Nans, no one is suggesting that one can walk into a Berne greengrocer's and buy a 20mm cannon. I did refer to the tightening up in 1999, also.
Howver by European standards Swiss gun-laws are very, very lax.

A brief cut'n'pate: "Switzerland is also reconsidering its gun laws, which are the most relaxed in western Europe, after Friedrich Leibacher went on the rampage in the regional parliament in the northern city of Zug last September. He killed 14 people and himself, apparently over a grudge against a local official.

Switzerland's part-time militia keep their weapons at home. New laws in 1999 required anyone buying a gun from a store to have a permit, which is issued by local police or authorities in the different Swiss cantons, or states. But the only document required in a private sale is a sale contract."


And, as I say -very, very few gun-related crimes, let alone deaths.

Posters who doubt the universal gaze of Astral-gon, may check here:
www.eda.admin.ch/washington_emb/e/home/legaff/Fact/gunown.html
It's a "ch" site so I'm sure Nans will accept at least some of it.

I have seen 16 year olds walking down the street to the firing range with automatics. So long as you are a swiss citizen, you can have all the guns you want. The highest concentration of guns in the world is here in switzerland. I see stores downtown with pistols and rifles displayed in the window. There are few gun laws for the swiss.

XAOS

My thanks, XAOS.

Any thoughts, XAOS, on why gun--crime is so low? If you discount "foreigners' "criminal tourists" was a lovely Swiss expression -it's almost non-existent.

Originally posted by Estragon
Any thoughts, XAOS, on why gun--crime is so low?

Because in swiss even a house robery will pass in the newspaper.

But I'm not sure that there are so many weapons store in French and German swiss...
The proximity of Italia have also an importance.

In france also, you can own a rifle only at 16 years old, if you go hunting.
The hunting law in france say that you can go hunting with your parents at 14 and alone at 16 years old...

Allas, it cause also sometimes accident. I had a teacher who was a hunter and one day his son played with his rifle and a friend of him shoot in his eyes. It's a miracle that he is still alive but he totally loose an eye...

In france, the Automatic and semi-automatic weapons are forbidden (Class VI), and also some type of knifes are in this rate (One wich you can block the edge).
But it's also a stupid law because you can buy a riot-gun (shotgun), a hunt rifle or a flashball just with your ID card !

It's interesting, Nans, that the Italians have quite strict gun-control and an enormous amount of gun-related crime: especially in the South.

I think it really depends on the mindset of the country, and Italians are just weird.

XAOS

Originally posted by Estragon
It's interesting, Nans, that the Italians have quite strict gun-control and an enormous amount of gun-related crime: especially in the South.

Because Italians in the south have traffic with African mediteranée countries (Aegypt, Tunisia, Creta...)
And it's like in french corsica : Maybe the place worldwide where there are the most bombing per year/habitants...