KEEPING THE RIGHT TO ARMS ALIVE IN THE HEART OF EUROPE: Swiss Vote To Keep Their Guns. The story says “soldiers,” but in Switzerland that includes pretty much everybody. For fascinating background, I recommend John McPhee’s excellent La Place De La Concorde Suisse.

Being armed, of course, should be regarded as an international human right.

UPDATE: Jim Bennett emails: “Your post reminded me that the McPhee book also includes a good discussion of the Swiss civil defense and nuclear shelter system. He points out that the extensive Swiss nuclear shelter system, which everybody considers to be typically characteristic of Germanic precision and thoroughness, was designed by taking American civil defense plans and implementing them. Of course, I suppose you could say it is Germanic thoroughness to take what Americans design and, unlike us, actually implement it.”