US law generally sees a “man’s home as his castle”. This works out well because it lets people protect their family and loved ones from criminals. It acknowledges that people are generally most vulnerable inside their homes — think children, think showering, sleeping, etc. Criminals are aware of this law and know what they are getting into when they home invade. And most US states don’t allow you to kill unless you fear for your life or others’ lives, but realistically no jury is going to convict a home owner for killing a criminal that breaks in. How would you propose people protect themselves from people breaking in looking to harm people?

As for shooting someone breaking into your car, the law distinguishes between protecting property (can’t use lethal force) and protecting lives. If your wife and kids are in a car that is broken into (car jacked) by a dangerous criminal, you can most definitely use lethal force to protect them.

You have to take this rifle home when not in the military. So practicaly almost every swiss man has a fully automatic assault rifle ( optionaly with 44mm granade launcher ) at home.

And before you ask, yes there are incidents, once a few years ago, somebody shot 16 regional politicians with this rifle, with munition he shouldn’t have been able to obtain.

As for your bullets (no pun intended):

• You can, but you will go to jail. Plus, cigarettes are so cheap, it’s less of a hassle to buy a pack.
  I’m a practicing Buddhist.
• I’m planning on voting for the Libertarian candidate, http://www.badnarik.org Michael Badnarik
• I’m drinking a beer right now. I have a tin of small cigars, too.
• You can eat junk food anywhere.

Just wanted to clarify things. If you wish to ban me, that’s fine. It’s your blog.

I know they’d probably be cool looking, being furry and everything, but depriving a bear of his (or her) arms is fairly cruel.

I mean, I know bears ‘can’ walk upright but as far as I know it’s only for a short period of time, with them preferring to walk/amble along on four limbs.

Plus how are they supposed to feed themselves without arms…

Anyway, I think Americans should give up the right to bear arms and let the bears keep their limbs.

ps. There’s also the problem of not enough bears for _everyone_ to have their own set of bear arms. Well, unless you amend the constitution to allow the right to bear legs as well. But that’d just be silly, I mean, what could you do with a bear leg?

I seem to remember being taught that the Swiss all receive obligatory military training and are required to keep a gun at home, in order to be able to mobilize an army quickly, when required.  Is that no longer true?

You don’t live in the US, thus you are just guessing when you make your conclusions about what the US is like. To save us all a lot of trouble why not:

1. Move to the US and see it first hand what a nice, but not perfect, country it is..
2. Just report on France which is what you know..

There is nothing more annoying then someone having an uneducated and baseless opinion

You’re offended by Jkx’s entry, because he expresses some opinion about the wrongs of USA.

Ah you see, would the USA stick to solve their own problems first, and not blow up people all over the world instead, claiming even they had a right to do so, when they hadn’t…

There wouldn’t be this shitrain of comments on USA in the first place.

IMHO by electing the goverment americans have now, they’re not in the position to whine about comments, qualified or not.

I would like give you my humble opinion as an American who has travelled quite a bit around the world!

• Yes, you can kill for cigarettes. I’m pretty sure you can in France as well. In both countries, you will be punished when caught.

• Without spending too much time on this, let’s just use the World Factbook as a reference (http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/index.html).

  United States: Protestant 56%, Roman Catholic 28%, Jewish 2%, other 4%, none 10% (from 1989).

  France: Roman Catholic 83-88%, Protestant 2%, Jewish 1%, Muslim 5-10%, unaffiliated 4%.

  These numbers don’t look that different to me, which isn’t surprising considering the majority of our ancestors came from western Europe :)

  Meanwhile, we Americans see religious behavior in Europe that seems disturbing. For instance, the portion of taxes in Germany that must go to either the Roman Catholic or the Lutheran churches. If I were Muslim or a Buddhist I would be unhappy to be forced to give a portion of my income to those faiths. In France, there is the issue with banning wearing of the Hibab. Sure you may feel you have good reasons to ban it, but it is still preventing people from practicing their own faith, which is a freedom we guard jealously in America.

• Bush did not win a majority of the votes in the previous election. In fact, not many American presidents of the last century won with a majority vote. So it’s safe to say less than 50% of Americans voted for Bush (or Clinton, etc.)

• Yes, there used to be local communities that forbid cigarettes and alcohol completely. I’m not sure how many of those are still around though :) Places like California and New York City now forbid smoking in public areas, but that’s not the same as completely forbidding those acts. It’s only a matter of time before this happens in Europe as well. I’ve seen the groundwork being laid in Germany. By the way, I’ve also lived in areas of America where the smoke is just as thick as anywhere I’ve been in Europe.

• Yes, we eat way too much junk food in America. But should the government pass a law tell me what I must eat? Or pass a law to forbid fast food as well as cigarettes? :)

  Personally, I eat more fast food every time I travel to Germany (5-6 weeks every year) than when I am home. When at home I prefer to eat French cooking, but that’s because I like it… not because the government says I must.

Finally, to address your main point about guns: it seems to me there is a primary difference between most Americans and most Europeans. Most Americans (but not all) believe the government cannot defend us from criminals. The government can only track down the criminals later and punish them for a crime already committed. This doesn’t help the victim if they are raped or killed. Most of us also have a basic distrust of government. Our constitution designed a government with a system of checks and balances to prevent a single group or person from gaining too much power. A right to own guns is seen by some to be the last resort "check" against a government that becomes a tyranny.

However, I strongly believe I should be allowed to buy a gun should I want one. I also strongly believe I should be allowed to smoke cigarettes, drink alcohol, and worship Haile Selassie if I so desire.

Florian: do you honestly believe we don’t criticize ourselves, or try and fix problems? Or that all we want to do is blow up people?

Hence Moslem, Buddhists, and Atheists (like me) are not required to pay the tax – it’s merely a government-required tithe for Christians.