6/13/2012

Greeks want to buy guns for self protection as country deteriorates

People are talking about buying hunting rifles, not able to buy pistols.  This is from The Australian newspaper:

MILOS, a gentle-natured civil servant in a Greek government agency, made a startling confession over a beer in an outdoor cafe in central Athens yesterday."I'm thinking of buying a gun to protect my family," he said in a late-night discussion about the tense lead-up to Sunday's national election. "I have never even considered owning a gun before, but I am seriously worried about what might happen after the election."
Gun-shop owners in Athens say the 37-year-old father of one is not alone, reporting rising interest in purchases for personal safety. . . .
Street violence and petty crime have risen during a savage slump that has cut average incomes by 20 per cent, and the leftist radicals who like to hijack peaceful protests over the economy are now being overshadowed by neo-Nazi thugs who have carried out at least one attack a day on immigrants and political opponents in the past week.
With fears Sunday's election could plunge the nation deeper into economic distress, there are widespread concerns the nation is about to see new levels of street crime and political violence.
Criminologist Vassilis Karydis, an academic at the University of Peloponnese, said there had been a rise in "attacks on people in the street to steal things like wallets, mobile phones and jewellery".
"There has certainly been a rise in robberies in the home, which is partly a rational response by criminals to the fact that many people, especially the elderly, have lost faith in banks and are keeping large amounts of money in their homes," he said. "Many (of the culprits) are jobless immigrants and some are drug addicts." . . .

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