>Well actually you probably consider that eastern Europe, but the
>western countries all still have militaries and armed citizens to
>some degree, perhaps you missed the recent post from one of our
>Dutch members?
>Canada? Last time I checked you still had a military
I don't think Jefferson was talking about militaries, and neither
are the people in this thread. The "armed" in this thread clearly
refers to average citizens. In that sense, the US citizenry is
far more heavily armed than any other (first-world) country I'm aware
of. Certainly there are plenty of people in Western Europe and Canada
with guns, but the percentage is far lower than in the US, and the
kinds of guns are generally different, too. Fully automatic weapons
are almost non-existent in Canada (outside the military), and I suspect
the same is true for most of Western Europe. (Correct me if I'm wrong.)
>[Canada] not to
>mention armed citizens
Hardly anybody in Canada (percentage-wise) owns a gun. I can only
think of one person, in all the people I know personally (including all
the not-so-close acquantences of my family), who owns a gun --- a
pistol. I used to have many friends who had guns, but they were all
people who were involved with the Canadian military. (I used to be in
the the Royal Canadian Air Cadets. I was on the rifle team. I was the
top cadet marksman in southern Ontario. It was fun, and some day I may
buy a rifle, but it's not high on my priority list. So, you see, I have
nothing personally against guns, I'm just arguing your facts here.)
>not to mention a rather large and
>extremely well armed neighbor to the south. If you think thats got
>nothing to do with it, you're only kidding yourself.
Nothing to do with "it"? What "it" are you refering to?
If you mean that the reason some Canadians have guns is because the
US has lots of guns, I disagree. Most Canadians will name "guns" as
one of the primary differences between Canadians and Americans. The
Canadians that *do* own guns would probably do so regardless of the
armed-ness of the US.
So, as I said, since it is clear to me that there exist countries
today that are substantially unarmed and also free and peaceful, it is
unclear that Jefferson's statement will be proved correct in the long
term.