Why does Switzerland have SO MANY guns?

[@eichof01]

The answer is simple, we have so many guns because I buy a lot.

[@crabethenight8092]

hey, I'm swiss, sniper in the military and was finalist at the 300m competition in switzerland. At the age of 15, every man or women receives a letter from the army saying they can follow a 1 year shooting training. This is a big factor as in why so many swiss like shooting, from our early age we are invited to, and for free. Plus, a lot of families have very traditional values. For me, i started shooting competition at 12 years old.

[@derraucherhase123]

geile siech

[@flx0o0o0]

Well I didn‘t get that letter…

[@killian954]

@@flx0o0o0 in most Cantons it is not the army that sends the letter but the local shooting range, if they have the facilities to train young people; sometimes, even if they have the facilities they don't send the letter and you can only enter if you know someone that shoots there. It is called "Jungschützen (DE)" or "Jeune tireurs (FR)" and you can do it from 15yo to 20yo. Hope it helps !

[@crabethenight8092]

@@killian954 yeees, i checked it up and it is indeed the canton's association that sends the letter.

[@crabethenight8092]

@@derraucherhase123 meaning?

[@SaltTM]

Anytime a person from a non gun-country comes to switzerland and does a report it usually does leave a bad mark. Except this one. We have 0 to none gun violence even though our guns are spread widely. Congrats!

[@rob9528]

Guns are not spread widely in switzerland stop actin like it's the Usa you wished your country was tough but it's not.

[@alpenjon]

Key difference: We in Switzerland are if only minimally involved in wars (peacekeeping, black ops), so the psychological trauma, glorification of violence and dehumanization of "enemies" is not happening. Compare this to nations that have been in wars for 60+ years, and it becomes evident that some aspects of this will spill over into civil society. I hear so many foreigners talking about reasons that make countries like Switzerland special, but foreign policy / being a war state is often overlooked.

[@Slithermotion]

I don‘t think psychological trauma from veterans is the main cause of gun violence. School shooting and gang violence in the US has basicly nothing to do with war veterans. The key difference is that swiss people(or at least swiss men) are trained in a military enviroment. While americans usually have first contacts with a weapon as a hobby. Plus the US in general has a more difficult situation with crime in general.

[@petergaskin1811]

The Swiss have more guns per capita than any Country in the World apart from the US. They just don't acquire them for personal defence. So they are not frightened all the time. They are, from the perspective of the UK, fairly lightly regulated, but the penalties for breaking the regulations are extremely serious.

[@connorsharpless3997]

If only Americans could have the same level of respect for firearms as the Swiss seem to. Not to say that there aren't a lot of Americans who take gun safety very seriously. But there are also a lot of people who think theyre Clint Eastwood...

[@enentr]

@@connorsharpless3997 it seemed to us that it’s possibly a gun “right” versus gun “duty” narrative! That’s why the Swiss case is so interesting!

[@mysterioanonymous3206]

That's precisely it. And I'm a swiss gun owner btw. We have a totally different gun culture. No one here is expecting or training to shoot someone irl, unlike the US where people just wait for someone to break I nso they can pop someone legally. The mindset it's completely the opposite. Just showing that intent publicly would get you a police visit real quick, and yes, they'd take your guns 100%.

[@dunbar555]

@@mysterioanonymous3206 "No one here is training to shoot someone irl" i am swiss and i can tell you not only you are wrong, but you are very wrong. don't talk about things you dont know

[@dunbar555]

@@enentr We as swiss have gun RIGHTs as well. MANY more guns are privately owned than military issued. WAY MORE

[@moritzebert6118]

@@dunbar555doch er het recht

[@edwardebroome8]

Switzerland demonstrates peace through strength and a healthy relationship with arms. So often media is anti gun when it’s better to be educated and learn responsibility and safety. Other countries like Finland have a history of why civilians should be prepared. Enjoy sport, hunting, collecting but ultimately you prevent tyranny!!!

[@RenanEdu123]

Switzerland is the heaven on earth

[@eichof01]

We have in every community a shooting range by law. And for decades we can take our guns home after military service, most of us do that. So that alone explains why we have so much weapons and mostly nothing bad happens. We are a rich country that helps for social life too.

[@SwissBloke]

FYI most soldiers don't keep their rifle after military service, it's less than 10% and it's outnumbered by a factor of 15:1 to 44:1 by other permit acquisition

[@jcc1184]

Tellement fier de mon pays ! Vive la Suisse 🇨🇭

[@nouhailaamari3204]

Super interesting topic as always !

[@enentr]

Thank you for watching!

[@volcomny]

We also keep our pistol some millitaire

[@MumieVideo]

i am also in the millitary i am a Radio specialist for the Military intelligence Service :)

[@jessetorres8738]

Trivia note: The U.S. game show The Amazing Race has been on for 36 Seasons, & they have been to Switzerland for 8 of them; 3, 14, 18, 22, 24, 28, 31, & 33.

[@huexley]

Its also very easy to learn and train in almost cities. Shooting range, private schools, you name it.

[@martinsonderegger5903]

Where everyone is wrong in these documentaries about Swiss and guns. Yeah, we have the military gun and the ones that are official hunters. But we don't have the munition at home. Which makes a huge difference.

[@enentr]

Agreed. That's why we thought it was relevant to mention it when Matteo speaks about keeping his rifle at home!

[@mkvenner2]

Specifically Army issued ammunition

[@Marchion777]

Was in the train with my service rifle last week, the asian tourist group next to me looked a little shocked 😂

[@dunbar555]

because we CAN and have the right to

[@flx0o0o0]

weird comment

[@rob9528]

Wannabe tough guy

[@dunbar555]

@ the weaklings speaking

[@ReekohMcZero]

I am sorry, but this report does not answer the question of why there are so many firearms in Switzerland. It only deals with the storage of the weapon at home, even though some people who have completed their military obligation do not keep their weapon afterwards, and many people only keep their weapon as a souvenir without being used or even abandoned in a cellar or attic. It is also worth mentioning that 300m shooting ranges are not open to non-ordinance weapons, and their attendance is decreasing, whereas that of recreational and tactical shooting ranges is increasing. If you come across a Swiss person returning from a shooting range, it is more likely that he has an AR-15 or an AKM in his bag than a SIG550. The reason why there are so many weapons in Switzerland (and I should point out that in addition to being a shooter in Switzerland, I am also a member of ProTell) is the particularly liberal legislation that Switzerland has known, in particular until the tightening of 1997, then that of 2008. A time when the importation and alienation of firearms was subject to very light regulations. We must also not forget the number of hunters who own firearms solely for hunting, as well as collectors who own firearms but do not use them. The truth is that we do not have formal statistics in Switzerland on the number of firearms in circulation, their type, their use, etc. We too simply reduce these numbers to military and sporting weapons, we too simply reduce the rigor and supposed education of the Swiss on weapons to the use of military and sporting weapons. This image of Epinal is false.

[@enentr]

Hi! Thanks for your comment! For this piece, we made a choice to focus more on gun culture rather than gun ownership. What you’re saying is true and interesting, we decided not to include it as the tightening of the restrictions in ‘97 and then more recently to abide to EU demands would have demanded a long time to explain - we chose to focus on the culture instead! Thank you for expanding 🙏

[@SwissBloke]

Actually there are no regulations that say the 300m ranges that ban the use of non-ordinance rifles. It's just that most ranges are run by old fudds that think the Verzeichnis der bewilligten Hilfsmittel applies to regular range practice even though it's only for military-related events

[@dnhug]

This story again?

[@SwissBloke]

Kinda sad I hear (and read on the article) things that I corrected with the law on hand when Elena asked about it online... also I see that she was in Geneva so the interview we were supposed to do online could have been done in person (when in fact it was never done entirely as I was kinda ghosted)

[@enentr]

@@SwissBloke Hi - all the info in this piece has been supported in research and writing by Swiss neutrality experts and history professors. We’d be glad to clear up any info that seems incorrect to you!

[@SwissBloke]

@enentr not to be disrespectful but what do Swiss neutrality experts and history professors have to do with that? Now, first of all, it is not mandatory for soldiers to store their issued weapon at home as per art. 5 VPAA, unlike what's said nor is it mandatory to serve armed (section 6 VMDP). Also, as per numbers provided by the army (and posted in the thread Elena made on Reddit), barely the majority of men do serve: 61.6% are deemed fit, 86% choose to serve -> 53%. Including those who switch during and after ER we're down 74% so 46% overall I've also provided, not to her directly, but in the same thread, numbers from the government and the army in regards to how many permits are issued for former-issued gun VS how many are for "regular" purchases (military acquisitions are outnumbered by a factor of 15:1 to 40:1) which give clear indicators that the gun culture isn't because of the army I also linked to a study published at the end of last year by the Zurich University of Applied Sciences on what is owned by whom which could have contributed to the part where she says we don't know anything about it And, well, again, it's a bit of a shame that the interview we planned fell to the side, even when I contacted her again And nota bene for the article: the formulation "The vast majority of guns in Switzerland are owned by professional shooters, either for sports or hunting and by people in the army" is dubious as sport shooting and hunting aren't professional occupations (except for a very select part of hunters) and the fact army-issued weapons aren't owned by the soldiers. Also regarding "It’s important to note that soldiers don’t own or keep any ammunition.", it's simply that soldiers aren't issued ammo to get home with, they can legally own and get home with ammo just like everyone else

[@enentr]

@ thanks for this, apologies if you felt the interview fell through but by the time you got back to us we already had conducted interviews with other experts to support our research and we were already filming. It was simply a matter of timing. None of what you highlighted goes to show wrongful data provided in this piece (except for the fact that it’s not mandatory to serve armed, which is true, and we never say otherwise). Of course, not the majority of civilian-owned armed are military. But there’s a reason we didn’t go into gun purchases and acquisition, and that’s because a) we didn’t want to talk ownership, but culture. Going into the permit issue would have opened a need for very extensive explanation, which we felt wasn’t the point for us on this occasion. B) the data isn’t available, the last truly extensive research is from before the new regulations of 2019 so it’d have made it even harder. Unfortunately video explainers like these can’t be as nuanced as we often hope they could, time is a constraint, it can be frustrating for us too! Thanks a million for the info and clarification, it can be very helpful for anyone wanting to expand more on the topic! This piece is simply an overall view for those who didn’t know much about it.

[@tomw.6511]

Switzerland does everything right, except speak proper German :)

[@buttontoo6816]

dont forget to mention all the ww carbines floating around everywhere xD

[@Wollerz]

Their's a thing called ''hollyday passport'' and you can do a lot of different types activities,visits, learn a new sport or skill. SOme of these activitis are with the army

[@chmuen4832]

How about over 150 Years of peace and Freedom! Adolf Hitler would have been never be posible in switz becouse of a real chare of power between the people and the government.

[@anthonyhickman6391]

I wanna move to the Alps

[@lordofabanshee6791]

With this attitude, You're welcome brother. CREDE ET AUDE

[@rob9528]

Loser

[@mooslionheart]

what a military service “assault” rifle stored in an unlocked closet! Madness!! A country where common sense prevails 🇺🇸

[@enentr]

Just to specify: the rifle is unloaded and missing a component that is stored separately. So there is, in fact, quite good common sense.

[@mooslionheart]

@ I agree, but nor according to the anti -2nd amendment crowd in the USA

[@shanwyn]

@@mooslionheart There is a huge difference in Swiss gun culture and the American culture. In Switzerland it is the duty of every man or woman who serves to keep a firearm. A collective responsibility in lack of a better term. In the USA it is an individual right to have a gun. No one in Switzerland would ever complaining of the state or special political groups wanting to "take their guns away" since it is not seen in that way. Even collectors of weapons don't even talk about such things since there is simply no need to. Guns are also highly regulated, from the individual level up to the collective country wide culture and political sphere. Swiss argue about the necessity of having an Army and the mandatory service, sure, but it is always on a general overall philosophical level, not about a right or freedom like in the US.Most Swiss I talked to see the US gun discussion as sheer lunacy. Maybe because we have a mandatory service, we also trust our government much more than Americans do.

[@mkvenner2]

@@shanwyn the Swiss treat firearms as tools Americans treat firearms as a status symbol

[@mnk9073]

Switzerland is the antithesis to the US: In Switzerland a rifle is first a sport equipment and later a responsibility to defend the motherland with. In the US it's a fetish, a means of compensating percieved inadequacies and a problem solver. Switzerland literally hands you a rifle when you join a shooting association as a teenager and later when you start your military service but Switzerland makes it a point to drill responsibility and safety into you and also has a very close eye on you and the slightest evidence to irresponsible actions or dangerous ideas will have that rifle immediately removed from your hands. We had a guy in our platoon who muttered something about "imagine those targets are refugees" under his breath, instructor heard him, immediately took his rifle, gave him the dressing down of a lifetime and he was unceremoniously kicked out of the army the very next day and no doubt got the occasional visit from the nice men in the unmarked cars in the years to come.

[@roughiness]

Ah yes, everone in the US buys a gun solely because they are inadequate. Self defense, sport shooting or simply having an interest in firearms is non exist and everyone just wants to compensate. That is so dumb and you have most likely based that opinion solely on what you see in the media.

[@Hibuy-]

Wtf you on about? very, very incorrect assumptions, My AR 15s are sporting equipment and life, property preservation equipment, also

[@mnk9073]

@@Hibuy- The delusional "life, property preservation equipment" is exactly what I mean. You are neither Clint Eastwood in _Gran Torino_ nor Patrick Swayze in _Red Dawn_ you are a schmuck who's much more likely to blow his fingers off cleaning your multiple rifles than to ever use it to "preserve life or property".

[@manyman7827]

Non avevo idea che una persona deve tenere l'arma anche dopo il servizio di leva

[@MatteoZappa]

In realtà non è obbligato, un cittadino svizzero non in servizio può decidere di tenere l'arma a casa oppure di depositarla in un centro logistico dell'esercito. Una volta terminato il servizio può decidere di acquistare l'arma presentando il permesso di acquisto armi.

[@Braun30]

L'acquisto dopo gli obblighi di servizio avviene con regolare richiesta come in caso di acquisto di arma. L'arma viene demilitarizzata, cioè viene rimosso ogni meccanismo che permette il tiro a raffica. La cessione, in dono o vendita, di tale arma sottostà all'ottenimento del permesso di acquisto da parte del compratore.

[@SwissBloke]

@manyman7827 No, deve restituirlo dopo il servizio, a meno che non decida di acquistarlo. Tuttavia, i soldati possono scegliere di conservare l'arma d'ordinanza a casa o in un'armeria militare per tutta la durata del servizio.

[@SwissBloke]

@@Braun30 No, demilitarizzata significa che l'arma non è più funzionante. L'arma d'ordinanza viene semplicemente convertita da automatica a semiautomatica.

[@Braun30]

@@SwissBloke that's exactly what I said. The weapon is not a military weapon because it is deprived if the gubbins that allow full auto shooting. Therefore the stamping is also changed. The term for a non functioning weapon in Italian is "disattivata"

[@MichaelZuzolo]

Because they are the army of the banking families. Hence why they are always "neutral".

[@NecPluribusImpar]

they are also very difficult to invade, for various reasons

[@marcosteiner3619]

Dude go through a bootcamp and sleep outside in the rain when it's cold and see how enthusiastic you are about dying in a stupid war where you probably die in the first 5 min of an engagement anyways...

[@derraucherhase123]

im swiss and my father is a baker.

[@rob9528]

Switzerland is the real illuminati.

[@rob9528]

Once a christian country now a completely tyrannical police state satanic and evil.

[@racebanning6390]

kingdom of darkness and hidden corruption. the can not hide from I AM ! He comes to Return the reward to those who are wicked. Swiss bankers.

[@davidpearn4344]

They trust there citerzens and they trust there goverment not like in Australia as if your a firearm owner athouritys treat you like a criminal

[@shanwyn]

I think this is mainly a result of the way swiss do politics. For example, most elected politicians are only part time. They have jobs like any other people and willingly sacrifice their time for their civil service. And that goes from the smallest political entity, the municipality, up to the cantonal and federal level. So it is not uncommon to sit on a commuter train next to a major or even a federal council member. Also the goal is not one party or politician 'winning', it is about finding a solution that suits the majority or the population (please keep in mind that I really break it down onto the fundamentals, in reality it is much much more complicated). And if parties or leaders can't find a solution, the people have the final say. That invokes trust in the system

[@williamlyons3947]

Being a democrat in USA, this is another reason I don't like that country. It's like a republican dictatorship without any democrat counterbalance

[@derhighlige5493]

😂

[@williamlyons3947]

@@derhighlige5493 that's funny?

[@Aaron-d6u]

What???

[@derhighlige5493]

@@williamlyons3947Why would you think that Switzerland is an "republican dictatorship without any democrat counterbalance"?

[@derhighlige5493]

@@williamlyons3947 or if you meant your own country its still funny, because the democrat are also a part of the problem.