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April 27, 2007
Guns around the world
Gun confiscation, however, is correlated with homicide--in that gun confiscation is almost always a condition precedent for genocide and other murderous atrocities by government. This was historically true in Turkish Armenia, Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, Guatemala, Cambodia, and Idi Amin's Uganda. It is still true in Ethiopia, East Timor, Srebrenica, Rwanda, Sudan, Uganda, Kenya, and Zimbabwe.
The experience of the Holocaust also shows that to the extent that victims do obtain firearms, they have a much greater chance of survival, even under the worst conditions.
In October 2005, the people of Brazil voted on a U.N.-backed gun confiscation plan, and 64% said "Não."
The confiscation campaign leader later warned his international allies, "First lesson is, don't trust direct democracy."
As Foreign Policy magazine observed in February 2006, the right to arms today "strikes a chord with people of very different backgrounds, experiences, and cultures, even when that culture has historically been anti-gun." Aggressively hostile to the right of self-defense against solitary criminals and criminal governments, today's international political and media elites are out of step not only with America, but with more and more people around the world.
"Are guns all-American? Should we be concerned that so much of the rest of the developed world believes U.S. gun laws are crazy?" All this week, David Kopel and Christopher Lockwood debate gun control. Today, the Independence Institute's Kopel and The Economist's Lockwood address the international view on guns. Los Angeles Times, April 25, 2007
I've heard people say "only in America" in the aftermath of the Virginia Tech shootings. Clearly, though, it's not only in America. Terrible incidents like these have occurred and are occurring in countries across the world, including countries that severely restrict or ban the private ownership of firearms, and countries with a reputation of peace and harmony.
"'Only in America'? Gunning Down a Claim," by Steve Stanek, TCS Daily, April 20, 2007
Posted at April 27, 2007 06:07 AM | Categories: America , Crime , Ignorance , Politics
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