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> Many own a war weapon at home (that is strictly forbidden to take out without orders) That's not entirely true. You can take your own military weapon and use
by bhaak 7y ago
> Many own a war weapon at home (that is strictly forbidden to take out without orders)
That's not entirely true. You can take your own military weapon and use it in your free time on a shooting range or event.
You don't even need a special permission to do so.
- bayesian_horse 7y agoAnd those weapons somewhat regularly feature in suicides and "family tragedies".
- steve1977 7y agoVery rarely actually.
- kome 7y agowell, not so easy. it used to be the case. but now you can't keep ammunition for no reason.
- Hitton 7y agoYou can't keep army issued ammunition. You can still buy your own ammo.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- bayesian_horse 7y agoIt's relatively easy to find such incidences online. It's also easy to forget that Switzerland is quite a small country and underestimate the relative frequency.
- kenneth 7y agoNo they don't. We Swiss are a little more responsible with our guns than Americans.
- kuerbel 7y agoThey certainly did until it was forbidden to take ammunition home. In 2000 suicide by guns was 27% and in 2016 it was 20% of all suicides in Switzerland. Compared to other countries with more restrictive policies that is a lot more...
- brohee 7y agoThat says nothing about the use of the service rifle. Firearm ownership is much higher in Switzerland than the rest of Europe.
- squiggleblaz 7y agoSurely there's a relationship between giving all your citizens a gun and higher firearm ownership. If the policy is deadly, does it matter whether the death happens with a service rifle or a weapon they bought because of their happy memories? I mean, it's not exactly as if the Swiss militia let them operate an independent foreign policy last time they felt threatened with invasion.
- bhaak 7y agoThey certainly did: > In 83.1% (n = 1112) of the 1338 suicides by firearm between 2000 and 2010 in Switzerland, the firearm could be categorised as an army weapon or a non-army weapon. The army weapon was used in 39.1% of these suicides. https://smw.ch/article/doi/smw.2018.14646 https://smw.ch/article/doi/smw.2018.14646 But that is not surprising. Suicides often happen out of an impulse and then people use the best available and easiest accessible means to kill themselves. And an army weapon fulfills those conditions much better than anything else people have at home. I don't know if there are already newer studies that take into account that the ammunition isn't storaged at home anymore. I also couldn't find any numbers on "family tragedies".
- pas 7y agoCan they simply buy ammo for it somewhere else?
- noxer 7y agoIn about 25% of all cases where firearms are involved they are military firearms (pistols or rifles). That does not include suicide unless connected with some sort of violent crime where a firearm was involved. The "normal" suicides trough a firearm probably have a higher rate of military firearms because people probably choose the firearm with the higher success rate. Also because suicide is more likely to be committed by younger persons and younger male persons usually do own a military rifle. If one completely finished military service and you want to keep your rifle you can do that. It will be converted to a semi-automatic rifle. This then would not count as suicide my military firearm anymore. Depending on military function this can be anywhere between the age of 30 up to the age of 40.
- occamrazor 7y agoIndeed. There is very strict regulation around army-issued ammo however.
- noxer 7y agoThat's only because amry-issued ammo is free. The ammo you buy for shooting at the range you have to pay and they must prevent that people use army ammo instead. You can buy amo and take it home anytime you want if you are at least 18 years old.