Right On Brad Pitt!

Today's news informs us that Brad Pitt, widely known to be a political liberal, is also a gun owner and a gun rights advocate. My reaction is "Right on Brad Pitt!" While I am a political conservative, I believe that civil rights - including gun rights - are American rights that should be supported by all political parties.

I find it interesting that while the US mainstream media is basically ignoring this story, the British and commonwealth press is covering it extensively - and they are mostly slamming Brad Pitt. These folks need to remember that on April 19, 1775, British troops set out to confiscate the "assault weapons" of the day from the good citizens of Lexington and Concord. That event started the revolutionary war, and a battle in which the best army in the world got their butts kicked by a citizen militia.

Only one other nation has comparable feelings regarding personal gun rights: The Swiss. Yes, the nation known for being peaceful and neutral also love their guns and their gun rights as we do. They come in 2nd or 3rd in gun ownership - but that figure doesn't count hundreds of thousands of military "assault rifles" stored at home by members of their "militia army". These are fully automatic machine guns. Not only this, the Swiss government allows their soldiers to buy their military rifles upon discharge. In addition, the Swiss government provides ammunition at less than cost to anyone - military or not - who wants to practice at a target range. The Swiss have a "gun culture" that may be stronger than ours - perhaps that is why many of our federal agents and even some of our military units carry Swiss handguns.

If those in the UK - who 237 years later are still trying to dictate gun policy to their thankfully former colony - are right, blood should be running in every Swiss street. Instead, Switzerland is a peaceful nation with a history of democratic government nearly as long as our own (if not longer) and almost 200 years of unbroken peace. Even Hitler - who really wanted to invade - was afraid to take on this nation of "gun lovers". In addition, they have an extremely low crime rate. I wonder why? Could it be that Swiss criminals are afraid to break into homes armed to the teeth?

Brad Pitt is 100% right. Guns are a part of our culture - and they are not the cause of the violence in our society. The cause - and the solution - lies elsewhere.