I have not looked at this thread for a while, so am weighing in late. I am going to come down on the side of people owning weapons though. What I see happening in the US can only be stopped if enough people have the power to speak up. The erosion of our freedoms since 9/11 is inexcusable, and I know that Bin Laden is laughing his fool head off at the Patriot Act.

The ACLU is able to speak up and fight in court because there are a bunch of people who own guns who will fight the government if it tried anything against them. And anyone who thinks democracies are safe need not even look to history for examples of democracies gone bad. Look at what is happening in Nicaragua. Chavez was elected there, bit there will never be another election as long as he is alive. This is not speculation, it is what is happening now.

Gun control does not work. I know that proponents can point to Switzerland and a few other countries as proof that it does, but are they really examples of gun control working, or of national pride? Switzerland has a long history of being independant, and there army is respected on reputation more than ability. If any country were to seriously decide to attack Switzerland they would fall rather quickly, despite the advantages that they have defensively from the Alps, and the fact that every able bodied person is technically in the Swiss Armed Forces, which is almost a militia in structure.

Since the original framers of the US Constition envisioned a militia more than an army, perhaps the reason that Switzerland actually has effective gun control is that they have a well armed militia. I wonder what will happen to the citezens of Switzerland if the movement to disband the army ever actually succeeds.