Subject:
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Re: An armed society...
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Newsgroups:
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lugnet.off-topic.debate
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Date:
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Mon, 21 Jan 2002 14:18:45 GMT
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Viewed:
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734 times
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"Scott A" <eh105jb@mx1.pair.com> writes:
> Between the ages of 21 and 32 men serve as frontline troops. They
> are given an M-57 assault rifle and 24 rounds of ammunition which
> they are required to keep at home.
>
> Once discharged, men serve in the Swiss equivalent of the US
> National Guard, but still have to train occasionally and are given
> bolt rifles. Women do not have to own firearms, but are encouraged
> to.
This system is fairly similar to that in Norway. A fair amount of
those men who undergo the compulsory military service are enrolled in
"Heimevernet", probably fairly similar to the US National Guard. They
keep an automatic rifle (AG3) at home, as well as 200 rounds of 7,96mm
ammunition. This obligation is suspended at the age of 45. There are
approximately 80.000 persons who have an AG3 rifle at home, out of a
population of approximately 4,5 million. In addition, there are one
million legally registred firearms in the population.
This pratice of having to keep a firearm at home in the Heimevernet
service is currently heavily debated over here. One week ago, a 25
year old Heimevernet soldier killed three of his family members, as
well as himself, after a domestic dispute during his own birthday
party. He used his Heimevernet service rifle to commit the killings.
There has been a fair number of similar cases during the last years.
In addition, a lot of the service rifles go into the hands of
criminals.
Fredrik
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Message is in Reply To:
 | | Re: An armed society...
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| (...) It is covered in detail here: (URL) country has a population of six million, but there are estimated to be at least two million publicly-owned firearms, including about 600,000 automatic rifles and 500,000 pistols. This is in a very large part (...) (23 years ago, 21-Jan-02, to lugnet.off-topic.debate)
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