Comment by CrossVR
4 months ago
Switzerland has a strong permit system allowing the government to control who can purchase a firearm. Automatic firearms and concealed carry permits are given sparingly and only for a good reason.
Basically unlike the U.S. Switzerland doesn't view background checks and permits as a slippery slope to a dictatorship and implements them effectively.
The US, contrary to your implication, has much stronger controls on automatic firearms than Switzerland does, in the forms of the 1934 National Firearms Act (makes them illegal to manufacture or purchase without a permit and exorbitant tax), the 1968 Gun Control Act (Massively regulates gun stores that are allowed to sell), and the 1984 Hughes amendment to the FOPA (makes new production machine guns illegal for civilians to buy)
Meanwhile, in Switzerland, I could have a fully automatic SIG 550 in about two weeks with some paperwork. In fact, the harder part is finding a range to shoot the damn thing at!
"Good Reason" carry permits, meanwhile, are looked down on due to their messy history of being Jim Crow laws. Generally, the "good reason" was "being white" and this was used to ensure that the Black community was disarmed when the Klan rolled in.
This is largely incorrect or misleading. The US has had strict laws on automatic weapons since the 1930s. Its almost impossible to own an automatic weapon in the US unless you are very wealthy.
The Swiss... since the 2000s
The US has had strict background checks since the 60s
The Swiss.... 1997? Maybe later, the EU forced them to change their gun laws.
The questions stands: more Swiss households have guns than the US, yet gun violence does not exist.
Why?
The vast majority of firearm homicides in the US come from three sources. First, the vast majority (60-80 percent depending on jurisdiction) are suicides. After that, you have young minority men with criminal records killing other young minority men with criminal records, usually involving the drug trade and/or street gangs and using firearms which they are largely already banned from possessing. Next after that are homicides which occur as part of domestic or relationship violence.
So for all everyone crows about how likely you are to get shot in America, it's statistically no more likely to happen than the rest of the world unless you're a) suicidally depressed, b) a drug dealer or in a street gang, or c) in a violent relationship.
You don't seem to understand US gun laws . . . especially in the bluest of blue states, which have restrictions which make Switzerland and Czechia look like Somalia in comparison.