THE ROBERT W. WHITAKER ARCHIVE

The shootings in the Colorado high school naturally renewed the liberal shout about guns. They say it happened because Americans have guns. As always, respectable conservatives respectfully, very, very respectfully, disagree. They mutter something about Family Values.

Actually, the population of Switzerland is armed to the eyeballs, and nothing like this happens there. Recently there was a mass shooting in a school in BRITAIN, where they have the fanatical gun laws liberals dream about. But nothing like this happens where the guns are, in Switzerland.

So how many respectable conservatives, including Pat Buchanan, mentioned Switzerland?

HINT: Try "Not a single one."

To be a respectable conservative, you never repeat anything that seriously bothers liberals. The Swiss example totally destroys every liberal argument for gun control, so conservatives almost never mention it, and they never REPEAT it the way a liberal repeats his best points.

The argument that KILLS all present gun control demands is Switzerland. In Switzerland, hundreds of thousands of ordinary citizens are required to have either a HANDGUN or an ASSAULT WEAPON at home. The government PAYS for those guns, yet Switzerland has no more gun crimes than any other European country, including those like Britain with absolutely oppressive gun laws.

Good old respectable conservatives! They NEVER mention Switzerland when gun control comes up. Over two decades ago, when I worked on Capitol Hill, my boss was a member of the NRA Board of Directors. We begged them to talk about Switzerland. We put the Swiss example in the Congressional Record.

But still, conservatives would not repeat Switzerland, Switzerland, Switzerland, the way a liberal would repeat a killer point he had. You see, repeating the point about Switzerland would not be polite. It bothers liberals. So to be a respectable conservative, you don't push it.

If there were any serious conservatives in the media debate, they could make some critical points pushing Switzerland. First of all, the Swiss example can make it clear how silly the so-called "assault weapons ban" is. To repeat, the Swiss population has hundreds of thousands of REAL assault weapons at home!

We all know that NONE of the guns outlawed by the assault weapons ban were actual assault weapons. No weapon which cannot be switched to fully automatic is an assault weapon. No modern soldier would make an assault with a weapon which could not be switched to full automatic, the way Swiss weapons can.

Congress has kept guns that can be switched to full automatic out of private hands since the 1920's.

Liberal intellectuals simply cannot understand what an assault weapon really is, because they cannot understand what an automatic weapon is.

So I ask Southern Nationalists to indulge me for a moment while I speak directly to America's "intellectual leaders." I must explain to them the difference between a weapon which is automatic and one which is NOT automatic. If they would stop being respectful, conservatives would use the approach I am about to.

They would say,

"Let us now speak in terms even a liberal professor can understand

"Gun that is NOT automatic weapon go this way

"PULL TRIGGER, it go BANG.

"PULL TRIGGER again, it go BANG again.

"On the other hand, we have to explain to these brilliant liberal intellectuals what an automatic weapon is

"AUTOMATIC weapon go

"RATATATATATATA TAT!

Now, are even the poor, dumbass liberal intellectuals with me here?"

In Switzerland, every male adult between the ages of eighteen and forty-five IS REQUIRED BY LAW to have a REAL assault weapon or an Evil Handgun at home. These are the two weapons liberals say the people cannot have without a blood bath. These are the two kinds of weapons liberals are banning here. In Switzerland, the GOVERNMENT supplies those weapons!

This is a wonderful example to drive home, and I mean DRIVE home.

It PROVES that simple availability of weapons does not affect the crime rate.

Switzerland proves that gun crime depends on who has the guns. If you push Switzerland, you can make it viciously clear how insane liberals are on the whole subject.

Since I alone have used this point so often, I know that there is a last liberal gambit. When they are driven against the wall with the Swiss example, they will often say that that is completely different, because Switzerland has its guns as part of its military reserve. They will say that that is the only reason it works in Switzerland. Once again, this could give an intelligent and serious conservative -- if there were any in the debate- - a chance to make another point.

A few years back, over thirty states adopted "right to carry" laws.

Before those laws, any citizen who wanted a permit to carry a concealed weapon had to either 1) provide a reason for it the police would accept or 2) have political pull. In the real world, the bottom line was that if you didn't have political pull, you didn't get a permit.

"Right to carry" changed the burden of proof. Under "right to carry" laws, if an honest citizen wanted a permit, police had to provide a reason why they would NOT issue it.

Naturally, when "right to carry" was proposed, ALL the liberals screamed "Bloodbath!" and "Dodge City!!" More than one liberal source stated flatly that the streets would run red with blood if these laws were enacted.

Those laws were enacted. Hundreds of thousands of permits have been issued, and they have been out there for years. Not a single recorded instance of illegal violence has resulted in the years since. If respectable conservatives ever repeated what liberals once screamed about "right to carry" laws, liberals would be humiliated.

Not one single respectable conservative has breathed a word about it.

But, if there were a single intelligent conservative in these debates, he would bring up Switzerland, and drive liberals to the wall. Then liberals would be forced to their last-ditch gambit, saying that the only reason the Swiss don't misuse guns is because they are in the military reserves. That would give the conservative a chance to humiliate liberals again. He would point out that, after all the liberal shrieks about a "Bloodbath!," American "right to carry" permit holders have just as good a gun record as the Swiss reserves do!

No conservative on CNN or in the media will ever say that.

Respectable conservatives are our real enemies.