off-topic

     HELSINKI, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- [A] student who killed eight
     people on Wednesday in a school shooting in southern Finland
     and turned the gun on himself died at the hospital on the
     evening of the same day, the Finnish media reported. [...]

     [A]ccording to a recent study, Finland has one of the
     world's highest gun ownership rates, ranking third behind
     the United States and Yemen. Most of the registered weapons
     in Finland are hunting riffles.^1

Can't believe that--the last paragraph above--at least not the
ranking number, or then, not in what is meant as "registered
weapons."

*Mini* intro:

Switzerland (I am Swiss) has an obligatory--for men--military
service. (The service is voluntary for women.) Differently from
Italy, or France, Swiss conscripts are obliged, at intervals
in the O(years), to service for 2-3 decades after their basic
instruction has been accomplished, basic instruction which
typically begins when a fellow reaches age 19-20-21 and lasts a
few months. Officers service longer.

There is just a very limited *professional army* [instructors,
career officers, patrol pilots, barracks-, fortress-,
machine-shops staff] in Switzerland.

Only VERY special cases--serious health problems, dwarfs, blind,
deaf, extremely obese, ... you have got the idea--are discarded
from active service.

That is, virtually EVERY Swiss man aged twenty and up is,
volens nolens, a member of the Swiss Army (with very limited
exceptions); and has, unless he leaves *legally* the country for
enough long time, his own weapon--an automatic 9mm assault rifle
or, it depends, a pistol from the army--at home ... inclusive the
rest of the equipment - plus, when I have been in Switzerland
still, more than a decade ago, a set of rounds to fill a loader
(24x for the assault rifle). I believe they are reconsidering
that--ammunition at home--after a couple of shootings involving
military weapons have occurred in Switzerland in the last years.

The weapon one receives is personal, and is "registered" of course.

When a fellow, later in life [around forty for a simple soldier]
becomes discharged from the active service, he can keep his gun
if he likes--MOST DO.

End intro.

Summa summarum ... pigeonhole principle ... virtually every
Swiss household has one "registered weapon" as the minimum.
Hence I don't believe that Finland is "ranking third behind the
United States and Yemen." (By the way, where is Israel? Pro
memoria: Israel has a military service a' la Switzerland, with
the difference being that women are obliged to service too, no
just volunteers.)

Cheers,

/Roy Lanek


     1. Finnish school killer dies at hospital
www.chinaview.cn 2007-11-08 07:12:19,
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-11/08/content_7029965.htm

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