As the conversation about gun control heats up in the United States in the wake of the Giffords shooting, we pose the question: Would there be guns in a perfect society?
Clearly, most Utopianists would say no: Why include an instrument of violence in a perfect society? Guns could only prove to be a pernicious influence; a potential outlet for violent impulses. And surely the goals of any Utopia would include reducing violent crimes to nil. But what if everyone was taught to properly use and understand guns, everyone was ordained to keep one in their homes, and the society then maintained one of the lowest crime rates in the world? Could that still be considered Utopianist?
This is, after all, how Switzerland treats gun policy, and as a result, despite having an estimated 2,000,000 guns in circulation (nearly all provided by the state) there’s only one violent crime for every 250,000 people in the nation annually:
Switzerland is often hailed as the pro-gun rights’ mecca for this reason — it is a generally peaceful nation with low crime rates, and literally everyone owns a gun. But it’s also anomalous, as many other nations with high percentages of gun ownership, like the United States, have much higher gun crime rates. And in fact, many nations with far stricter gun control laws — and less pervasive gun culture — have even lower intentional homicide rates than Switzerland.
Japan, for instance, has some of the strictest gun laws out there — unlicensed citizens aren’t technically even allowed to touch guns. Citizens can obtain a license to acquire rifles or shotguns for hunting alone. As a result, Japan has perhaps the lowest homicide rate of any large nation. And wealthy nations with stricter gun control laws typically — surprise, surprise — see less gun gun violence.
In Singapore, you’re only allowed to own a gun if you have a sporting license, and even then, you’re only allowed to store it in the armory of a registered club — and Singapore’s homicide rate is even lower than Japan’s. Iceland bans handguns, and Denmark’s law is similar to Singapore’s — and both have much lower crime rates than Switzerland. Guns are also outlawed for civilian use in China — though it’s commonly argued that this allows the state to maintain better control of the population while perpetrating human rights abuses.
Obviously, there’s no handy one-size-fits-all gun policy that will be guaranteed to reduce crime — and certainly, cultural traditions play a major role in a nation’s gun crime. Switzerland’s precedent is indeed a curious one, but it’s steeped in a tradition that seems difficult to emulate. And there’s no doubt a correlation between stricter gun laws and lower homicide rates.
But judging by the precedent set by Japan, Denmark, Iceland, and Singapore — all nations with extraordinarily low crime rates — guns can exist in Utopia. But they’d be used purely for sport, in clubs, shooting ranges, and for hunting, and most likely stored in the clubs’ armories instead of at home.
Image: Keep Schools Safe
