The Swiss government rejected a proposal to remove military weapons from Swiss homes. But here’s a hint of what the gun control crowd has in store for folks:
Launched in February by the centre-left Social Democratic Party and a number of pacifist organisations, the initiative calls for army weapons to remain in barracks and for a national gun register to be created. It also wants to ban private individuals from buying or owning particularly dangerous guns such as automatic weapons and pump-action shotguns.
Emphasis mine, and I don’t think I need any explanation for why I emphasized it.
Because that 1883 technology is clearly a threat.
There’s a great slideshow on the right side of that story which chronicles how recruits go through boot camp. The best picture is the last one, with the recruit going home in a train station holding his Sig with one hand and his duffle bag with the other.
Imagine that scenario with American troops at Chicago O’Hare airport. What a different culture.
I like it when enemies of freedom and security demonstrate the validity of their opinions by sharing them.
I doubt that there is any type of gun that the gun control crowd would not brand as being “particularly dangerous.”
It seems that the gun-banner tendency to have absolutely no idea what they are talking about is an international phenomenon.
Pump-action shotguns are indeed dangerous. That’s the whole point.
Pump shotguns, automatic weapons, revolvers, scoped bolt rifles … hell, they are all just guns to me, and should all be just guns to everyone but those who wish for political purposes to brand “types” of guns as “particularly dangerous.”
This is something the antis have done rather successfully, and a concept that gun owners have been particularly poor about, in regard to educating the public. Even many strong gun owners have fallen for the hype about semi-autos, .50s, and “junk” handguns. We as a second amendment community need to figure out how to bring this message to gun owners … “they are all just guns, and the antis would like to ban them all.”
In neighboring Austria pump action shotguns are already banned, but semi-autos are still legal. Good to know the antis pass bizarre gun bans not only in the US, but also abroad.
“pacifist” n. A person so devoid of moral compass that they actually believe nothing good is worth fighting for.
“It seems that the gun-banner tendency to have absolutely no idea what they are talking about is an international phenomenon.”
Guav, it’s a REQUIREMENT. Ever wonder why you and I are near polar opposites on the political spectrum….but somehow we see eye-to-eye on the gun issue? Meanwhile you don’t have to dig to deep on ANY person who advocates gun control before you can find that they are a) Clueless, b) Dishonest, or c) hypocrites.
Flat Earthers don’t own Globes, Gun-banners don’t acknowledge reality. Just how it is.
Believe it or not, there is an anti-gun movement in Switzerland along with Switzerland joining in on the Schengen treaty which is supposed to harmonise Europe for plain off trade.
The Schengen treaty also includes gun control measures.
http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/justice_freedom_security/free_movement_of_persons_asylum_immigration/l33020_en.htm
Laci falls in Groups A and B
http://weerdbeard.livejournal.com/589444.html
http://weerdbeard.livejournal.com/595950.html
http://3bxsofbs.infamousanime.net/?p=1208
Um, I was pointing out that there is an “anti-gun” movement: believe it or not. They also have some clout: e.g., changes regarding the storage of service ammo at home.
Not to mention that the Schengen Agreement on European trade is effecting Swiss gun laws.
Anyone care to discuss this?
The Swiss gun culture is very interesting, both in its similarities to American gun culture, and in its differences.
Similarities are most in the shooting sport culture, and in a general cultural disdain to too much control or prohibition. Swiss shooting is pretty similar to NRA high-power from what I’ve seen, and the type of shooting club culture we have here in this part of the country is similar.
Difference is that American gun culture tends to be heavily self-defense oriented, and the Swiss still use a militia system we long ago abandoned, and their gun culture is intimately wrapped up in that. The current Swiss gun culture is probably closer to what ours was before the 19th century, and the slow abandonment of the universal militia in favor of a standing army.
But I think most Americans wouldn’t find Swiss gun laws too odd or onerous, and I doubt most Swiss would find ours to be insane. It’s easier to get a license to carry a gun here, but my understanding is that it’s not impossible in Switzerland either. Carry permits in Switzerland are issued more along the lines of Delaware and Iowa, with it varying jurisdiction to jurisdiction a bit, but not being impossible, or particularly difficult to get.
Swiss laws on automatic weapons are actually fairly similar to ours, though the universal militia system dispenses full automatic assault weapons to its male population. Though my understand is when your term of service is up, you can only keep your weapon if you convert it to semi-automatic. They don’t follow ATF’s one a machine gun always a machine gun philosophy.
i had an encounter with a visiting swiss national up here in vermont while working as an armoured truck guard, he heard me ordering my dinner in german and we got a conversation started, he noticed the p220 in my duty belt, surprised to see a swiss pistol in the u.s. and i told him “SIG” was well known and highly regarded here. he was also quite surprised to hear that in vermont we have no “pistol permits” issued or required. my pistol was personal property, not company issue, and i could carry it on or off duty as i pleased,