Swiss to hold referendum on adopting EU firearm restrictions

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What happens when E.U. gun control meets Swiss gun culture? A referendum.
The reforms will still make it more difficult for civilians to legally obtain them and — perhaps more importantly — create uniform rules for the registration of such weapons, which is especially important in the borderless Schengen zone where arms traffickers have so far found loopholes in abundance.

Later next month, Swiss voters will decide if those rules should also apply to Switzerland, which, while not part of the E.U., tends to follow the bloc’s rules. Switzerland has long held a unique status in the Western world for having one of the world’s highest per capita gun ownership rates but very few shooting deaths. To the Swiss, semiautomatic rifles and other weapons were long a sacred part of their culture. After the end of their mandatory military service, about half of all conscripts would take their military-issued weapons back home, in what Swiss leaders long argued was an effective way to uphold the country’s ability to defend itself. But the ratio of former soldiers taking their weapons home has fallen to about 10 percent, amid other signs that the Swiss weapons culture is changing.
Next month’s referendum on tougher weapons laws could become a turning point in the country’s gun ownership history, after years of gradual changes — as well as determine Switzerland’s future relationship with the E.U. In the long run, a pro-reform outcome of the referendum would significantly weaken the country’s gun lobby and could pave the way for more extensive reforms that would have been unimaginable a decade ago. In the short run, however, little would change for Swiss gun owners, who will still be able to purchase and own semiautomatic firearms and other weapons as long as they can prove they regularly use or train with them.

Re: Swiss to hold referendum on adopting EU firearm restrictions

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Here's hoping that the Swiss thumb their noses at the EU Commission and it's rules which restricts legal gun ownership, while the EU is still awash with illegal weapons. The Nov 13, 2015 attackers on Paris were able to get a lot of weapons illegally in France and Belgium, they flow in from North Africa and the Middle East through eastern and southern Europe. The EU can't control immigrants, how are they ever going to control weapons.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

Re: Swiss to hold referendum on adopting EU firearm restrictions

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Done.
Swiss voters favor tightening gun laws
Official preliminary results showed that 63.7% of voters gave their backing to new EU gun laws, including tighter controls for semi-automatic weapons. A majority of voters in all but one canton, the Italian-speaking Ticino in southern Switzerland, came out in favor of reforming Swiss gun laws.
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Re: Swiss to hold referendum on adopting EU firearm restrictions

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From José Niño at Mises.
Why the Swiss Voted for More Gun Control
The European Firearms Directive
According to Claudio Grass, a frequent contributor at Mises based in Switzerland, and Dimitrios Papadopoulos, an officer in the Swiss militia, 80 percent of shooters in Switzerland use semi-automatic weapons, which will effectively be prohibited under this new directive. The only way people can acquire the newly prohibited weapons is through an exemption where the prospective gun owner declares himself to be a sports marksman. The only proof that he needs to provide is that he was shooting at least five times within a five-year timespan. Whether this exception will be maintained in the future is unknown, as the EU announced further restrictions and the Swiss law will have to adopt these, too, according to the Schengen treaty.

The Militia Origins of Switzerland’s Gun Culture
Switzerland has a militia tradition dating back to the Middle Ages. Unlike other European countries during the period, Swiss cantons did not have nobility systems. Thus, defense and security were provided by villages and citizens themselves. One caveat to note is that military service is compulsory in Switzerland for healthy Swiss male citizens.

Servicemen in Switzerland receive a SIG550 assault rifle or a SIG P220 pistol and are required to keep their firearms at home as long as they are enlisted. After serving, veterans can keep these weapons, however, the automatic and burst-fire functions of the SIG550 must be disabled. Military service in Switzerland is inextricably tied to marksmanship, with servicemen having to go to the shooting range once a year to demonstrate their shooting chops. The SIG550 and SIG510 are the preferred rifles of choice for shooting sports and also for civilians in Switzerland. However, under the new EU Directive, the SIG550 and SIG510 have been reclassified as “prohibited” weapons even though the Swiss government issues about 20,000 of these weapons to recruits every year.

Re: Swiss to hold referendum on adopting EU firearm restrictions

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Whether this exception will be maintained in the future is unknown, as the EU announced further restrictions and the Swiss law will have to adopt these, too, according to the Schengen treaty.
The Swiss want the open borders into the EU (Schengen) so they pay a price. The EU deludes itself into thinking because of these new restrictions that terrorists won't be able to get automatic weapons - the black market has everything and guns come in from Eastern Europe, North Africa, the Middle East...

Without Schengen they're back to border controls.
This would not only be a considerable extra workforce and money, but would also lead to congestion at the border crossings. And that in turn would be a major disadvantage for the tens of thousands of frontier workers who come to work in Switzerland.

Another disadvantage of going it alone: ​​If Switzerland were excluded from the Dublin Agreement, asylum seekers who have already applied for asylum in another Member State could no longer be released immediately thanks to access to the European databases.

On the contrary, Switzerland would be forced to examine all asylum applications, which would make it more attractive for asylum seekers. In the Schengen area, the rule is that migrants can apply for asylum only in the first country of origin.
https://www.swissinfo.ch/ger/direktedem ... -/44834778
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts." - Daniel Patrick Moynihan

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