Blake Schwendiman's Blog and Blook

I need some help from my international readers. I recently posted an article about gun ownership and received several emails and one direct comment. I would like to get some feedback about a common response to gun ownership that I hear. In a nutshell, almost every strong defender of gun ownership presents an argument something like this:

"In [insert country of choice], every household owns a gun because they are issued by the military. Therefore bad guys in those countries don't dare commit crimes. Ergo, if everyone has a gun, less people will get shot"

Now, I may be misunderstanding the argument, but for now that is not the point. What I want to know is:

1. Are there countries that issue guns to every person (or a majority of people) at a certain age? If so, which countries. Also, are those guns ever returned to the issuer.
2. For those countries where guns are issued, is the occurrence of violent crime actually lower? If so, is it related to personal gun ownership or is it because of cultural or political differences?

One of my commenters said that Switzerland is a country in which all men receive guns at age 18. I'd like to find out from my international friends if this is accurate and if it is, what is the impact on crime, accidental shootings, etc.

I would be happy to translate this post into French and German for my Swiss readers but at this time in my life I can only think of one French phrase, "Je pense que j'ai oublié ma clef," and one German phrase, "Meine papiere ... iche habe sie verloren," both of which are lines from The Bourne Identity. If someone else wants to translate this call for help, I'll post it.

Please pass this on to your international friends and let us see if we can learn something.