From: "Royall, Nick E", [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Japan has a lesser population density than Britain but its laws are based on
a feudal heirarchy which hasnt really died out. Singapore and Hong kong were
British Colonies and did what we wanted them to do so who is to blame
there?holland has a greater population density than Britain but does not ban
everything at the drop of a hat, most of its sillier laws are a legacy of
the nazi occupation (same as germany's) hweras France and Spain have
legacies of individual freedom but mass obedience from their dictatorships
in their laws.
I really dont see where our draconian governmental thought comes from other
than the divine right of kings being usurped by the crooks in parliament.
Nick
--
The Netherlands has a much tougher licensing system than we do, although
most types of handguns are still legal there (except replicas and deacts
which are inexplicably banned, as well as "small" handguns). Their
licensing system for shotguns is massively more restrictive than ours.
I don't agree that they are a "legacy" of the Nazi occupation, the
Netherlands first imposed a licensing system in the 1890s and then
"modernised" them in 1919 into the basis of their current system. That
law has been changed and consolidated many times since then, most
recently I think in 1998. The Nazis had nothing to do with it as
far as I am aware.
Japan's current laws developed out of the imposed controls put on them
ironically by the US occupation force, I have a copy of it somewhere.
Although it is fair to say the underlying reason for them keeping them
is a history of strict firearms control going back to the invention
of guns. Also they have a lower population density only because
of the mountains there. The actual population density of inhabitable
areas is much higher than here.
It is a fact that I have noticed that as a country becomes more urbanised
their gun laws become tougher. It is almost invariably the case. I
cannot think of many exceptions.
Certainly the laws in Singapore and HK are based on ours, but that is
true of the licensing systems of pretty much every English speaking
country on the face of the Earth except the US.
Lesotho as an example based their 1966 law on our 1937 law. The
point is that Singapore could have long since ditched their laws but
they haven't, they made them even tougher.
Note that places with low population densities like Australia and
New Zealand went in the reverse direction. With the exception of
Western Australia, the Australians resisted the registration of
rifles in the 1920s and most States didn't have much in the way of
controls on long guns until the 1980s. New Zealand copied our
1920 Act as well, but it was eventually dumped in 1983.
It is only a few high profile crimes that have reversed that trend
in Australia, although it's fair to say they have also become
increasingly urbanised.
I found an interesting French study on urbanisation, apparently the
French Government at one point considered it a threat to the French
way of life and attempted to stop it by encouraging people to move
to rural areas.
Steve.
Cybershooters website: http://www.cybershooters.org
List admin: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
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