Comment by microtherion
5 years ago
I mostly agree, except for some details. Back when I was of military age, some 25 years ago, it was not unusual to see military rifles carried openly, because each reservist had to attend mandatory target practice once a year, you had to transport your rifle to the shooting range, and many people used public transportation to do so.
Carrying a loaded rifle was illegal, but how would the public know one way or the other?
Back then, storing your army rifle at home was mandatory, and, while those rifles had automatic mode disabled by default, converting them back to automatic took 5 minutes and a screwdriver, with an official, documented, procedure.
Some of this has changed in the meantime. Rifles are not necessarily stored at home anymore, and it's been years since I've seen anybody but uniformed military or police carrying openly.
> Carrying a loaded rifle was illegal, but how would the public know one way or the other?
You're mandated to carry it without the trigger mechanism and without magazine. It's quite easy to spot the difference.
Are you sure? Those rules apply to the storage of rifles, as far as I remember, but regarding transport, the law only says that the weapon cannot be transported with ammo: https://www.admin.ch/opc/de/classified-compilation/19983208/...
Your right, you carried the rifle with the mechanism intakt, just cold-storing them without (thieves etc) BUT you where not allowed to put the magazin in, and if the military police catcht you with live ammo (exept the sealed notfallmunition) your in for some lonely days/weeks in prison or even out of the mil-service (and then you had to pay...probably with some prison days/weeks too)