HOW SWITZERLAND MAY CHANGE YOUR MIND ON GUNS

 HOW SWITZERLAND MAY CHANGE YOUR MIND ON GUNS

Gun crazy is a term used in America where the gun is king . American society has a layered system of the very rich down to the people living in real poverty but its a fact that poverty is not the main factor for criminality. In any country where there is not a layered system of richness and wealth there is little crime. Newfoundland where everyone is more or less not rich has little crime . Monte Carlo where most residents are rich has little street crime the same for singapore . London areas that are very rich see little street crime but places in London where the rich and the poor live side by side then severe security measures need to be brought in. Crime in America is mostly to do with the crime needing guns and people are slaughtered every day. In reality it is truly not the police doing it but citizens who can buy a gun very easily . But while some try to ban guns Switzerland shows us that you can live peacefully with guns

Switzerland hasn't had a mass shooting since 2001, when a man stormed the local parliament in Zug, killing 14 people and then himself.

The country has about 2 million privately owned guns in a nation of 8.3 million people. In 2016, the country had 47 attempted homicides with firearms. The country's overall murder rate is near zero.

The National Rifle Association often points to Switzerland to argue that more rules on gun ownership aren't necessary. In 2016, the NRA said on its blog that the European country had one of the lowest murder rates in the world while still having millions of privately owned guns and a few hunting weapons that don't even require a permit.

But the Swiss have some specific rules and regulations for gun use.Zurich's Knabenschiessen is a traditional annual festival that dates back to the 1600s.

Though the word roughly translates to "boys shooting" and the competition used to be only boys, teenage girls have been allowed in since 1991.

Kids in the country flock to the competition every September to compete in target shooting using Swiss army service rifles. They're proud to show off how well they can shoot.

Accuracy is prized above all else, and a Schutzenkonig — a king or queen of marksmen — is crowned.The Swiss stance is one of "armed neutrality."

Switzerland hasn't taken part in any international armed conflict since 1815, but some Swiss soldiers help with peacekeeping missions around the world.

Many Swiss see gun ownership as part of a patriotic duty to protect their homeland.Unlike the US, Switzerland has mandatory military service for men.

All men between the ages of 18 and 34 deemed "fit for service" are given a pistol or a rifle and trained.

After they've finished their service, the men can typically buy and keep their service weapons, but they have to get a permit for them.

In recent years, the Swiss government has voted to reduce the size of the country's armed forces.Switzerland's borders are basically designed to blow up on command, with at least 3,000 demolition points on bridges, roads, rails, and tunnels around the landlocked European country.

John McPhee put it this way in his book "La Place de la Concorde Suisse":

"Near the German border of Switzerland, every railroad and highway tunnel has been prepared to pinch shut explosively. Nearby mountains have been made so porous that whole divisions can fit inside them."

In 2000, more than 25% of Swiss gun owners said they kept their weapon for military or police duty, while less than 5% of Americans said the same.The Swiss government has estimated that about half of the privately owned guns in the country are former service rifles. But there are signs the Swiss gun-to-human ratio is dwindling.

In 2007, the Small Arms Survey found that Switzerland had the third-highest ratio of civilian firearms per 100 residents (46), outdone by only the US (89) and Yemen (55).

But it seems that figure has dropped over the past decade. It's now estimated that there's about one civilian gun for every three Swiss people.Swiss authorities decide on a local level whether to give people gun permits. They also keep a log of everyone who owns a gun in their region, known as a canton, though hunting rifles and some semiautomatic long arms are exempt from the permit requirement.

But cantonal police don't take their duty dolling out gun licenses lightly. They might consult a psychiatrist or talk with authorities in other cantons where a prospective gun buyer has lived before to vet the person.People who've been convicted of a crime or have an alcohol or drug addiction aren't allowed to buy guns in Switzerland.

The law also states that anyone who "expresses a violent or dangerous attitude" won't be permitted to own a gun.

Gun owners who want to carry their weapon for "defensive purposes" also have to prove they can properly load, unload, and shoot their weapon and must pass a test to get a license.Switzerland was ranked sixth in the UN's 2019 World Happiness Report.

The Swiss have been consistently near the top of this list. In 2017, when Switzerland was ranked fourth overall among nations, the report authors noted that the country tends to do well on "all the main factors found to support happiness: caring, freedom, generosity, honesty, health, income and good governance."

Meanwhile, according to the report, happiness has taken a dive over the past decade in the US.

The report authors cite "declining social support and increased corruption," as well as addiction and depression for the fall.

Switzerland still has one of the highest rates of gun violence in Europe, and most gun deaths in the country are suicides.After hundreds of years of letting local cantons determine gun rules, Switzerland passed its first federal regulations on guns in 1999, after the country's crime rate increased during the 1990s.

Since then, more provisions have been added to keep the country on par with EU gun laws, and gun deaths, including suicides, have continued to drop.

As of 2015, the Swiss estimated that only about 11% of citizens kept their military-issued gun at home.Concealed-carry permits are tough to get in Switzerland, and most people who aren't security workers or police officers don't have one.

"We have guns at home, but they are kept for peaceful purposes," Martin Killias, a professor of criminology at Zurich University, told the BBC in 2013. "There is no point taking the gun out of your home in Switzerland because it is illegal to carry a gun in the street."

That's mostly true. Hunters and sports shooters are allowed to transport their guns only from their home to the firing range — they can't just stop off for coffee with their rifle.

And guns cannot be loaded during transport to prevent them from accidentally firing in a place like Starbucks — something that has happened in the US at least twice.

1. After reading this what is the main difference between Switzerland and the Americas_

2. Did this change your mind on guns

3, Someone said that it is to do with intelligence . Remember intelligence is nothing to do with knowledge . Intelligence means resolving difficult situations or problems you have never seen before.

4.To shoot someone dead means a very low level of intelligence because you have not looked at the problem . The problem really means if you shoot someone then your life might absolutely change for the worst. What do you think.