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Title: Swiss Vote to Keep Guns at Home (Militia defeats gun grabing socialists)
Source:
The Wall Street Journal
URL Source: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100 ... 3515504576142190857662716.html
Published: Feb 13, 2011
Author: DEBORAH BALL
Post Date: 2011-02-13 14:48:44 by Hondo68
Keywords: men between 18 and 30, three months military training, Swiss militiamen
Views: 48157
Comments: 55
ZURICH—Following an emotional debate over gun control, Swiss voters firmly rejected a referendum that would have forced soldiers to end the longstanding practice of keeping army-issue firearms at home and tightened restrictions over civilian gun ownership. According to exit polls, 57% of voters rejected the initiative. The referendum sparked a heated debate over the right to bear arms in a country that has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world. Between 1.2 million and 4.5 million firearms are estimated to be in circulation in Switzerland, putting the Alpine country behind only the U.S. and Yemen in guns per capita. The number is particularly high because members of the Swiss militia have traditionally keep their army-issued rifles or pistols at home, to be ready to defend the nation at a moment's notice. Switzerland has virtually no standing army, relying instead on conscripted militia for national defense. All Swiss men between 18 and 30 years old are called up to do three months' military training, followed by regular refresher courses. The notion of the citizen-soldier is a cornerstone of Switzerland's armed neutrality policy. For decades, Swiss militiamen kept their army-issued firearms stashed in closets or under beds at home. But support for keeping so many guns at home has eroded, with opposition led by women, doctors and police, who claim that the easy availability of arms facilitates domestic violence, suicides and homicides. They contested the need to keep guns at home given that Switzerland hasn't come under threat since World War II. Opponents of the referendum argued that the initiative was tantamount to a vote of no confidence in the Swiss army. Each side used stark images to sway voters. The referendum's supporters used a teddy bear with blood dripping from a hole in its chest, brandishing the motto, "Protect your family." A right-wing group's posters featured a man with dark glasses pointing a gun at the viewer, a play on anti-immigrant sentiment. The Swiss government opposed the referendum, arguing that soldiers are now allowed to store their weapons on base and that civilian gun possession laws—once very liberal—are now tight enough. The "no" vote exceeded 70% in some rural cantons, which are more conservative and are the home to many shooting clubs. The Swiss people won't let themselves "be disarmed," said Jakob Buchler, a leader of the conservative Democratic People's Party.
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#42. To: hondo68 (#0)
Hitler invaded the largely German speaking Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. He invaded the German speaking Austria. However, he never invaded the largely German speaking Switzerland. Why? Because they all had guns in their closet. This is the lesson from history that we must understand.
Why? Because they all had guns in their closet. That's a myth. Hitler nor any German general or statesment ever said that or thought that. Hitler never wanted war with the West. He wanted to move eastward and attack the USSR and take their land. Germany did not declare war on France or the British. It is was those nations that declared war on Germany, which suprised Hitler that they did so on behalf of Poland. All other western battles (from Norway to the Balkans) were a result of Germany securing their flanks. The Allies were planning to invade Norway to block Swedish iron ore. Germany invaded the Balkans because Italy was losing her war against Greece and the English were landing there while he was preparing to invade the USSR. When Hitler thought the war with France and England was almost over he invaded his real target - the USSR. Hitler did not want to rule over all Germans like the Swiss. He wanted to expand eastwards and gain land. Hitler wanting to "liberate" the Sudetenland was racially motivated - the Nazis did not like the idea of so called Aryans ruled by what he thought were sub-human Slavs.
The Armistice is signed on June 22. Under its terms, two thirds of France is to be occupied by the Germans. The French army is to be disbanded. In addition, France must bear the cost of the German invasion. (Hitler's face) "is afire with scorn, anger, hate, revenge, triumph." http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/francesurrenders.htm Hitler knew them treaty obligations that would compel France and Britain to join in. And he was insane, greedy, a megalomaniac and didn't think he would have the trouble he did in trying to conquer Great Britain. I do not agree with you. He made a deal with Stalin to split up Poland, and always planned to betray him. He was also insanely grudgeful about the way WW I went, and had France surrender in the same rail car used to secure surrender signatures of the Germans at the end of that war.
That's what I said - hello - Hitler was only interested in Russia not France. Hitler was spiteful against France but he did not want to wage war in the West.
...It is now three twenty-three p.m. and the Germans stride over to the armistice car. For a moment or two they stand in the sunlight outside the car, chatting. Then Hitler steps up into the car, followed by the others. We can see nicely through the car windows. Hitler takes the place occupied by Marshal Foch when the 1918 armistice terms were signed. The others spread themselves around him. Four chairs on the opposite side of the table from Hitler remain empty. The French have not yet appeared. But we do not wait long. Exactly at three thirty p.m. they alight from a car. They have flown up from Bordeaux to a near-by landing field. ...Then they walk down the avenue flanked by three German officers. We see them now as they come into the sunlight of the clearing. Hitler celebrates before the ceremony ...It is a grave hour in the life of France. The Frenchmen keep their eyes straight ahead. Their faces are solemn, drawn. They are the picture of tragic dignity. They walk stiffly to the car, where they are met by two German officers, Lieutenant-General Tippelskirch, Quartermaster General, and Colonel Thomas, chief of the Fuhrer's headquarters. The Germans salute. The French salute. The atmosphere is what Europeans call "correct." There are salutes, but no handshakes. Now we get our picture through the dusty windows of that old wagon-lit car. Hitler and the other German leaders rise as the French enter the drawing-room. Hitler gives the Nazi salute, the arm raised. Ribbentrop and Hess do the same. I cannot see M. Noel to notice whether he salutes or not. Hitler, as far as we can see through the windows, does not say a word to the French or to anybody else. He nods to General Keitel at his side. We see General Keitel adjusting his papers. Then he starts to read. He is reading the preamble to the German armistice terms. The French sit there with marble-like faces and listen intently. Hitler and Goring glance at the green table-top. The reading of the preamble lasts but a few minutes. Hitler, we soon observe, has no intention of remaining very long, of listening to the reading of the armistice terms themselves. At three forty-two p.m., twelve minutes after the French arrive, we see Hitler stand up, salute stiffly, and then stride out of the drawing-room, followed by Goring, Brauchitsch, Raeder, Hess, and Ribbentrop. The French, like figures of stone, remain at the green-topped table. General Keitel remains with them. He starts to read them the detailed conditions of the armistice. Hitler and his aides stride down the avenue towards the Alsace-Lorraine monument, where their cars are waiting. As they pass the guard of honour, the German band strikes up the two national anthems, Deutschland, Deutschland uber Alles and the Horst Wessel song. The whole ceremony in which Hitler has reached a new pinnacle in his meteoric career and Germany avenged the 1918 defeat is over in a quarter of an hour." http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/francesurrenders.htm Hitler was obsessively interested in France. When he lay in the hospital a wounded corporal, he cried bitter tears in extreme anger and humiliation at how he percieved France treated Germany in surrender.
#48. To: Ferret Mike (#47)
Hitler cried because the war was lost not because of any perceived ill treatment of Germany by France - the Versailles treaty came after. Hitler was not planning a war in the West with France and England and did all he could to avoid it. He made his moves in the east.
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#44. To: jwpegler, hondo68 (#42)
(Edited)
Hitler invaded the largely German speaking Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. He invaded the German speaking Austria. However, he never invaded the largely German speaking Switzerland.
#45. To: Godwinson (#44)
(Edited)
Hitler dictates that the French capitulation take place at Compiegne, a forest north of Paris. This is the same spot where twenty-two years earlier the Germans had signed the Armistice ending World War I. Hitler intends to disgrace the French and avenge the German defeat. To further deepen the humiliation, he orders that the signing ceremony take place in the same railroad car that hosted the earlier surrender.
#46. To: Ferret Mike (#45)
I do not agree with you. He made a deal with Stalin to split up Poland, and always planned to betray him.
#47. To: Godwinson (#46)
Hitler reads it and Goring reads it. They all read it, standing there in the June sun and the silence. I look for the expression on Hitler's face. I am but fifty yards from him and see him through my glasses as though he were directly in front of me. I have seen that face many times at the great moments of his life. But today! It is afire with scorn, anger, hate, revenge, triumph. He steps off the monument and contrives to make even this gesture a masterpiece of contempt. He glances back at it, contemptuous, angry - angry, you almost feel, because he cannot wipe out the awful, provoking lettering with one sweep of his high Prussian boot. He glances slowly around the clearing, and now, as his eyes meet ours, you grasp the depth of his hatred. But there is triumph there too - revengeful, triumphant hate. Suddenly, as though his face were not giving quite complete expression to his feelings, he throws his whole body into harmony with his mood. He swiftly snaps his hands on his hips, arches his shoulders, plants his feet wide apart. It is a magnificent gesture of defiance, of burning contempt for this place now and all that it has stood for in the twenty-two years since it witnessed the humbling of the German Empire.
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