[GUNS] Re: Are guns extropian?

zebo (zebo@pro-ns.net)
Fri, 10 Jul 1998 11:22:50 -0500

mark@unicorn.com wrote:

> >Just a Danish/Scandinavian/European POW.
>
> I was under the impression that several Scandinavian countries had militias
> who kept automatic weapons at home?

You're thinking of the Swiss. I think.

I don't recall there being militias of the Swiss type in Denmark. I wouldn't be surprised if there was a national guard of sorts in the vodka belt countries (Norway, Sweden, Finland) that had some sort of Swiss-style arrangement. But I don't think there is.

OTOH, gun ownership for hunting purposes (almost always a shotgun) is perfectly legal in all Scandinavian countries. I should also mention that according to people who (claim to) know, the shotgun is also a good weapon for self-defense anyway.

> P.S. And if Europe's so great, why is it that suicide rates are typically
> at least twice as high as America? This is another issue which is ignored
> in these discussions about reducing freedom to save lives; the freer people
> are, the less they tend to kill themselves.

Easy there. Europe's just different. And each of the European countries are different from each other. And every single one of the residents in each of those countries is different from each other. As they are from you.

Besides. Perhaps Europeans are just better at keeping these stats?

Z