and fully automatic assault rifles to all adult males and requires them to store their weapons at home. Further, civilian long-gun purchases are basically unregulated, and handguns are available to any adult without a criminal record or mental defect. Nevertheless, Switzerland suffers far less crime per capita than the United States and almost no gun crime (Hgar). Perhaps we should look beyond guns as the cause of violence. The fact is violence and crime are linked with collapsing educational standards, increasing delinquency, and a deteriorating society worldwide. In Australia, a 1989 Parliamentary Inquiry into literacy found that more than one million citizens are functionally illiterate and some 32 percent had problems completing job histories. Between 1973-1974 and 1991-1992 the number of serious assaults has risen 391 percent and the robbery rate increased by 190 percent. Most police officers agree that gun control laws are ineffective (Hagar). A 1986 questionnaire sent to every police station in Idaho produced the following results: 97 percent believed that a firearms ownership ban would not reduce crime or keep criminals from using guns. 89 percent believed that gun control laws such as those in Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York City had no effect on criminals. 90 percent believe if firearm ownership were banned, ordinary citizens would be more likely to be targets of armed violence (Statistic from Hagar). Guns do not turn ordinary citizens into murderers. Substantially, less than one gun owner in 3,000 commit a homicide and that one killer is far from a typical gun owner. A study found two-thirds to four-fifths of homicide offenders have prior arrest records, commonly for violent felonies. This same study disclosed that in 85 percent of homicides among family members the police had been called in before to break up violence. In half the cases, the police had been called five or more times. Thus, the average per...
