To the editor:
As a Canadian, I keep my nose out of the affairs of foreign countries.
However, after reading a litanty of feeble arguments in opposition to reasonable gun control, I felt compelled to weigh in.
Comparing the United States, a large, violent, militaristic country to Switzerland, a small, isolated, relatively wealthy country, with no military is like comparing howitzers to hand guns.
Switzerland, lacking armed forces, relies on a conscripted armed militia and yes, gun ownership is required by many.
However, gun ownership sprouts from an ingrained culture of civil duty, respect, training and safety.
The Swiss people form a unique and radically different culture/demographic than the United States.
Further, presenting a list of genocides inflicted by regimes against unarmed peoples as a con to modern, reasonable gun control is absurd, fear-based rhetoric.
For example, the Nazi Einsatzgruppen were professional killing squads that worked ahead of, or alongside, invading armies.
They would not have been stopped by armed civilians. Entire armies could not stop Hitler during most of World War 2.
Hans Braun,
Kelowna
