Ridecamp: Re: [RC] Hunting Season

> Personally - and I tread on dangerous ground here and may get in trouble
>  from Steph for it - I think the problem is gun control laws.  As Angie
> hinted at, the kids who handle guns and hunt routinely are not going to
> be  shooting people, horses or signs.  It's those who don't have
> experience who  wind up frustrated and hit whatever they see moving (or
> not), or who don't  understand what guns can really do because they have
> no life experience  with them, and start drinking (or smoking,
> whatever).  I think everyone  should be required to learn how to shoot,
> and should be taught that  starting in kindergarten.  There should be a
> regular shooting course, just  like there's English and math, and you
> take classes in it all the time till  you graduate.  You don't get a
> diploma (or GED) unless you can strip down a  gun and put it back
> together in a certain amount of time, and you have to  be able to hit a
> target reliably too.
>
> It would make life easier for the military, would solve the militia
> issue  (since *everyone* would be armed, or prepared to be armed), and
> just think  how terrorists would feel about a country where even the
> little kids could  deal with the bad guys.  I bet that kidnapping rates
> would go way down, and  abuse problems would also go down too.  An added
> benefit would be that  everyone would likely be much more polite as well
> - no more LA road rage!

Switzerland has a program very similar to this.  Everyone is required to
do one year's military service (in a country that never goes to war), and
is required to keep and maintain their gun in their household from then
on.  Hence every household has a gun, and someone in the household who
knows how to use it.  And Switzerland has one of the lowest crime rates in
the world, and one of the best reputations as a nation for being peaceful.

Heidi



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