Monday 3 September 2012

Smoke on the Water

I have just returned from a holiday jaunt, so don't bother to burgle me. I notice that some country bloke shot some burglars and is now under arrest for GBH. Well, I also have legal weapons and will use reasonable force to repel those with criminal intent. As it stands, the victims of this incident may well get a tougher sentence than the perpetrators. That cannot be right can it, or am I missing something?

I have been to Switzerland, specifically near the Lake Geneva shoreline. It's quite disconcerting to travel through village after village where the residents have created public displays of flowers, where there is no litter, and where the bus driver can remonstrate with rowdy school kids without threat of arrest for child molesting.

I was on a local train and got asked for my ticket. I struggled to fish it out of a bag and the conductor just waved his hand and said, "OK, that's fine." It is not too much of a sweeping generalisation to declare that the Swiss are conservative as compared to the UK. Universal votes for women did not happen until the last Canton, Appenzell Innerhoden, changed the rules in 1990. Coincidentally, AI has the lowest divorce rate in CH and parity with cattle on a one-human to one-cow ratio.

Swiss males are required to train in the use of guns and keep weapons at home. The majority of gun crime is perpetrated by those with illegally held weapons. Not surprisingly many in the rural areas never lock their doors or worry about their children making their own way from school.

There is no correlation between the legal ownership of guns and their misuse. The Swiss are, from birth made to understand the value of social and personal responsibility and it's obvious corollary - freedom.

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