With 90 guns for every 100 people and 270 million of the world's 875 million known firearms, according to the Small Arms Survey in Switzerland, the U.S. by far is the most heavily armed nation in the world. Yemen, in second place, has 61 guns per 100 people, followed by Finland with 56, Switzerland with 46, and Iraq with 39.
The above number of guns per capita (46) for switzerland I believe is a high estimate, lower estimates go about 33 per hundred or 33%.
The nranuts & gun lobbynuts & gunpunks the world over have frequently cited switzerland as an armed utopia where more guns means less crime. Let's take a closer look at how the swiss & america stack up:
........................... Switzerland ....................... USA
population ................ ~ 7 million ............ ~310 million
total guns ................. ~3 million ............. ~300 million (hi est)
So we see that there are only about 3 million guns in switzerland (including those home guard assault rifles), and there are about 300 million guns in america. In other words there are approximately 300 million more guns in america.
If we were to reduce the proportion of guns in america to the swiss proportion of guns per capita (~40%), america would need eliminate about 180 million guns. So much for gunnut utopia.
.. carrying concealed is disallowed in switzerland unless one demonstrates need (essentially a 'may issue' state).
.. one needs a permit to purchase, at least in most cantons (counties).
.. earlier this century I think, the swiss changed the rules for where the ammunition for those home guard assault rifles was to be kept, it is now kept in a swiss govt/military ARMORY, and not at the militia man's house. They tried to get the assault rifles confined in their armories as well but this bill failed, maybe some on the fence lawmakers hedged by thinking 'OK, you can keep your bulletless assault rifle at your house'.
The Second Amendment -- an anachronism that was meaningful only when people hunted for their food -- reads, "A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed."
I sorta disagree with author on this point, certainly the way he worded it, for in 1791 americans had ample food for they were an agrarian society, agriculture & farms, something like 80% - 90% americans farmed or lived on farming, so food was not in short supply; and trapping & fish & berry picking provided much food, so this american canard of hunting to provide food for the family is pretty much a myth, altho they surely did to supplement the food supply, it wasn't really done that much for you could lose your teeth if you chomped into embedded buckshot or musket ball fragments in the meats.
.. about the 'only' meaningful time people hunted for food, that I can think of, would be when they were actually activated on militia duty, when their food chain from the farms & towns was hindered by the war (1812 etc).
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