The Swiss and their Guns

American Rifleman ^ | 1990 | By David B. Kopel and Stephen D'Andrilli

[Hanging Chad]

I know who you are...

[correctthought]

"The Swiss are most armed and the most free" -Machavelli, The Prince

[correctthought]

groan - Machiavelli

[-=[_Super_Secret_Agent_]=-]

really

[Hanging Chad]

[Ringman]

Gun ownership rates are fairly high in many European nations, esp in northern Europe. I know there are over 2 million privately owned guns in Sweden for 9 million people, and the rate is even higher in Finland.

The level of gun control varies also, but most countries require registration. The registration methods differs though; Swedish registers are by law required to be kept at the local police station and not at a central location. Because of this the 2 million figure is only an estimate.

[thackney]

Bang

[ahayes]

Thanks. I just sent this on to a couple of co-workers I was discussing gun control with yesterday--one of them a French citizen who is just shocked and frightened by the easy availability of guns in the US! He is dismayed that I plan on getting a concealed carry permit.

[bigcheese]

Hmmm... my bro-in-law lives in switzerland and is an officer. "In Switzerland you're given a limited number of bullets in a sealed tin. If [when you report for service] the seal is broken, you're thrown in jail..." Never have heard of this. Not saying it is not true in some way, but...

Officers have handguns, everyone else has full auto crowd pleasers (what type? dunno). anyway, my bro-in-law kept his gun loaded and extra bullets laying next to it, so I highly doubt this whole "tin" thing.

granted, the culture is different in that there is alot less problems with burglary, mischief and what-not outside of the home; but it is also common knowledge that you simply don't go breaking into someone's home because of the gun they prolly have (immigrants do not and i would suppose convicted criminals). Switzerland, to me, is the numero uno example of why every home should be armed.

[-=[_Super_Secret_Agent_]=-]

well, this article was ten years ago (november 1990) so i don't know. but still a good read.

[browsin]

The only issue is registration.Australia has higher per capita gun ownership(with 30% registered,70% unregistered) than all west/northern European nations besides Switzerland but became the NRA whipping boy because of registration requirements by the government.The fact that the 70% of Australians who choose not to register are liable to jail makes the difference.

[ZULU]

Switzerland looks like the perfect society - not just from the gun ownership perspective.

They still have what we once had but lost - strong nuclear families, a strong sense of community, a sense of honor and patriotism and a willingness to fight personally for our nation and our rights.

How easy is it for a foreigner to become a Swiss citizen?
Probably impossible.

I think he left out something else about the Swiss. They have a LONG history of martial activity. Swiss Guards were not just used by Popes, they were used throughout the Continent by monarchs who had reason to mistrust their citizens. Long before guns became common, Swiss Guardsmen with Pikes defended their employers to the death.

[chuknospam]

Bump for later read

[No.6]

One must be careful when retiring from being a Secret Agent that One does not become...

[RISU]

The Swiss embraced the keeping of lethal force in personal homes from the beginning in 1200's.

Our law and our Constitution were modeled after their initiatives.

Those that want gun confiscation are slavemasters currently excercizing dominion over the States using the monopolistic debt-based money system. they want no threat to their dominance to ever exist.

When we lose our guns we lose whatever hope we might have to regain our lost freedom and property rights.

Read "Target Switzerland". The Nazi's never had the guts to invade Switzerland, knowing, as they did, that their officer corps would never make it back home alive if they did.

[Ringman]

Actually I'm not so sure registration is the most important issue. Again In Sweden the current gun control laws were enacted in the 1930's to keep guns from the "working class". In short they didn't want viable fighting weapons around in case of a communist revolution.

Even though the only purpose of the law was to keep the number of guns down, the ownership rate grew steadily thanks to a strong hunting and sports schooting tradition. What I'm trying to say is that with or without registration the most important thing is to have a strong culture of gun usage and ownership.

If those are in place restrictions probably won't go beyond registration. Of course gun licenses and registration have no place in a democratic society, though in Sweden they have atleast proven a point: Criminals are the ones behind gun violence as the 2 million registered guns are almost unrepresented in crime statistics.

[bigcheese]

"They still have what we once had but lost - strong nuclear families, a strong sense of community, a sense of honor and patriotism and a willingness to fight personally for our nation and our rights."

"How easy is it for a foreigner to become a Swiss citizen? Probably impossible.

With marriage to a swiss, it takes 5 years to become naturalized. However, if one of the main banks needs you, they "somehow" get the process speeded up.

Very nice country and people ... but, they hold alot of the same leftist views the european continent holds. Also, they are getting overrun by immigration, and "those" people are starting to cause problems. Lastly, big debate right now about E.U.

[bigcheese]

Many facets to why Germany never did. One, they needed third party banks to deal with. Two, swiss are armed and quite capable of giving them a blood bath. Three, those dang alps. But the alps would not have been a problem around basel .... getting to the other side would have been the problem. So the swiss erected giant concrete blocks in the pass's between the mountains to block tanks. Thos "blocks" are still there today.

[-YYZ-]

Ooooo, "The Prisoner" on DVD - that I've got to have.