right to self defence is left to them by the nanny state get the shitty end of the stick every time, while criminals and terrorists get the other end. It ain't right!
I will grant you... I have to grant you, given the terrible reality of events like this weekend's massacre, that every now and then some deranged individual will go right off the deep end and take out some innocent people who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Mandalay Bay was the worst, but it wasn't the first. On the other hand, perfectly sane but perfectly evil people do the same thing. Look at Orlando. Look at San Bernadino.
Several people said that if some of the people shot in those terrorist attacks had had guns of their own, the death toll would have been considerably lower. IMHO that's right. We can't depend on our police to protect us, either because they are afraid of being called "racists"and "Nazis" or because they themselves are the thugs and bullies who like to shoot people just for the fun of it. Our best defence against terrorists or other marauders is a peaceful but vigilant and well-armed citizenry.
Please don't tell me that's a ridiculous notion, a classic example of American exceptionalism. Swiss laws on the possession and use of firearms are based on a longstanding tradition of shooting as a part of the national identity. The practice of the Swiss militia is to have the citizen soldiers keep their rifles in their homes. And we're talking about military-style guns, not just hunting rifles or shotguns.
What is needed, to avoid repeats of Mandalay Bay or Pulse or Sandy Hook, is not a ban on firearms, but more careful screening and enforcement to make sure that guns are kept out of the hands of terrorists and idiots. In Switzerland, in order to buy most weapons, the purchaser must obtain a weapon acquisition permit. Any adult citizen who is not psychiatrically disqualified nor identified as posing security problems, and who has a clean criminal record can request such a permit. The same rules apply to the purchase of ammunition.
In the result, although the percentage of Swiss who own firearms is probably higher than that of the USA, the murder rate in Switzerland is much, much lower. And so far there has not been a single terrorist attack. Think about it. Banning guns is not the answer to ails the Paranoid States of America today. It's not the guns. It's the people who have them.
Further reading: "The Culture of Death—and of Disdain", by Peggy Noonan in The Wall Street Journal, 5/10/17. "Why do Americans own so many guns? Because they don’t trust the protected elites to protect them."
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