“… the Swiss people have chosen to believe that their safety is merely the purview of the government, abdicating their personal responsibility.”
Switzerland recently passed a new gun law that enforces the registration of and restriction of access to semi-automatic firearms. Sixty-three percent of the population supported the measure.
In order to fight terrorism and organized crime, the European Union passed a new directive in 2017 to prevent the abusive use of firearms owned by private citizens. Switzerland, as part of the Schengen Agreement, had to adopt this law. Schengen/Dublin is an agreement between European countries, not necessarily part of the European Union, that permits the free movement of people and goods without the need of a visa inside the area.
Switzerland has a long, storied shooting tradition. Because of Switzerland’s militia army, in which every male must serve at least a year in the service, most male citizens keep a military firearm at home until they finish their military service. Every year, they must prove their proficiency by performing a mandatory shooting event. Those events take place outside of their military duty and are organized by local communities. Ammunition is supplied for free by the army. Every village has a 300-meter shooting range and a local firearm association that manages it. As an example of how popular they are, there’s even an event called “federal shooting:” a voluntary event that takes place all over the country during a weekend and has around 127,000 shooters who participate. You will see children aged 12 and up, men, women, and even senior citizens participating.
by Jack Murphy
