Swiss Guns

diodon349.com ^ | 6 December, 2001 | na

[MHGinTN]

The Germans did not invade Switzerland because they needed the banking angle, governmentally and privately.

[Moltke]

In the 1970s, SIG began work on designing a handgun that would balance price with quality. Swiss law limits the ability of Swiss companies to manufacture arms and Swiss companies who wish to do this have to do so by using a foreign partner. In the case of SIG they chose the German firm of Sauer & Sohn. The SIG Sauer line of handguns began in 1975 with the SIG Sauer SIG P220.

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

Unique Swiss gun laws indeed.

Never mind the massive violence problems that Switzerland has with immigrant criminals from (mostly) Turkey, the Balkans and (more recently) northern Africa. And all those guns in private hands have so far proven to be useless in the face of the reality of political correctness - which prevents the Swiss people from actually doing something about it. Now there is a lesson to be learned...

[Chode]

bingo...

[Nailbiter]

bflr

[Chode]

true, but... they are more alike than not in their thoughts and desires and they don't have a large(and growing)segment of their population with a welfare mentality that all have their hand out expecting something for nothing and a kill whitey attitude

[zagger]

I spent 10 days in Switzerland and southern Germany a couple of weeks ago. In Zurich there was a small but well inventoried gun shop about a block from my hotel. They had everything from swiss made super heavy 22lr bolt action competition target rifles to every type of “assault” rifle and pistol. I felt a breath of freedom just going into the shop.

I also noticed a distinct lack of foam bike helmets on casual bicycle riders. Only the “racer” types in spandex suits had the obligatory helmets. I used to think that this area had more of the nanny stuff than the US but we have them totally beaten in terms of useless fretting and trying to force everyone to do what the “smart” people say.

[OldPossum]

It looks like creeping regulation to me. They should have never allowed their federal government to get involved.

[zagger]

True, once anything becomes “federal” there is no competition between the cantons (states) and the only way to escape the rules is to totally leave the country.

[diogenes ghost]

"Switzerland is a homogenous country/culture and has virtually NONE of the minority problems we have here in America..."

Wrong.

Thirty percent of their population is either immigrants, or children of immigrants.

Don't know what sort of agenda you are pushing, but please do it with facts.

[Chode]

it would appear that their immigrants try to homogenize into their culture and have the same values as the country they are moving into with the same goals in mind, but i may be wrong as i don't live there and never seem to read about problems there in the news that we have here

my point is we have a problem with urban gun crime... take out urban gun crime and we have as low a gun crime rate as anywhere in europe with several orders of magnitude more guns

[ccmay]

And all those guns in private hands have so far proven to be useless in the face of the reality of political correctness - which prevents the Swiss people from actually doing something about it.

Are you sure? Can you imagine a poster like the one below in American politics? And did you know that they recently approved a law at the federal level for the automatic expulsion of any foreigner who commits any but the most minor crimes?

[Cronos]

I'm sorry, but Switzerland is anything BUT homogenous -- in fact it's one of the most diverse countries in Europe: it has 4 official languages: German, French, Italian and Rheatian and most people know at least 3 if not 4 and in addition would know English

It also is nearly evenly split between Catholics and Protestants and they had a civil war in the 1800s over this when the Protestant cantons invaded the Catholic ones

The German speakers also are not a monolithic bloc but see their individual dialects as separate

4.5% of residents are Moslems

[Cronos]

they have not had a war since 1551

Sorry, that's wrong

1653: The Swiss Peasant's war: Lucerne, Berna, Basel etc. who were agricultural revolted against the urban cantons of Zurich etc. Bern and Lucerne were beseiged

1798: Switzerland was conquered by the French and converted into the "Helvetic Republic" which was really a French proxy. And it remained as such until 1815 and the Congress of Vienna

Then in 1847 there was the Swiss Civil war -- the Sonderbundskreig which started after seven Catholic cantons formed the Sonderbund ("separate alliance") in 1845 to protect their interests against a centralization of power. The Catholic cantons wanted a federal state, the Calvinist counties wanted a strong central government and started to shut down monasteries etc.

THIS, 1847 is what made Switzerland that island of neutrality. Earlier it was a consquence of location, but post this, it was national imperative.

[marktwain]

They should have never allowed their federal government to get involved.

Yes, they changed a formula that had worked well for a hundred and fifty years.

[Wpin]

Yes, it is my apologies...I was checking out Switzerland as a possible re-location place for my wife and I. One of the websites I went to made that claim. They are rated more free than we are now...and they do have a substantial Christian population...

[Wpin]

“Thirty percent of their population is either immigrants, or children of immigrants.”

That does not mean that they are not homogenuous...so, what is your point?

[Cronos]

well, they are free, but they HAD a substantial Christian population -- atheism is on the rise, especially in the cities like Zurich, Geneva etc.

they have a lot of freedoms, but with that, there is responsibility -- the communities take an interest in ensuring that their members care for each other -- like the joke that you can't flush the loo between 10pm and 6 am.

Also, if you are an immigrant to one of the smaller cantons, you need to get the entire canton to vote to say they are ok with you joining. And this is by a show of hands, not a secret ballot.

So, true libertarian

[Cronos]

well, they are homogenuous in the sense that I know Italians, Swiss, French, Germans etc and all say that Swiss-Italians are not like northern Italians (from the border regions say) and Swiss-Germans are different from Austrians and Bavarians etc. etc.

they all are homogenuous in the sense that they have a strong sense of community and individuality with care for others -- what I mean for that is that they work on their own, but think about others :)

[diogenes ghost]

Noooo.....their immigration IS causing them problems.

Geeez....do a little research fer crissakes.

The EU is pissed at them for recently reacting to their problems by announcing restrictions on immigration from certain groups (Amish,Mennonite, etc).

[archy]

BTW, back in the 1980's, I learned the term for people who hate guns are called "hoplophobes," actually fear of weapons but can be applied here too.

The late Colonel Cooper did indeed popularize the term, if not coin it. But I sent him a letter correcting him: the unnatural fear of weapons is indeed hoplo-phobia, but it is hatred of guns and those who have skill-at-arms that is actually at play here, so the correct term should be hoplomisophia. Col. Cooper passed away before noting the point in print.