Swiss gun laws: did you know?

[reidnez]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland

Switzerland has mandatory conscription, meaning that all adult males between the ages of 20 and 30 are reservists. These men are *required* to keep their issued assault rifle and/or pistol in the home. Not "permitted," required! When they reach age 30 and their service ends, they have the option of keeping their issued weapons--modified so that they become semi-automatic only.

Since the demographic above includes a pretty large chunk of the population, and since I assume that many (if not most) exercise the option to keep their weapons, we can infer that the majority of Swiss homes contain an assault rifle. What a nightmare! This obviously far eclipses the personal firearm ownership of most other countries on Earth, including the United States. There must be torrents of blood running in the streets. Right? Well, not exactly:

"Police statistics for the year 2006 records 34 killings or attempted killings involving firearms, compared to 69 cases involving bladed weapons and 16 cases of unarmed assault."

That is one of the lowest murder rates, per capita, of any country on earth. It is also worth noting that more than twice as many assaults involved knives, compared to guns. And the Swiss clearly do not have a problem obtaining guns. The article even shows a picture of a man carrying his issued weapon in a grocery store. When I was in the military, I couldn't even do that on base!

The anti-gunners seem strangely unaware of this bizarre situation. Or the case of Brazil, with its very prohibitive ownership laws--and much higher firearms murder rate than the United States. I don't know what causes gun violence, but it appears to have no direct correlation with the availability of guns.

[B Strong]

As we speak, the Swiss anti's are attempting to enact broad gun control, including barring reservists from keeping gov. issue weapons and ammo at home.

[grammaton76]

It was either there or Norway that the .gov decided a while back, that while the reservists could keep the rifles at home, the firing pins were going to be held onto by the .gov and only distributed in the event of an emergency.

I just can't remember whether it was my Norwegian internet friend I heard it from or my Swiss one... haven't talked to either one in a few years so it's fuzzy which one I heard it from.

[reidnez]

As we speak, the Swiss anti's are attempting to enact broad gun control, including barring reservists from keeping gov. issue weapons and ammo at home.

Paranoia knows no borders. And, as the article states, there have been some killings involving those weapons. Of course, there is no reason to believe that the perpetrators would not have used a privately purchased weapon or a knife. The overall statistics are still shockingly low, and a couple of isolated incidents do not constitute a trend.

It will be interesting to see how they try to justify their proposed bans, lacking even the crime statistics to back them up.

[B Strong]

Paranoia knows no borders. And, as the article states, there have been some killings involving those weapons. Of course, there is no reason to believe that the perpetrators would not have used a privately purchased weapon or a knife. The overall statistics are still shockingly low, and a couple of isolated incidents do not constitute a trend.

It will be interesting to see how they try to justify their proposed bans, lacking even the crime statistics to back them up.

No anti ever relied on reality to make their case for them.

They depend on emotion and fear to ram their pet ideas down the citizen's collective mouth.

[Canute]

I recently did a public speaking class where I had to research gun control.
I came up with an awesome article by one of my heroes, infosecurity expert Bruce Schneier, covering Virginia Tech and how rare risks breed irrational responses.
The "if it saves just one life" argument doesn't hold water at all. We should ban bathtubs, cars, bicycles, and ladders first. If it saves just one life...

[bsg]

i believe in the past the swiss people were issued sigs; don't know about present.

[Zin_dawg]

Switzerland rocks

Folks:

My family comes from Switzerland, and it is no joke that _everyone_ has a Sig stgw-57 (7.5 Swiss) or stgw-90 (223) (yes, full auto) in their closet, or the basement bomb shelter (also no joke). In fact, if so want, and can pass the background check, you can get an Oerlikon 20mm cannon for your front yard, (but almost no-one wants that thing in their one car garage, and the maintenance is a pain).

On Saturday mornings, it is common to see these slung over the shoulders of people headed to the rifle range: on bikes, on motorcycles, on the train!

I've often made the case that if "guns created violence, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Beirut and Bern" (the capitals of Lebanon and Switzerland, respectively).

Note that the stats only talk about gun _crime_: you're not seeing suicides being lumped in, (like what happens here, every time).

If you are interested in why the Swiss are this way, an excellent book is La Place de Concorde Suisse by John McPhee.
(the opening line is "The Swiss have not fought a war for nearly five hundred years, and are determined to know how so as not to." )

=Marcel

[Spiggy]

Folks:

My family comes from Switzerland, and it is no joke that _everyone_ has a Sig stgw-57 (7.5 Swiss) or stgw-90 (223) (yes, full auto) in their closet, or the basement bomb shelter (also no joke). In fact, if so want, and can pass the background check, you can get an Oerlikon 20mm cannon for your front yard, (but almost no-one wants that thing in their one car garage, and the maintenance is a pain).

On Saturday mornings, it is common to see these slung over the shoulders of people headed to the rifle range: on bikes, on motorcycles, on the train!

I've often made the case that if "guns created violence, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Beirut and Bern" (the capitals of Lebanon and Switzerland, respectively).

Note that the stats only talk about gun _crime_: you're not seeing suicides being lumped in, (like what happens here, every time).

If you are interested in why the Swiss are this way, an excellent book is La Place de Concorde Suisse by John McPhee.
(the opening line is "The Swiss have not fought a war for nearly five hundred years, and are determined to know how so as not to." )

=Marcel

The stat makers always call it "Gun Related Deaths" which include negligent discharges, suicide, and probably clubbings, bayonetings, and being beaten by the wife for spending too much money

[smle-man]

Folks:

My family comes from Switzerland, and it is no joke that _everyone_ has a Sig stgw-57 (7.5 Swiss) or stgw-90 (223) (yes, full auto) in their closet, or the basement bomb shelter (also no joke). In fact, if so want, and can pass the background check, you can get an Oerlikon 20mm cannon for your front yard, (but almost no-one wants that thing in their one car garage, and the maintenance is a pain).

On Saturday mornings, it is common to see these slung over the shoulders of people headed to the rifle range: on bikes, on motorcycles, on the train!

I've often made the case that if "guns created violence, I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between Beirut and Bern" (the capitals of Lebanon and Switzerland, respectively).

Note that the stats only talk about gun _crime_: you're not seeing suicides being lumped in, (like what happens here, every time).

If you are interested in why the Swiss are this way, an excellent book is La Place de Concorde Suisse by John McPhee.
(the opening line is "The Swiss have not fought a war for nearly five hundred years, and are determined to know how so as not to." )

=Marcel

That is a great book! A bit outdated now as the Swiss are having some of the same social problems as the rest of Western Europe. The Swiss military is having problems filling its ranks due to the number of young men claiming an exemption from service due to physical or emotional problems or outright objection to military service on philosophical grounds
I like the part in the book where the recon squad is sitting in the tavern and reporting in on the radio about their recon exercise. The customers in the background are mooing like cows to help with the deception.

[renardsubtil]

nice post...and the answer would be a "yes, I knew"...I own a former Swiss take home rifle, even has the address of the former caretaker on a piece of wax paper in the buttplate

[westcoastr]

I travel to Switzerland on business ocasionally and have vacationed there once. If I didn't have to learn a new language (well two really, french and german..and swiss-german also!) and could move my business, I would move in a heartbeat. I got a warm fuzzy feeling everytime someone was walking around with their rifle. The damn things were bumping around in the overhead shelf on the train, uncased!

[Maddog5150]

I heard from a rep from Omega chamber locks that they got the contract for the swiss. He was telling me that they made a special omega lock with tungstun ball bearings and that if you tried to force it out, the ball bearings would be forced out along the edges of the lock both destroying and disabling the rifle. He then told me that the local commander is the only one with the key
I hope its not true and that they still are able to keep thier firearms. This was a few years ago.

[reidnez]

i believe in the past the swiss people were issued sigs; don't know about present.

Yes, you're correct. I believe the issued rifle is a 551 and the pistol a 226. Their troops are very lucky to have such fine weapons. My issued M16A4 was a solid rifle, don't get me wrong...but I'd take a 551/556 or an H&K 416 any day.

[aileron]

Folks:

If you are interested in why the Swiss are this way, an excellent book is La Place de Concorde Suisse by John McPhee.
(the opening line is "The Swiss have not fought a war for nearly five hundred years, and are determined to know how so as not to." )

=Marcel

Hey thanks for that, I just bought the book, cant wait to read it.