The Swiss protect their nation with a citizen army. The number one sport in the country is rifle marksmanship. In order to avoid the fate of Norway - where the Nazis simply seized the armories - the Swiss reservists keep their weapons at home. This, along with the terrain, makes Switzerland a very tough nut to crack - tough enough that they were left alone in both World Wars while all nations around them were involved. In addition, citizens soldiers retaining their weapons prevents tyrants from seizing power. As a result Switzerland is the oldest democracy on earth.
Today the Swiss people - who are number three in the world in private firearms ownership - overwhelmingly rejected a referendum to require reservists to keep their issue assault rifles in government armories. The Swiss crime rate is very low, but they have a high suicide rate. The Swiss people rejected the argument that removing a method of kill one's self would reduce the number of suicides. Experience with removing other methods - such was highly poisonous domestic gas formally used in East Germany - has proven them right.
It's nice to know that there are other nations where people are citizens and not subjects.
See news story here.
No comments:
Post a Comment