Europeans slowly becoming pro-gun

Silver Bullet · August 3, 2002, 01:06 PM

This is a bit long, but gets better as it goes along. It was written by Marianne Jennings, a ASU professor, and has a web site at http://mariannejennings.com. This was published in the Scottsdale Tribune (I love this newspaper) July 31, 2002.

"
Have gun, will prevail

Conservative views on 2nd Amendment rights lead to order -- ask Sarah Brady

Sarah Brady, wife of former Reagan press secretary Jim Brady and founder of Handgun Control Inc., disclosed in her new autobiography that she purchased a gun for her son for Christmas 2000 - a .30-06 bolt-action rifle, complete with scope. She allows that she felt funny driving home packing heat.

The gun she gave to her son is one she and her anti-gun cronies demonized as a “sniper rifle.” How ironic that some of the legislation she and HCI have proposed would have made it a crime for her to put the gun under the tree without transfer papers and prior approval from the feds, Mrs. Claus, and Rudolph (a PETA effort).

Two things keep conservatives going through the barrage of disdain they endure as they defend the right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment and the myriad of other nerdy causes they espouse which emit snootiness. Conservatives can peel away the “Give peace a chance” layers of pseudo-intellectualism and see two things: Data and human nature. Guns are inextricably intertwined with both.

Data show that when you don’t have guns, you have trouble. Europe is the current proving ground d. Over the past year there have been three shootings on the cosmopolitan continent that surpassed our Columbine. Sixteen people were gunned down at a German high school in April, 14 lawmakers were shot in Switzerland in September 2001, and eight city council members were killed near Paris in March.

Euros, who usually cannot click their tongues sufficiently to express disgust at us and our guns, whether they are hunting Osama in Afghanistan or ducks in Connecticut, and who have Utopia in terms of gun control legislation, have a problem. Britain banned handguns in 1996, and its gun crimes rose 40 percent in that same time frame. Austria banned the use of guns, even in self-defense, and its armed robberies are up 51 percent. Edelweiss!

Europe is a percolating mess. European nations fell for the 1960s social policies hook, line and sinker. They went with free love -- in fact, free everything. Without conservatives nipping at their heels and yelping about rule of law and morality, Europe became nonjudgmental central.

Europeans cannot bring themselves to condemn the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. They are fit to be tied over Israel’s retaliation against the suicide bombers. They grant absolute rights without moral absolutes.

The result is a lawless culture that criminalizes speech, bans guns and wonders why urban crime is out of control.

Holland prohibits hate speech in its constitution, has disarmed its citizens and now, having disarmed tongue and self, stands defenseless as an increasing population of radical Islamic immigrants runs rampant through urban areas. Crime-loving immigrants have taken over inner cities and produced a crime rate that has Dutch citizens looking for gun-toting, candid-speaking “extreme right” candidates.

The French nearly sputtered up their foie gras truffle when they realized that “extreme right” Jean-Marie Le Pen took 25 percent of the vote in the recent national election. The socialist and Communist elite feel the outrage and backlash from unemployed blue-collar workers who live unarmed among the crime and criminals. “People feel unsafe in the streets,” was the platform of one “extreme right” candidate for the National Assembly (label courtesy The New York Times, an international conservative basher).

One Berlin paper, startled at the movement, wrote, “Whether Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Portugal, France, Belgium or now Holland, everywhere the right-wing populists are on the march.” Oh, how people speak when they regret lost ;rights.

Gun control is not such a hot idea when you’re living in an urban area overrun by crime, particularly by young hostile males as dangerous as elk in search of a hookup. The savvy Euros are weaponless, both in arms and tongue. Having taken politically correct speech to the point of making discouraging and disparaging words a crime, few date mention the immigrant crime problem.

Guns fire one way -- at the silenced law-abiding citizens. Criminalize guns and, as the bumper sticker goes, only the criminals have guns. The conservative vision embodies prevention via strength. Weapons worked to bring down the Iron Curtain. Gun strength among the citizenry deters crime.

Mark these European events well. Watch these mighty foreshadowings of things that could cross the Atlantic. Euros have sophisticated themselves into a defenseless corner. They now do what Sarah Brady and others of the enlightenment always do when human nature kicks in -- they return to conservative views and policies. Embarrassing though it may be, conservative opposition to disarming citizens keeps the peace.

Our Euro brethren and sisters have always been ahead of the curve, as they are now. Their lack of weapons finds them defenseless and angry with gun-toting criminals.

Take note and prepare to thank a conservative. Human nature will soon arrive from the continent.
"

**tyme** · August 3, 2002, 01:46 PM

Quote:

Austria banned the use of guns, even in self-defense, and its armed robberies are up 51 percent. Edelweiss!

So, Agricola, has Austria been changing reporting standards every other year as well? Or is the Occupied Territory of Britain the one surviving bastion of peace and civility in Europe?

Silver Bullet · August 3, 2002, 02:45 PM

It's good to know that there are limits to the media's and NEA's brainwashing. 25% of the citizens gave more credence to what they saw around them than to what the newspapers and schoolteachers are telling them.

T.Stahl · August 3, 2002, 04:10 PM

Quote:

Austria banned the use of guns, even in self-defense, and its armed robberies are up 51 percent.

Where does this BS come from?
The truth is: In Austria self-defense is still an accepted reason to buy and own guns. They are even allowed to have non-jacketed hollow-point ammo.
Did someone screw up Austr(al)ia?

Quote:

Holland prohibits hate speech in its constitution, has disarmed its citizens and now, having disarmed tongue and self, stands defenseless as an increasing population of radical Islamic immigrants runs rampant through urban areas.

Hey, the Dutch can own guns that are banned in Germany. They can't be that disarmed.

Quote:

The savvy Euros are weaponless, both in arms and tongue.

The 83,000,000 people living in Germany own 30,000,000 firearms (official estimate) of which 1/3 are legally and 2/3 illegally owned.
Disarmed? No, but unwilling to stand up for their rights.

UltimaThule · August 3, 2002, 06:37 PM

I can only speak for my own country, because when I make the mistake of generalizing about Europe, one of you guys will immediatly correct me, saying that "it is completely different in Bumf***istan".

Anyway, the Norwegian rifle association alone organizes roughly four per cent of the total population of the country, that would be what, 11, 12 million in the US. The organization is civilian, but sponsored by the defense dept. If memory serves, I figured out some time ago that the corresponding US figure would be 340 million dollars per year.

Norway and Finland may actually have as many (or even more, according to some estimates) gun owners as the US.

And we have free speech, thank you very much. At least as free as any country I can think of off the top of my head...

No, not everything is peachy in Europe, or anywhere else for that matter, but this article is generalizing a bit much, I think.

Silver Bullet · August 3, 2002, 09:16 PM

The article also listed the author's e-mail address as

MMJDIARY@aol.com

in case anybody wants to question her data or sources.

Blackhawk · August 4, 2002, 12:21 AM

Quote:

Europe is a percolating mess.

Percolating usually denotes that something good is happening.

I would've used "festering" instead.

Good article...!

croyance · August 4, 2002, 01:49 AM

Quote:

Crime-loving immigrants have taken over inner cities

So the growing crime problem is due solely to immigration? That is a point the article makes. A true caucasion European would be therefore unable by nature to commit a crime? Whatever happened to racial purity laws when you really need them?

Waterdog · August 4, 2002, 11:19 AM

We all know that disarming the citizenry, leads to higher crime.

This article was ment for the sheeple.

Waterdog

Romulus · August 5, 2002, 12:37 AM

In Italy not only are you allowed to own handguns, but you are allowed to carry them magazine-in in you car, as under Italian law the car is an extension of your domicile...what the antis need to learn is that in most of "civilized" Europe peronal ownership of firearms IS allowed

Mk VII · August 5, 2002, 02:57 AM

according to a Dutch friend things have got slightly better for them in recent years, they can own rifles for re-enactment which they couldn't before.

Master Blaster · August 5, 2002, 10:14 AM

The writer seems to insinuate that Switzerland is a Gun free state, and private ownership is banned

Sorry Full auto is issued by the government and stored at home by army reservists and ownership is encouraged.

**Marko Kloos** · August 5, 2002, 10:36 AM

Quote:

Did someone screw up Austr(al)ia?

One one of my tourist trips to Austria, I did notice the souvenir t-shirts for sale stating, "Austria: We don't have cangaroos".

August 3, 2002, 01:06 PM	#1
Silver Bullet Senior Member Join Date: June 6, 2001 Location: Arizona Posts: 831	Europeans slowly becoming pro-gun This is a bit long, but gets better as it goes along. It was written by Marianne Jennings, a ASU professor, and has a web site at http://mariannejennings.com. This was published in the Scottsdale Tribune (I love this newspaper) July 31, 2002. " Have gun, will prevail Conservative views on 2nd Amendment rights lead to order -- ask Sarah Brady Sarah Brady, wife of former Reagan press secretary Jim Brady and founder of Handgun Control Inc., disclosed in her new autobiography that she purchased a gun for her son for Christmas 2000 - a .30-06 bolt-action rifle, complete with scope. She allows that she felt funny driving home packing heat. The gun she gave to her son is one she and her anti-gun cronies demonized as a “sniper rifle.” How ironic that some of the legislation she and HCI have proposed would have made it a crime for her to put the gun under the tree without transfer papers and prior approval from the feds, Mrs. Claus, and Rudolph (a PETA effort). Two things keep conservatives going through the barrage of disdain they endure as they defend the right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment and the myriad of other nerdy causes they espouse which emit snootiness. Conservatives can peel away the “Give peace a chance” layers of pseudo-intellectualism and see two things: Data and human nature. Guns are inextricably intertwined with both. Data show that when you don’t have guns, you have trouble. Europe is the current proving ground d. Over the past year there have been three shootings on the cosmopolitan continent that surpassed our Columbine. Sixteen people were gunned down at a German high school in April, 14 lawmakers were shot in Switzerland in September 2001, and eight city council members were killed near Paris in March. Euros, who usually cannot click their tongues sufficiently to express disgust at us and our guns, whether they are hunting Osama in Afghanistan or ducks in Connecticut, and who have Utopia in terms of gun control legislation, have a problem. Britain banned handguns in 1996, and its gun crimes rose 40 percent in that same time frame. Austria banned the use of guns, even in self-defense, and its armed robberies are up 51 percent. Edelweiss! Europe is a percolating mess. European nations fell for the 1960s social policies hook, line and sinker. They went with free love -- in fact, free everything. Without conservatives nipping at their heels and yelping about rule of law and morality, Europe became nonjudgmental central. Europeans cannot bring themselves to condemn the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. They are fit to be tied over Israel’s retaliation against the suicide bombers. They grant absolute rights without moral absolutes. The result is a lawless culture that criminalizes speech, bans guns and wonders why urban crime is out of control. Holland prohibits hate speech in its constitution, has disarmed its citizens and now, having disarmed tongue and self, stands defenseless as an increasing population of radical Islamic immigrants runs rampant through urban areas. Crime-loving immigrants have taken over inner cities and produced a crime rate that has Dutch citizens looking for gun-toting, candid-speaking “extreme right” candidates. The French nearly sputtered up their foie gras truffle when they realized that “extreme right” Jean-Marie Le Pen took 25 percent of the vote in the recent national election. The socialist and Communist elite feel the outrage and backlash from unemployed blue-collar workers who live unarmed among the crime and criminals. “People feel unsafe in the streets,” was the platform of one “extreme right” candidate for the National Assembly (label courtesy The New York Times, an international conservative basher). One Berlin paper, startled at the movement, wrote, “Whether Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Austria, Italy, Portugal, France, Belgium or now Holland, everywhere the right-wing populists are on the march.” Oh, how people speak when they regret lost ;rights. Gun control is not such a hot idea when you’re living in an urban area overrun by crime, particularly by young hostile males as dangerous as elk in search of a hookup. The savvy Euros are weaponless, both in arms and tongue. Having taken politically correct speech to the point of making discouraging and disparaging words a crime, few date mention the immigrant crime problem. Guns fire one way -- at the silenced law-abiding citizens. Criminalize guns and, as the bumper sticker goes, only the criminals have guns. The conservative vision embodies prevention via strength. Weapons worked to bring down the Iron Curtain. Gun strength among the citizenry deters crime. Mark these European events well. Watch these mighty foreshadowings of things that could cross the Atlantic. Euros have sophisticated themselves into a defenseless corner. They now do what Sarah Brady and others of the enlightenment always do when human nature kicks in -- they return to conservative views and policies. Embarrassing though it may be, conservative opposition to disarming citizens keeps the peace. Our Euro brethren and sisters have always been ahead of the curve, as they are now. Their lack of weapons finds them defenseless and angry with gun-toting criminals. Take note and prepare to thank a conservative. Human nature will soon arrive from the continent. " __________________ Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay — and claims a halo for his dishonesty. -- Robert Heinlein

August 3, 2002, 02:45 PM	#3
Silver Bullet Senior Member Join Date: June 6, 2001 Location: Arizona Posts: 831	It's good to know that there are limits to the media's and NEA's brainwashing. 25% of the citizens gave more credence to what they saw around them than to what the newspapers and schoolteachers are telling them. __________________ Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay — and claims a halo for his dishonesty. -- Robert Heinlein

August 3, 2002, 09:16 PM	#6
Silver Bullet Senior Member Join Date: June 6, 2001 Location: Arizona Posts: 831	The article also listed the author's e-mail address as MMJDIARY@aol.com in case anybody wants to question her data or sources. __________________ Pacifism is a shifty doctrine under which a man accepts the benefits of the social group without being willing to pay — and claims a halo for his dishonesty. -- Robert Heinlein

August 5, 2002, 12:37 AM	#10
Romulus Senior Member Join Date: January 18, 2001 Location: Kettle Moraine country Posts: 848	In Italy not only are you allowed to own handguns, but you are allowed to carry them magazine-in in you car, as under Italian law the car is an extension of your domicile...what the antis need to learn is that in most of "civilized" Europe peronal ownership of firearms IS allowed __________________ I knew Thomas Jefferson, he was a friend of mine...Governor Clinton, you're no Thomas Jefferson Ti faccio vedere come muore un italiano

August 5, 2002, 10:14 AM	#12
Master Blaster Senior Member Join Date: October 11, 1999 Location: One of the original 13 Colonies Posts: 2,018	The writer seems to insinuate that Switzerland is a Gun free state, and private ownership is banned Sorry Full auto is issued by the government and stored at home by army reservists and ownership is encouraged. __________________ The difference between Democrats and Republicans is like the difference between a poop sandwich, and a poop Sandwich with mustard.

August 3, 2002, 06:37 PM	#5
UltimaThule Senior Member Join Date: September 16, 2001 Location: Norway Posts: 457	I can only speak for my own country, because when I make the mistake of generalizing about Europe, one of you guys will immediatly correct me, saying that "it is completely different in Bumf*istan". Anyway, the Norwegian rifle association alone organizes roughly four per cent of the total population of the country, that would be what, 11, 12 million in the US. The organization is civilian, but sponsored by the defense dept. If memory serves, I figured out some time ago that the corresponding US figure would be 340 million dollars per year. Norway and Finland may** actually have as many (or even more, according to some estimates) gun owners as the US. And we have free speech, thank you very much. At least as free as any country I can think of off the top of my head... No, not everything is peachy in Europe, or anywhere else for that matter, but this article is generalizing a bit much, I think.

August 4, 2002, 11:19 AM	#9
Waterdog Senior Member Join Date: January 6, 2000 Location: AZ Posts: 1,234	We all know that disarming the citizenry, leads to higher crime. This article was ment for the sheeple. Waterdog

August 5, 2002, 02:57 AM	#11
Mk VII Senior Member Join Date: November 23, 2000 Location: England Posts: 257	according to a Dutch friend things have got slightly better for them in recent years, they can own rifles for re-enactment which they couldn't before.