HELSINKI, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- [A] student who killed eight
people on Wednesday in a school shooting in southern Finland
and turned the gun on himself died at the hospital on the
evening of the same day, the Finnish media reported. [...]
[A]ccording to a recent study, Finland has one of the
world's highest gun ownership rates, ranking third behind
the United States and Yemen. Most of the registered weapons
in Finland are hunting riffles.^1
Can't believe that--the last paragraph above--at least not the
ranking number, or then, not in what is meant as "registered
weapons."
*Mini* intro:
Switzerland (I am Swiss) has an obligatory--for men--military
service. (The service is voluntary for women.) Differently from
Italy, or France, Swiss conscripts are obliged, at intervals
in the O(years), to service for 2-3 decades after their basic
instruction has been accomplished, basic instruction which
typically begins when a fellow reaches age 19-20-21 and lasts a
few months. Officers service longer.
There is just a very limited *professional army* [instructors,
career officers, patrol pilots, barracks-, fortress-,
machine-shops staff] in Switzerland.
Only VERY special cases--serious health problems, dwarfs, blind,
deaf, extremely obese, ... you have got the idea--are discarded
from active service.
That is, virtually EVERY Swiss man aged twenty and up is,
volens nolens, a member of the Swiss Army (with very limited
exceptions); and has, unless he leaves *legally* the country for
enough long time, his own weapon--an automatic 9mm assault rifle
or, it depends, a pistol from the army--at home ... inclusive the
rest of the equipment - plus, when I have been in Switzerland
still, more than a decade ago, a set of rounds to fill a loader
(24x for the assault rifle). I believe they are reconsidering
that--ammunition at home--after a couple of shootings involving
military weapons have occurred in Switzerland in the last years.
The weapon one receives is personal, and is "registered" of course.
When a fellow, later in life [around forty for a simple soldier]
becomes discharged from the active service, he can keep his gun
if he likes--MOST DO.
End intro.
Summa summarum ... pigeonhole principle ... virtually every
Swiss household has one "registered weapon" as the minimum.
Hence I don't believe that Finland is "ranking third behind the
United States and Yemen." (By the way, where is Israel? Pro
memoria: Israel has a military service a' la Switzerland, with
the difference being that women are obliged to service too, no
just volunteers.)
Cheers,
/Roy Lanek
1. Finnish school killer dies at hospital
www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-08 07:12:19,
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/08/content_7029965.htm
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