Emotions and tradition clash over gun-control proposal in Switzerland

[cowcommander]

Supporters and opponents of a proposal aimed at limiting access to guns have launched their campaigns ahead of a nationwide vote in February. Switzerland has the highest number of arms per capita, with estimates varying between 1.2 million and 2.3 million. But exact data are not available as there is no central arms register.

Shaken by a number of high-profile killings over the past decade a broad alliance of human rights groups, churches, women’s organisations, trade unions and centre-left political parties has succeeded in forcing a nationwide ballot on an anti-gun initiative. As in other countries many arms are in the hands of hunters, collectors and marksmen in Switzerland. Yet one of the peculiarities of the country is that members of the militia army keep their personal army-issue guns at home - in many cases even following completion of mandatory service.

It is a long tradition that carbines, pistols and even assault rifles - a standard infantry weapon - are kept in Swiss households. For decades the high number of firearms in the public sphere appeared to give little cause for concern. The problems only came to the fore in the context of a series of attacks and family killings, including the attack by a lone gunman on a cantonal parliament in 2001 and the murder of a former Swiss ski star by her husband four years ago.

A recent survey by criminologist Martin Killias estimates that up to 300 people are killed by army-issue firearms annually in Switzerland.

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/internal_affairs/Emotions_and_tradition_clash_over_anti-gun_move.html?cid=29083616

[Arctic Dave]

1. This article isn't exactly truthful. Arms kept by military personnel are

extremely regulated and the amount of ammo is only a few clips. You are also subject to random inspections to make sure your weapon and ammo has not been tampered with.

[TheWraith]

2. And most of those 300 people killed by the military weapons are, in fact, suicides.

The assumption that those people aren't going to simply take a fistful of pills if the gun isn't available is not valid.