by Jim Wagoner President Obama has initiated 23 executive orders relating to gun control during his 51 months in office . He has also called upon Congress to enact intrusive and possibly unconstitutional new restrictions on the right of the American people to keep and bear arms . If there has ever been a class of law found wanting , unworkable , and destructive to our well-being , it is restrictive gun controls . I think these laws rank right along with the 18th Amendment for creating a whole new culture of unintended and unloved consequences . It is amazing that the president has such a fetish about guns . It is a well known fact that in every city , county , or state that has freed up its restrictive gun laws , they have experienced a significant decrease in violent crimes among the citizenry . The FBI tells us that a vast majority of violent crimes in America occur in cities with 250,000 plus people . Sadly many of these cities have very strict draconian laws against private gun ownership – as the cities compete for murder capital of the world . In Switzerland there is entirely a different approach to ownership of guns and shooting . At age 20 , young men are universally conscripted ( females volunteer ) into their national militia . Once they have completed this military training they are issued their own private fully automatic SG 550 assault rifle with ammunition . Every 5 years the Swiss government subsidizes the purchase of guns and ammunition and hosts the world ’ s biggest shooting competition . They encourage their militia to be “ sharpshooters ” all . While the Swiss standing army is only 4,200 , they take pride in the fact that they survived two of the greatest wars ever fought in Europe with their militia . They understand they will never win a specific battle . They also know they will never lose their homeland with those millions of sharpshooters spread throughout the nation . While practically every able-bodied Swiss man , and many of their women , have been trained to shoot people and given the rifle and ammunition to do so , the Swiss kill very few people . With their 8 million population , only 53 murders occurred in 2010 ( 40 of which utilized a firearm ). Whereas Chicago with its 2.7 million people and very strict laws against any type of gun ownership , suffered more than 500 gun-deaths in 2012 . As an American how can one ingest such reprehensible numbers while maintaining a bit of sanity ? Surely there is a lesson here for Chicago Mayor Emanuel . Many people that I ’ ve discussed gun ownership with believe that the Second Amendment was included in the Constitution so that people could put food on the table by shooting rabbits and deer — in other words , for hunting . No , the Second Amendment is there to insure that ordinary Americans were always ready to form an armed militia to protect their liberties against enemies foreign and domestic .
I ’ ll leave the last word to Thomas Jefferson : WHEN THE PEOPLE ARE FEARFUL OF THEIR GOVERN- MENT THERE IS TYRANNY . WHEN THE GOVERNMENT IS FEARFUL OF THE PEOPLE , THERE IS LIBERTY .
People Control aka “ Gun Control ”
Pono Press , May 2013 , Page 6