! "James A. Donald" <jamesd@echeque.com>, writes: ! >I heard on talk.politics.guns somebody say that in Sweden they ! >had banned knives with a sharp point at the end, and were going ! >to ban sharp knives altogether. I think he was just engaging in ! >hyperbole, that he really meant that gun control in Sweden was ! >unreasonably strict, but on reflection I am not sure. ! > ! ! In a survey conducted in Sweden a few years ago, 50% of Swedish ! households had access to guns (generally military service weapons ! and sporting shotguns). Guns are, however, licensed and regulated, ! and seldom used in crimes. Licenses for "personal protection" are ! almost unobtainable. At least one military officer was court martialed ! when his service revolver was stolen from his automobile. ! ! The most significant "mass murderer" crimes in Sweden (one last ! year and one in the 1970's) were caused by people who used their ! legally-obtained military weapons. Hundreds of thousands of private American citizens legally own machine guns, silencers, live hand grenades, .75 caliber machine guns, etc. Perhaps 40% or so of the populace lives in an area without significantly higher regulations concerning such than the federal, which is not that bad. There is no federal law making silenced machine guns substantially more difficult to purchase and shoot than ordinary handguns. The feds certainly don't require training or any other similar requirement. Contrary to popular fiction, ALL firearms have been permanently registered since the 1968 Gun Control Act. The media monopoly lies when they say the contrary. How many firearm crimes were committed by these hundreds of thousands of ordinary untrained destructive weapon owners with their destructive weapons in the entire span of 1980-1996? *NONE*! THEREFORE, everyone in Sweden and America should be allowed to own silenced machine guns without any greater than the usual restrictions. BTW, I muse that the issue of guns, drugs and censorship make an excellent litmus test for libertarians: either you support the legalization of, all of, or your a fake.