10.27.07
Switzerland Strips Citizens of Gun Rights.
Despite the vehement protests from many of Switzerland’s cantons (states), the lower chamber of the nation’s Federal Assembly voted to strip its citizens of gun rights, not by registering or confiscating firearms, but by outlawing the storing of ammunition in the homes of the citizens.
According to The Liberty Zone, the move was led by Switzerland’s small but vocal–and powerful–Socialist minority. And apparently it was a leading women’s magazine who aided the Socialists in the cause.
Having failed at attempts to take the guns themselves from homes and store them in government facilities, the new law takes aim at ammo rather than the guns. The Swiss are still allowed to possess firearms; they simply will not be allowed to possess the ammunition to use them.
This is the backdoor method of disarming citizens, and it is very effective.
The ban also applies to the male citizens who make up Switzerland’s time-honored citizens’ militia. Even they will be required to keep their ammo at approved government facilities.
The fact that a Leftist minority group was able to convince a majority of representatives in the Swiss Federal Assembly to approve the measure is considered a major victory for Socialism and the push to strip individual citizens of the right to keep and bear arms.
In a stunning example of what Leftists can do when citizens are not paying attention, the Socialist ban on ammunition in the homes of the Swiss people should be a stark lesson for U.S. citizens who wish to preserve the right to keep and bear arms. Anti-gun groups do not have to register or confiscate firearms to win the battle.
Rather, the growing modus operandi of the gun control movement is to render a Constitutional right null, void, and useless by implementing legislation aimed at things such as ammunition rather than the actual guns themselves.
Within the U.S. the anti-gun movement does not even have to introduce legislation. A mere executive order by an Administration in the 1990s has been all it takes for a massive assault to ensue on gun shops, gun manufacturers, and other facets of the gun industry, to begin to gradually rob the citizens of their rights to keep and bear arms. This is presently being accomplished by a rogue arm of the Department of Justice–the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives–which has succeeded in shutting down 80% of the gun stores, and gun and ammo manufacturers, within the U.S.
The prevailing wisdom, similar to what we find in Switzerland, is to attack gun ownership by focusing on various facets of the gun and ammo industry rather than to directly attack the citizens’ guns. This effectively renders useless any supposed right to own, possess, and use a firearm without addressing the firearms themselves at all–a perfect example of disarming the citizens using the backdoor method.
Switzerland has been the last bastion of real gun rights in Europe. Now even the Swiss have fallen to the sly and seductive ways of the Socialist anti-gun movement.
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Comments from around the web:
Swiss Army Gun Victims Push Referendum, Even After Bullet Vote
By Antonio Ligi
Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) — Tanja Vollenweider and her family had just built a house near Zurich when her husband lost his job at an insurance company. Two weeks later, the militia officer took his army-issued pistol into the forest and killed himself.
“It was Friday, we had had guests at home,” Vollenweider, 35, said at her home in Daellikon. “My daughter saw him leaving with the weapon. She woke me up. We heard the shots.”
Four and a half years later, Vollenweider and other gun control advocates yesterday won a victory when the lower house of parliament voted to bar Switzerland’s citizen soldiers from keeping ammunition at home. Their next goal is a national referendum on stricter gun laws.
The husband of former alpine skier Corinne Rey-Bellet killed the winner of five World Cup races with his army weapon last year, fueling demands for tighter gun control. Much of the debate has focused on military weapons because Switzerland’s militia- based army requires soldiers to keep their guns at home.
While lawmakers yesterday voted to rescind a World War II- era law that forced soldiers to keep 50 rounds of ammunition at home, they rejected a proposal to have militia members turn in their weapons.
“The militia concept and personal responsibility are among the foundations of our country,” Defense Minister Samuel Schmid said. “If a state considers it necessary to take responsibility away from its citizens and doesn’t trust them to handle a personal gun responsibly, it ultimately weakens itself.”
In addition to military weapons, Switzerland has the fourth- highest rate of civilian gun ownership after the U.S., Yemen and Finland, according to the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based research project sponsored by countries including the U.K., Canada and Switzerland.
`About the Victims’
Switzerland recorded an average of 1,428 suicides every year from 1969 to 2000, according to government statistics. Some 343 of those, or 24 percent, involved guns.
Martin Killias, a criminology professor at the University of Zurich, estimates that about 260 people kill themselves using army weapons each year, and another 20 are murdered.
While the Swiss homicide rate is relatively low, at 12 per 1 million inhabitants compared with 56 in the U.S., the number of killings by family members is high, Killias said. Domestic violence deaths amount to 5.5 per million versus 7.9 in the U.S. and 4.3 in the Netherlands, according to Killias’s study.
“It’s about the victims,” Chantal Gallade, 34, a Social Democratic lawmaker whose father killed himself with an army gun, said in the capital, Bern. “There are too many, and every killing that you can avoid is worth it.”
William Tell
Pro Tell, a gun supporters’ organization, says there is no direct link between killings and army guns. Pro Tell is named after William Tell, the legendary Swiss hero who is said to have shot an apple off his son’s head after being arrested by an Austrian governor.
“Whoever snaps would do it anyway,” said Jack Balmer, 34, a postal worker and corporal in the militia. “They will use a hammer if they can’t use their rifle.”
Switzerland’s gun laws are partly the result of a militia tradition, dating back to the 17th century, which created a “myth that only a rifleman is a citizen,” said Rudolf Jaun, a professor of military history at the ETH Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich.
Even today, the army consists mostly of militia. Most men undergo military training when they are about 20, after which they serve in the militia. When their service has ended, militiamen may buy their personal weapons.
Rouven Howald, a financial controller, has no plans to keep his rifle.
“I am personally all in favor of having weapons at the army barracks,” said Howald, 34. “I just have one at home because I am required to do so.”
Fight Continues
Aaron Karp, co-author of the 2007 Small Arms Survey and a professor of political science at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Virginia, said he didn’t know of any other country that “routinely” lets soldiers take guns and ammunition home.
Switzerland introduced its first unified gun ownership law in 1999. It has since agreed to tighten the rules as part of an accord with its European neighbors to do away with border controls. The changes, which have yet to take effect, will require all gun buyers to have permits and impose penalties on illegal gun ownership for the first time.
Tanja Vollenweider says she will continue to fight for rules that require military weapons to be stored at army barracks, and oblige all other weapons to be registered.
Such rules may have saved her husband’s life, said Vollenweider, who found out at the funeral that he was about to be offered another job.
“If that night the weapon wasn’t around, he would have had to find one,” she said. “But three days later the situation would have been different. Three days later he would have had another job offer.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Antonio Ligi in Zurich at aligi@bloomberg.net
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Gun Control Coming to Switzerland?
The usual suspects, liberals, greens, et al, are planning a major offensive to disarm the country. From SwissInfo:
Attitudes towards firearms may be changing in Switzerland, which is well known for its militia army, strong traditions and liberal gun laws. A recent survey found that two out of three Swiss want to ban army weapons from private households.
Centre-left political parties and pacifist groups are hoping to build on these signs of public disapproval to force a nationwide vote. They are due to start collecting signatures for a people’s initiative from August this year.
The initiative is calling for army weapons to remain in the barracks, a national gun register, a ban on private individuals buying or owning particularly dangerous guns such as automatic weapons or pump-action shotguns, and tighter controls on those who say they need to carry a firearm.
Green parliamentarian Jo Lang, who is behind the proposal, argues that keeping an army gun at home is “a major security risk” and that “there are no practical arguments – only ideological ones”.
Gee, I can’t think of any “practical argument” either. Oh, wait! That’s right, Switzerland was the only country that Germany didn’t invade. . . I’m sure it wasn’t because in those days every home in the country was armed with a gun and someone who knew how to use it.
Notice that even your everyday pump-gun would be banned.
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4 Responses to “Gun Control Coming to Switzerland?”
15 Comments »
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This story is riddled with error, and I think intentionally so… http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=22801 …you kind of misrepresentation of the facts does not help our cause at all. –SM
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The article has one flaw; “Rather, the growing modus operandi of the gun control movement is to render a Constitutional right null, void, and useless by implementing legislation aimed at things such as ammunition rather than the actual guns themselves.”
The flaw is in lack of understanding the intention of the founders. The Constitution does not grant the right to keep and bear arms to anyone; either in government, or in general principle to individual ownership.
What the Constitution did provide for, if you read the preamble to the text of the Bill of Rights, was to restrict and prohibit government from infringing upon the right to keep and bear arms; all rights come from our creator God. Our founders understood this principle and wrote volumes about the knowledge, and understanding of it.
Not until men of all ages understand and acquiesce to the leadership of a righteous God can we enjoy those rights in their fullness as God intended them to be enjoyed.
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The historical record of gun control shows: The government that required a disarmed citizenry, eventually begins to enslave and slaughter their helpless subjects.
Now is the last chance the Swiss will ever have to preserve their freedom and their safety.
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“This story is riddled with error, and I think intentionally so… http://www.castboolits.gunloads.com/showthread.php?t=22801 …you kind of misrepresentation of the facts does not help our cause at all. –SM”
This is what I call a “drive-by” post. Fire off a couple of rounds, show no evidence to support the claim and then provide a link to a chat board for documentation – that requires one to be a member in order to have the privilege of response. (Probably a gimmick to increase eye-balls.)
Mr. SM’s assumption that there was an intentional miss-leading by the author is utterly absurd. I collect data from multiple sources, including RSS feeds and also Google News alerts. I felt comfortable with this story because my wife is Swiss and we spend about 30 days per year in Switzerland and I know this to be a sensitive issue for the Swiss.
Mr. SM’s premise that it is only military ammo, misses some core issues. First, the fact that it is only military ammo fails to clarify that almost every man of age, in Switzerland, has a military weapon – kept at home. To make it sound like this is no big deal shows a certain lack of understanding of the gravity of this situation by Mr. SM. Because some very high profile murder suicides have happened with these weapons in the hands of bad actors, a very liberal elements, now in power, are seeking even broader restrictions on guns. Taking ammo from military arms, is merely the first step. Don’t trust me, research the situation yourselves.
“Also hotly debated is a people’s initiative launched the same month by the centre-left Social Democratic Party and pacifist organisations to go a step further and ban the estimated one-and-a-half million guns and rifles kept at home.” source: swissinfo.ch
On “Castboolits” one can find Mr. SM’s expanded comments:
You know what I hate more than the hysterical lies about gun ownership from the liberal media? It’s the hysterical lies perpetrated by the idiots on our side. From the above referenced “article”:
Quote:
Despite the vehement protests from many of Switzerland’s cantons (states), the lower chamber of the nation’s Federal Assembly voted to strip its citizens of gun rights, not by registering or confiscating firearms, but by outlawing the storing of ammunition in the homes of the citizens.
Citizens have NOT been prohibited from storing ammunition. What the new law does is prohibit soldiers from storing army-issue ammo at home, a policy, which I point out, has been SOP of the US Armed forces for quite some time. About the Swiss gun control debate:http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/front/de…82039000&ty=st
Quote:
In September, parliament banned the long-standing tradition of allowing all enlisted men to keep their ammunition at home.
And…http://www.pr-inside.com/apparent-ra…ss-r321305.htm
Quote:
While parliament recently approved a bill requiring ammunition to be stored in armories, reservists can still keep their army-issued assault rifle at home and bullets are readily available from weapons stores.
I wish the extremists on our side would at least take the time to get it right. To blow the story as badly as they have in the originally referenced article is to make our side every bit as incredible as the liberal MSM.Fastmetal
This is a comment that I found on the http://smith-wessonforum.com/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/500103904/m/6701052662
Post:
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Picture of SwissmanPosted 08 December 2007 11:01 AM
Dear members,It is true that the lefties dance in the blood of the sixteen old victim for taking away the Swiss-army assault rifle from
the soldier. If this chess-move works, the swiss shootingsociety is dead, because most of the shootingranges are made for army-use.
BUT, if they want to change the system with the guns, the government must change the whole army-laws and strategy. It’s a bit
much for 6 cases with army guns in seven years. I guess it will be a hard fight but we will win.The other and in my eyes bigger problem is:
Ca. one month before this criminal kills ther girl in Zurich, some female- and antigun-groups start a petition for much harder gun-laws. So this organisations got very much wind in their sails right now.
Like i wrote some times before: We got our share of lefties, treehuggers and politicians who wants to get profile with the
tragedy of other peoples. And they forgot to say that the last three killers are: one guy from Irak, one Moslem, and one guy from Chile. The guy from Irak got many problems with the police before, the guy from Chile got three penaltys and was in jail. So the Swiss-Army has to check out the history of the recruits more precisely.Swissman”
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Remember, the first law passed by Comrade Lenin and his fellow monsters was to ban private ownership of guns. Millions of Russians, not just the aristocracy, owned guns under the rule of the czars. When the Chekka came to a village to check for guns after the set date for the ban they would immediately kill anyone who had even a shotgun shell on their property.
With the Russian population disarmed and helpless the Bolshevik monsters were free to carry out the greatest mass murder the world had ever seen up to then.
The same scum are attempting to disarm all white people everywhere. Switzerland was one of the last bastions in Europe for a free, armed citizenry. Former free Australian and British citizens are now banned from owning guns and only the police, military and criminals are armed.
It is interesting how there was usually a massacre by a disturbed individual before the political prostitutes introduced the ban. Dunblane in the UK and Port Arthur in Australia. A few more convenient rampages in the US and
Schumer, Feinstein and co will push for the repeal of the Second Amendment.
I hope the Swiss fight this. Name the leftist scum who are pushing to disarm the citizens and make them face the public. It is time to take to the streets. -
As far as I know, the Swiss never had a constitutional right to own guns. As such, this legislation is not only excellent public policy, but has no effect on constitutional rights in Switzerland. No civilized society should allow individual citizens to own guns, and Britain and Switzerland have done the right thing.
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re: Jeff Goldman’s post:
This post speaks volumes of those that feel western culture has become so highly evolved that the notion of protecting ones self is now prosaic.
“No civilized society should allow individuals to own guns.” Really? And what exactly do you plan to do when an “uncivilized” member of your community decides to rape your wife and daughter? Dial 911 (Or Dial-a-prayer)? You live in a Darwinian fantasy world.
Fastmetal
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I’ll bet Mr Goldman has no problem with Israeli citizens having guns in their homes. One set of rules for us and another for you, eh Mr Goldman? I notice you ignore what happened in Russia when the individual citizens weren’t allowed to own guns. Why is that?
As a matter of fact civilized societies have no problem with their free, law-abiding citizens having guns. Free, armed men take responsibility for protecting their families and societies. However if the man isn’t present the gun is the great equaliser. A 6′, 250lb savage intent on the rape of a 5′, 90lb woman will think twice if she has a gun pointed at him.
The mentality which requires that personal responsibility for security be handed over to the government produces the type of slave mind that is acceptable to Goldman and his ilk. -
The BATF did not shut down 80% of american gun shops. The 80% less FFLs were not gun shops but people who had licenses but did not comply with all local and state laws as well as federal law. When asked to prove that they were in compliance with these laws over 90% willing gave up their FFLs! Less than two or three percent were denied renewal. George Bush has been harder on gun shops with extensive audits and shutting down gun shops that Bill Clinton was, and even though it is blamed on 911 it did not start until 2004.
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It’s nice to see half-wits like Mssr. Heit proved wrong. What else could he be wrong about, I wonder.
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Shooting is a hobby that relaxes me; here is a quote that I like.
“A fear of weapons is a sign of retarded sexual and emotional maturity.” – Sigmund Freud
The fact of the matter is that gun bans do not work. Period. It only emboldens criminals that obtain guns illegally smuggled from nations who broke the very treaty they signed to keep international gun trades at bay. A citizen without a weapon makes for a very happy criminal. That criminal can rob and rape without the worry of being shot or stabbed in the process. However, a lady yielding a .40 caliber Glock tends to make a potential rapist back off. The very presences of a firearm in some cases are enough to actually prevent a crime from happening. Would a robber be more afraid of a homeowner with a 12-gauge shotgun full of buckshot or more afraid of a homeowner holding a telephone dialing 911? On average it takes about 15 minutes or longer for a police officer to arrive at a home after an emergency call.45 minutes where I live That’s enough time for the criminal to have raped, robbed, and killed the person inside. However, if the person inside fires off a couple dozen rounds of 9mm shells, the criminal is guaranteed to be either full of holes or far away scared and hiding. Don’t tell me that gun bans are good in making crime decrease because that’s the biggest lie ever told. Do you want to be able to protect yourself or your family in your own home, on your own private property? I suggest being very wary of whom you choose to put in power in?” fear the government that fears the armed citizen”, besides look at the statistics on gun ownership in Switzerland, where every household is required to have a firearm of some kind in the house as well as someone who knows how it operate it safely and responsibly -
This is a very well written piece. And it disturbs me that much more that women played a key role in this law being passed, when the women of their nation, much like ours, could actually play a definitive role to the contrary. Women, learn how to safely use a firearm in self-defense and learn the U.S. Constitution, PLEASE. To see more on this topic: http://wwww.womenofcaliber.wordpress.com
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NUT’S on Guncontrol.
Relies more Cons. & and we will need more Guns.
I was Belgium ,When the Germans where tolde NUTS -
We in South Africa have just gone through a similar attempt at ridding legal responsible gun owners of their arms by means of a very difficult process of renewals of our previously legally registered arms. Only ONE self defense weapon is now allowed with a max of 200 rounds on your premises per calibre of weapon. A total of 4 weapons are allowed unless you are a dedicated hunter, collector, private security force and have gone through an expensie and long proficiency process for both hand and long guns. No matter how you look at it, our new gun laws, however saintly and well intentioned are a step on the road of the socialist government here trying to prevent us from defending/arming ourselves.
I won’t bore you with too much detail, but we have an extremely violent society, who use AK’s, stolen weapons (largely from police and army stores or stations), and smuggled weapons from over our borders. We are under attack and our police and courts are innefectual and corrupt. Criminals have no fear of being caught and if by some miracle they are, have no fear of being hung, drawn and quartered as the Death Penalty was scrapped some years ago.
When a politician has a birthday ,or is elected, he frees hundreds of so called petty criminals from our overcrowded jails (no doubt to thank them for voting…yes criminals here have not had their voting rights removed), and often hardened criminals, murderers, rapists are released by accident!
I for one will do whatever it takes to remain armed, legally, and give my family and I at least a fighting chance.
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Jeff Goldman.. “No civilized society should allow individual citizens to own guns”? Really!? You must be out of your mind. Use your fricken head to read factual statistics and logical presentations of thought (not just emotionally-charged, carefully chosen exceptions to the norm) and think carefully through these issues instead of just devouring the over-simplified and illogical BS that continuously streams your way from the Socialists.
To those of you who agree with me but condemn me for writing an inflammatory, emotional reply devoid of facts and substance…I apologize. Just had to tell (Goldman) what I thought of him.
(Edited for profanity….moderator)
on 20 Jun 2007 at 7:59 am # Keith
My wife was at the receiving end of an armed home ivasion about 25 years ago. She was living about 5 miles south of the Swiss border.
The robbers were Italians and it is notable that the gang did not try going north of the border.
If Switzerland does go in for gun control, it will be interesting to see whether the subsequent and inevitable rise in armed crime on dis-armed victims is put down to the excess or lack of gun control.
more controvesially, I have not read Freedomnomics yet, but I wonder whether this has anything to do with women’s suffrage in Switzerland? which is quite a recent event.
Keith
on 20 Jun 2007 at 9:51 am # Keith
I should have added that the Italian speaking Swiss have very distinctive accents compared to the Italians accross the border.
It was not just Hitler who didn’t want to mess with the Swiss, the last dictator to try his luck with them was Napoleon.
Machiavelli, (in “the Prince”) in the mid 16th century noted that while Italy was divided into principalities variously under the control of the French, Spanish, Austrians, church and a few local princes, that the Swiss enjoyed greater freedom than any other people and he put this down to the ordinary people being better armed than anyone else.
In several centuries which have seen wars raging between the various principalities and kingdoms and countries which now make up France, Austria, Italy and Germany, how many of those conflicts spilled over into Switzerland, which has French, German, Italian and Romanche (Latin) speaking communities, living side by side?
Answer: none!
Practical reasons for keeping a military gun at home:
It is impossible for any group or foreign power to seize or bomb out the arsenals, the guns are right where they’re needed, in the hands of the citizen soldiers.
Particularly in the mountainous areas, it would be virtually impossible to eliminate opposition from the Swiss citizens.
Bear in mind that Finland is pretty flat and was increadibly poor in the 1930’s, but it took about twice as many soviet troops as there were Finnish population to force the Finns to sue for peace in the winter war. Switzerland is rich, well equipped and has the Alps, as well as lakes, forests and bogs to help the defending forces.
Having your service weapon hanging above the fireplace, you take extra care in cleaning and maintaining it; indeed, Swiss target rifles were finished in bright polished steel as blueing would cast a slur on the owner, suggesting that he was too lazy to keep it properly cleaned and oiled!
having ready access to your rifle you are intimately familliar with it, it is yours and you know exactly how it shoots, where to aim to hit a target etc. It is not like being handed a battered neglected armoury weapon in an emergency, that you have never even fired before.
Note that Switzerland does not have armed crime,
yes it has a somewhat higher murder rate than its neighbours, but this is more due to the Swiss tradition of 3 generations of a family living under the same roof.
The only masss public shooting I’m aware of there was in a council building which I believe was a dis-armed victim zone.
Ideological;
Yep
Keith
on 21 Jun 2007 at 12:34 pm # Patrick Joubert Conlon
What a shame but it was only a matter of time before the Swiss fell victim to new Brownshirts.
on 21 Jun 2007 at 11:15 pm # Ninth Stage
The site you link has a poll asking “Should Switzerland tighten its gun laws?” Two days ago “No” was winning at 75%, tonight it’s winning with 93% of the (unscientific) vote.