Swiss to vote on tighter gun controls

[davepc]

Switzerland's part-time soldiers traditionally store their guns in the attic, in a cupboard or under the bed. They see it as their honor and duty to keep their weapons close at hand.

But campaigners said Monday they have collected around 120,000 signatures to force a nationwide referendum on whether to confine army weapons to military compounds. They say the proliferation of firearms has led to suicides and homicides throughout the nation, and they want tighter firearms controls.

"Almost every day a person commits suicide with a firearm in Switzerland," said Josef Lang, a lawmaker for the Green Party who is campaigning for the proposal alongside the Social Democrats, rights groups and others.

Service in Switzerland's militia army is compulsory for men, and conscripts have to take their guns home between call-ups.

Nearly a third of respondents in a 2008 poll said they keep at least one military gun at home, said the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich in a report for the country's Defense Ministry.

The proposed changes go beyond a 2007 law that requires military ammunition to be stored on base — a move that was seen by many as the first step to dismantling the guns-at-home tradition. But the left says that is not enough and the risk of misuse of military guns is still too high.

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http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hEZZjFw1keIs1dI-w033dGw1QeEwD96HPEH00

[dipsydoodle]

1. The Swiss had the reputation

for being the second fastest country to be able to mobilise. That was second only to Russia at a time when Russia was permantently mobilised.