[Update] Yet another school shooting

[Ramrod]

I remember a while back (in some discussion or other) that Switzerland was being held up as a shining example of how a population can be trusted with guns. It seems that all was not as rosy as we thought in Switzerland.....

link

Every Swiss man has to serve in the army, which means that means millions of assault rifles and ammunition are stored in homes across the country.

This contributes to an astonishingly high number of family killings.

Every day someone shoots themselves. About every four weeks a man shoots his wife, his children or usually himself.

Perhaps we are better off with our ban on guns here in the UK (even if criminals can still get hold of them)

[grandmaster]

Ban on guns is still the way forward in my opinion.
Except for armed police etc.

[gazzae]

Originally Posted by grandmaster

Except for armed police etc.

As long as they don't have a domestic!

Woman held after policeman shot

A female police officer is being questioned about the shooting of a male colleague in County Antrim.
The man is seriously ill after he was shot twice at Newtownabbey Police Station on Saturday at about 1915 BST.

It is understood police are investigating a possible domestic motive for the shooting.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/5353296.stm

Originally Posted by grandmaster

Except for armed police etc.

The police don't have sufficient training to deal with being armed. Several people have lost their lives as a result of police mistakes.

[TheDaddy]

Some one once said 'the problem with outlawing guns is, in the end the only people with them are outlaws', quite a sensible statement imo

[Paul M]

Banning guns achieves very little - those who intend to use them for criminal purposes still have them.

[Ramrod]

I know criminals still will have them but it would appear that the more privately held guns there are the more domestic shootings occur.
I'm not really interested about criminals and guns......I'm interested about what people think about legal guns....

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Ramrod

I know criminals still will have them but it would appear that the more privately held guns there are the more domestic shootings occur.
I'm not really interested about criminals and guns......I'm interested about what people think about legal guns....

Yes, I think guns should be banned, or at the very least, people should only be allowed to keep them at the shooting range if they practice shooting as a sport. Keeping them in the home will lead to domestic shooting incidents or accidents.

[Stuart]

I personally think they should be banned. Partly because of the possibility of domestic accident, and partly because the more guns are around, the more there are available for criminals to steal and use. After all a criminal can be reasonably sure that the average homeowner will not attempt to kill them (there are various psychological barriers that prevent most people from deliberately killing people, probably even those that say they would kill an intruder).

Another reason is simply that surely if a criminal assumes he or she is going to come up against armed resistance, are they not more likely to come tooled up?

But violence against home owners when they have the right to shoot to kill intruders is much lower and means that property is safer, with crime rates generally lower. I believe Switzerland's experience would bear this theory out.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by freezin

But violence against home owners when they have the right to shoot to kill intruders is much lower and means that property is safer, with crime rates generally lower. I believe Switzerland's experience would bear this theory out.

Violence from external sources, which the chances of being a victim are thankfully not that high anyway.
Violence from internal sources, as Switzerland has demonstrated, is much greater through the availability of guns in the home.

Allow guns sure, but allow them in the only way that they can be safely used, such as at a gun club, in a mini fort knox, with prison time for anyone breaking the rules (after all, sneak your handgun home and you risk losing it, or having is stolen which is likely to result in the loss of life somewhere)

Whether to keep a gun should be the Swiss householders choice, with harsh penalties for anyone who abuses the privilege, imo. Internal violence is remarkably low considering the number of guns in private hands. It would be interesting to compare Swiss statistics with British, and other none gun owning societies, though.

[Xaccers]

Originally Posted by freezin

Whether to keep a gun should be the Swiss householders choice, with harsh penalties for anyone who abuses the privilege, imo. Internal violence is remarkably low considering the number of guns in private hands. It would be interesting to compare Swiss statistics with British, and other none gun owning societies, though.

As quoted in the first post from the article:

Every day someone shoots themselves. About every four weeks a man shoots his wife, his children or usually himself.

So everyday someone gets shot.
The Swiss are sent home with their rifles and a tin of ammo which is sealed.
If when they return the ammo tin is missing or the seal has been broken, it's a short prison sentence.
However, there is nothing to stop them going to the local hunting store and buying ammo.
If a partner or child however gets hold of that tin, and either through malice or ignorance opens it and loads the gun, or the gun has not been made safe after being used with store bought ammo, then they could do some serious damage in a way which if they were in a British home, they could not.

[TheDaddy]

This is quite interesting
http://www.guncite.com/gun_control_gcgvinco.html

[Jules]

I would hate to see a time when guns were legal over here