From: dsgood@iphouse.com   
      
   David Friedman wrote:   
      
   > In article <48f4bf9b$0$90343$804603d3@auth.newsreader.iphouse.com>,   
   >  "Dan Goodman"  wrote:   
   >   
   > > Ric Locke wrote:   
   > >   
   > > > People who aren't familiar with firearms generally overestimate   
   > > > their destructiveness. [misc]This is handy for gun-control   
   > > > promoters, since it makes the propaganda easier and yields an   
   > > > easily-cowed populace when they bring their own out[/misc]   
   > >   
   > > 1) It's also handy for gun-rights advocates.  "If you're armed,   
   > > you're safe!"  Joel Rosenberg and other gun instructors make it   
   > > plain that guns aren't magic -- but some pro-gun members of the   
   > > chattering classes don't.   
   > >   
   > > 2) The only real success at taking away firearms that I know of was   
   > > in Japan.  And the shogunate did this by taking guns away from   
   > > everybody.  From soldiers, for example.  (This was probably a lot   
   > > easier to contemplate because many of those soldiers were feudal   
   > > followers of nobles rather than under direct central control -- and   
   > > the nobles weren't guaranteed to be loyal to the shogun.)  See Noel   
   > > Perrin, _Giving Up the Gun_.   
   >   
   > I have a vague memory of having seen something more recent that   
   > argued that Perrin's book exaggerated the degree to which the policy   
   > was carried out, but a quick google fails to find any references.   
      
   There was probably some discrepancy between what the reports said and   
   the reality.   
      
   But the policy seems to have been carried out enough to leave the   
   shogunate outgunned by Europeans.   
      
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   --   
   Dan Goodman   
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