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Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!seismo!hao!kpno!ut-sally!utastro!bill
From: bill@utastro.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.followup
Subject: Re: Handguns: we're succumbing to mob ru - (nf)
Message-ID: <646@utastro.UUCP>
Date: Tue, 20-Sep-83 11:34:33 EDT
Article-I.D.: utastro.646
Posted: Tue Sep 20 11:34:33 1983
Date-Received: Fri, 23-Sep-83 05:38:41 EDT
References: <614@utastro.UUCP>, <1082@utcsstat.UUCP>
Organization: UTexas Astronomy Dept., Austin, Texas
Lines: 48

 ideal
for taking into banks, 7-11's etc., whose money you would like to appropriate;
rifles are not.  (3) Most crimes committed in the United States which involve 
firearms, involve handguns, not rifles. (4) The Swiss don't sling their
rifles over their shoulders every time they leave the house (I think Nat's
phrase "armed to the teeth" is mighty florid), so they are not usually
in a position as citizens to intervene with their weapons to "reduce
the rate of violent crime".  (5) I believe that the reason the Swiss crime
rate is so low is mainly sociological -- they are a small, homogeneous nation
with history and traditions very different from those in the U. S.;
therefore I do not think their experience is likely to be as relevant to
the situation here as is Canada's.  After all, Nat was responding 
to someone who pointed out that Canada, where handguns are uniformly 
much more difficult to obtain than in the U. S., has a significantly 
lower rate of gun-related crime.  To the extent that this observation is 
true, and to the extent that Canada's experience has been more similar
to that of the United States than has Switzerland's, I find the Canadian
situation more relevant to the U.S. than that of Switzerland.

	Bill Jefferys  8-%
	Astronomy Dept, University of Texas, Austin TX 78712   (Snail)
	ihnp4!kpno!utastro!bill   (uucp)
	utastro!bill@utexas-11   (ARPA)