04/20/2007
04/19/07 — A Reader Posts The Mexican Invasion PowerPoint On YouTube
From: An Anonymous Supporter
I support VDARE.COM (anonymously) because I believe the current immigration laws are against the safety and national interests of the US.
I also support the Brady Campaign because I believe the current lack of effective gun laws are against the safety and interests of the US.
Both positions are supported by the example of the terrible deaths at Virginia Tech last week.
In Virginia Tech Massacre: Gun Control — or Immigration Control?, you do both causes a disservice.
Bush argues against reform of illegal immigration by offering the false argument we cannot deport 12 million people. But few responsible people in the immigration reform movement are proposing some type of overnight Exodus-like scene of illegals trudging across the Sonoran desert surrounded by armed ICE agents. You would object to his false example here.
NRA -type arguments against even reasonable gun regulations (a la Canada) offer the false image of rounding up and seizing 100 million guns in the US. Few responsible people in the gun control movement are proposing some type of overnight black helicopters nationwide army of ATF agents raiding homes and cars seizing guns.
That is a false image just like the Exodus of 12 million illegals.
You are doing to the gun control movement what the Bush-ites and ACLU, La Raza etc. do to the immigration reform movement by throwing out inflammatory false images or choices.
We can have sensible immigration laws that will limit the number of legal and illegal immigrants just as we can have sensible gun regulations, say on the Canadian model, where ownership of a gun requires a background check, liability insurance, no private ownership of military type weapons. I favor both of these positions.
Finally, you mention every Swiss male is required to keep an automatic weapon in his home. Not so fast. I have heard that argument before. A former Swiss soldier wrote a letter to NYT (which I will be happy to send you) taking issue with the American myth about guns in Switzerland. He pointed out the Swiss police carefully review all applications for gun ownership. The powerful military assault weapons are rarely ever seen on the street and not used for street crimes. Overall gun control is rigorous in Switzerland. [Swiss Gun Control, From Mico Loretan, NY Times, February 5, 1989]
Also a month or so ago, while on maneuvers, the Swiss Army got lost in the mountains and crossed the border into Lichtenstein, for which they apologized. As I recall they also pointed out that, while they were carrying their weapons, they had no ammunition. I can recall skiing in Switzerland years ago and saw the Swiss army on skis with weapons, but they were not used. These were clearly organized groups as in "well-regulated", not free lancers out for some exercise.
Finally Switzerland has about 20 cantons, which have four language groups. The German-speaking cantons dominate the others which may be why the country has been stable since about 1800. Switzerland is more varied than you might think and could have been a Bosnia had historical factors worked out a little differently.
P.S. While on business trip in Dallas years ago, I had a loaded gun pointed on me by a "nut" who carried one in his brief case. It gives one a sober perspective.
By James Fulford, who is a gun rights supporter, writes: While most of our writers oppose gun control on principle, or from a belief in the moral necessity of self-defense, or from a feeling that the government will not be there to protect us, (on the southern border, you don’t see one armed alien attacking 50 unarmed Americans, you see 50 aliens invading the land of one or two people, who had better be armed) we welcome the support of anyone on the immigration issue, while supporting their First Amendment rights to attack our Second Amendment rights.
The Internet provided a copy of the letter our reader referenced — the former Swiss soldier in question was a 20-ish undergraduate at Yale in 1989 — he’s now an economist with the (American) Federal Reserve. Everyone in Switzerland is a current or former Swiss soldier; it’s required by law. His point was that rifles were different from pistols — the Swiss didn’t carry rifles on the street for self-defense. But then, they don’t need to, because they are in Switzerland. In any case, Swiss gun control is nothing like New York’s — see here for details.
The main point, however, is that Switzerland, while a multiethnic state, is different from Yugoslavia — and different from the post-1965 United States. Here’s what Peter Brimelow had to say about Switzerland in Alien Nation:
Indeed, despite all the failed federations and multiethnic mayhem of the past few decades, the most frequent reaction to any questioning of the possibility of multiethnic harmony is still "What about Switzerland?" The recent record just doesn’t count. OK, what about Switzerland?
Conclusion: Switzerland is hardly a practical model for U.S. ethnic policy. [Alien Nation, P. 126 of the paperback edition.]
By Peter Brimelow, who as a refugee from a Second Amendmentless homeland doesn’t know one end of a gun from another, writes: VDARE.COM is not going to take a position on gun control — except to say that immigration control should get at least as much attention.
This is a content archive of VDARE.com, which Letitia James forced off of the Internet using lawfare.