TexasBill
Member
Norway will probably be just fine. The Norwegians have a strong firearms tradition involved with both hunting and sport shooting and, as has been mentioned by someone who should know, there are lots of guns already in civilian hands.
As far as weapons for self-defense, they may not have seen a pressing need for them. Even police shootings are rare: in the 10 years between 1994 and 2004, the entire Norwegian Police Service fired less than two boxes of ammo in the line of duty and one of those boxes was used in a single incident. In the past 50 years, eight Norwegian police officers have been killed by gunfire. The overall homicide rate in Norway through 2010 is 0.6 per 100,000 population; ours is 5.0. (the Czech Republic's is 1.94; in Slovakia, it's 1.74)
We need to quit judging them by our standards. While Norway, as it exists today, has been independent since 1905, its roots and traditions stretch back thousands of years. The country enjoys the highest human development index in the world, so they are apparently doing something that works for them, though we would probably call them socialists.
What I would worry about is our homegrown whackos, like the Brady Bunch and the VPC, and the anti-gun forces other European countries. Fortunately, Norway is the only Scandinavian country that isn't a member of the European Union. so the EU isn't able to force things on it.
That's because governments reserve the right to use force to themselves, supposedly because they will use it to protect the governed and maybe bring in some fresh cash through wars of conquest. Neat how that works, isn't it?
As far as weapons for self-defense, they may not have seen a pressing need for them. Even police shootings are rare: in the 10 years between 1994 and 2004, the entire Norwegian Police Service fired less than two boxes of ammo in the line of duty and one of those boxes was used in a single incident. In the past 50 years, eight Norwegian police officers have been killed by gunfire. The overall homicide rate in Norway through 2010 is 0.6 per 100,000 population; ours is 5.0. (the Czech Republic's is 1.94; in Slovakia, it's 1.74)
We need to quit judging them by our standards. While Norway, as it exists today, has been independent since 1905, its roots and traditions stretch back thousands of years. The country enjoys the highest human development index in the world, so they are apparently doing something that works for them, though we would probably call them socialists.
What I would worry about is our homegrown whackos, like the Brady Bunch and the VPC, and the anti-gun forces other European countries. Fortunately, Norway is the only Scandinavian country that isn't a member of the European Union. so the EU isn't able to force things on it.
That's because governments reserve the right to use force to themselves, supposedly because they will use it to protect the governed and maybe bring in some fresh cash through wars of conquest. Neat how that works, isn't it?
