Swiss Voters in Favour of Tighter Gun Laws in Line With EU Legislation

Swiss Voters in Favour of Tighter Gun Laws in Line With EU Legislation

On Sunday, 19 May, the Swiss took to the polls in a referendum that saw 63.7% of voters casting their ballot in favour of stricter gun laws.  The final results showed that the majority of voters in all but one of the country’s 26 cantons were in support of the reform with the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino in the south of Switzerland being the only exception on this occasion. The referendum was held after the neighboring European Union demanded that the Swiss impose stricter gun. This demand resulted in a heated national debate in the country, which has a very old and deeply-rooted gun culture.

The Swiss are a gun-loving nation

Switzerland boasts one of the highest gun ownership rates in Western Europe with nearly 27% of the population owning at least one gun according to the Geneva’s Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies. While the country’s gun death rate is also relatively high at 2.84 per 100,000 people, homicide accounts for less than 1% of these killings while mass shootings are also extremely rare. Prior to accepting the EU’s recommendations, gun laws in Switzerland were by no means forgiving. The law already required all gun owners to store their weapons and ammunition separately and also placed stringent permit requirements on both obtaining handguns as well as to carry and conceal a weapon in public areas including shopping malls, sports facilities, and on public transport. Regardless of the crime rate in Switzerland being among the lowest in the world, many individuals still choose to own a gun for personal safety. Thankfully, it is not often that a trigger has to be pulled in self-defense, but when such situations do arise the individuals involved are generally well equipped to deal with the consequences of their actions as far as insurance and legal representation are concerned.

Why is the EU worried about the gun laws in Switzerland?

After the horrific 2015 Paris attacks the European Union issued all Schengen members with a new set of restrictions pertaining to automatic and semi-automatic weapons.  The new set of rules called for a ban on all weapons that are able to rapidly fire multiple rounds and automatic and semi-automatic weapons to either be heavily-restricted or banned. It was further stipulated that all individuals owning such guns, as well as the guns themselves, be made known to police across Europe and that all essential weapon components be both registered electronically as well as clearly labeled. There was a huge public outcry at first as these laws would put an end to the tradition of ex-soldiers being allowed to keep their assault rifles. A failure to adopt the changes would, however, have forced Switzerland to leave the Schengen zone as well as the Dublin joint system that handles asylum requests.

Not everyone was happy with the outcome

Many gun enthusiasts insisted that the government’s warnings were greatly exaggerated and that giving in to the EU’s requests would deprive the country’s citizens of their right to own weapons. Even the ProTell gun lobby voiced their concerns at the significance of the referendum outcome. ProTell President Jean-Luc Addor was quoted as saying: “Today, our liberties have been eroded”. He also went on to say that the reform will in no way prevent a single terrorist attack. The populist, right-wing party, the Swiss People’s Party (SVP) who were the only party to oppose the reform meanwhile cautioned that there would be severe consequences for bowing to an EU dictate.