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   From: RichGunloon@trump.ru   
      
   The Swiss Have Liberal Gun Laws, Too But they also have fewer gun-related   
   deaths than the U.S.   
      
   [Maybe it's because the Swiss have so few gun hugging American gunloons   
   there]   
      
   In February 2011, Swiss citizens voted in a referendum that called for a   
   national gun registry and for firearms owned by members of the military to   
   be stored in public arsenals.   
      
   “It is a question of trust between the state and the citizen. The citizen   
   is not just a citizen, he is also a soldier,” Hermann Suter, who at the   
   time was vice president of the Swiss gun-rights group Pro Tell, told the   
   BBC then. “The gun at home is the best way to avoid dictatorships—only   
   dictators take arms away from the citizens.”   
      
   Apparently many of his fellow Swiss agreed. The referendum was easily   
   defeated. Gun ownership in the country has deep historic roots and it is   
   tied to mandatory military service for Swiss men between the ages of 18   
   and 34. Traditionally, soldiers were allowed to keep their weapons at home   
   in order to defend against conquering armies. These fears came close to   
   being realized during the Franco-Prussian War on 1871; as well as World   
   War I, when the Swiss border was threatened; and World War II, when the   
   country feared a Nazi invasion.   
      
   But guns are popular beyond the military, as well. Children as young as 12   
   are taught how to shoot as well as the rules of gun safety, and are   
   encouraged to participate in highly popular target-shooting competitions.   
   The country’s cultural attachment to firearms resembles America’s in some   
   ways, though it has no constitutional right to bear arms—it has the third-   
   highest rate of private gun ownership in the world, behind the United   
   States and Yemen. Yet Switzerland has a low rate of gun crime, and hasn’t   
   seen a mass shooting since 2001, when a gunman opened fire in the   
   legislative body in the Canton of Zug, killing 14 people, as well as   
   himself.   
      
   So it’s possible to have widespread gun ownership without so frequently   
   seeing the kinds of incidents that the U.S. saw on Wednesday, when a   
   gunman killed 17 people at a high school in Florida. But how?   
      
   For one thing, Switzerland’s rate of gun ownership is still substantially   
   lower than America’s—in Switzerland the rate is roughly one gun per four   
   people, whereas in the U.S. it’s more than one per person, according to   
   GunPolicy.org. The Swiss Defense Ministry estimates that there are 2   
   million privately owned weapons in the country of 8.3 million people.   
   There are estimated to be 300 million guns in the U.S., but 130 million of   
   them are owned by about 3 percent of the adult population.   
      
   Another way the two countries differ is in their rates of gun-related   
   deaths. Swiss gun-related death rates are the highest in Europe. The   
   figure for the U.S. is three times higher than that for Switzerland. Much   
   of that is attributable in both countries to suicide. Mass shootings in   
   Switzerland are relatively rare, though, with two in the past 20 years. By   
   one estimate, there have been 30 mass shootings in the U.S. in 2018 alone,   
   including Wednesday’s in Florida—though the number of fatalities in these   
   mass shootings is only a small proportion of the overall gun-related   
   homicides in the U.S.   
      
   The Washington Post offers some reasons why mass shootings are more common   
   in the U.S. than in Switzerland:   
      
   Swiss authorities have a list of about 2,000 individuals they suspect of   
   being willing to commit shootings. All of them are frequently approached   
   by authorities, along with psychologists, and are forced to hand over   
   their weapons immediately or are barred from purchasing new ones.   
      
   Some sociologists say that Switzerland's military service comes close to   
   an extended background check, too, and that the country's education system   
   teaches children early on to search for compromises instead of risking   
   open conflicts. Hence, while almost every home in Switzerland may have a   
   weapon, access is still indirectly regulated and the use of weapons   
   usually follows strict societal norms.   
   Then there’s the question of what Swiss guns are meant to defend against.   
   The Swiss trust their government more than citizens of other rich   
   countries trust theirs. So the tradition of gun ownership arose more from   
   the historic need to protect Switzerland from invaders than from the   
   hypothetical need to overthrow a tyrannical government. And as Time   
   pointed out in 2012, “the culture of responsibility and safety … is   
   anchored in society and passed from generation to generation.”   
      
   The fundamental difference between Switzerland and the U.S. when it comes   
   to buying guns is not the ease of purchase—it’s easy in both countries—but   
   the regulations that are associated with gun ownership in Switzerland.   
   Most firearms, with the exception of fully automatic weapons, are legal.   
   But background checks are mandated, which is not always the case in the   
   U.S. Heavy machine guns and military weapons such as grenade launchers are   
   banned in Switzerland; under some circumstances they can be purchased in   
   the U.S. Public-carrying permits are issued rarely. Guns can be   
   transported, but must remain unloaded at all times when they’re not in   
   use.   
      
   Hunting weapons must be registered with the local Canton. Pistols, rifles,   
   and semiautomatic weapons require a license. The paperwork is relatively   
   easy to obtain—and Cantons can make exceptions for individuals. (Citizens   
   of Albania, Algeria, Sri Lanka, Kosovo, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina,   
   Serbia, and Turkey who live in the country as permanent residents are   
   forbidden from buying guns because of their nations’ history of civil   
   war.)   
      
   Switzerland’s relatively liberal rules may soon face a challenge from   
   outside the country’s borders, however. The country is a member of the   
   Schengen area, the group of 26 European countries that allows for the free   
   movement of people. Some other members of the Schengen area are also   
   members of the European Union (Switzerland is not). Last year the EU   
   tightened the restrictions on gun ownership and Switzerland, as a member   
   of the Schengen, must bring its laws in line with the new regulations by   
   August of this year. Swiss gun-rights advocates are already planning a   
   legal challenge because, among other things, it revisits the idea of a gun   
   registry.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)