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Some European countries have more guns than you’d think. Iirc it’s estimated that some countries like Switzerland have more guns per capita than some US states
by ashtonkem 6y ago
Some European countries have more guns than you’d think. Iirc it’s estimated that some countries like Switzerland have more guns per capita than some US states (New Jersey is usually the lowest per capita).
The difference is in gun culture. Very few Europeans identify with guns as much as Americans occasionally do.
- rayiner 6y ago> The difference is in gun culture. Very few Europeans identify with guns as much as Americans occasionally do It’s an issue that’s become culturally politicized. I bet folks in Switzerland don’t say stuff like “people in other cantons cling to their guns and religion.”
- soneil 6y agoI believe gun ownership in Switzerland is very closely tied to compulsory military service. It's very much an outlier as statistics go - issuing every adult male a rifle isn't so much a gun culture as a military strategy. (Czechia does has a strong civilian ownership, however)
- ashtonkem 6y agoFinland also has a lot of guns, about 1.5mil out of a population of 5.5mil. Compare this to the 57,000 registered guns among New Jersey’s 8.8mil residents. It’s not just military service, even if that explains Switzerland specifically. Europe is a more diverse place ideologically and socially than most Americans tend to imagine it. The place is bigger and more complex than just Paris or Berlin, just like how America is not just NY or Houston.
- estaseuropano 6y agoThe reasons and culture vary. Finns go hunting, Americans going to a gun range is a sport. And most of those finnish guns are probably decades old and long out of use.
- glenneroo 6y agoAnd going back to Switzerland, I was at a festival a few years back which was almost cancelled due to potent protesting by several neighboring towns since the main sport-shooting range was at the same location as the festival's HQ. Thankfully the organizer was able to talk the mayor out of it. We later heard that a neighboring town was able to accommodate the sudden influx. I've heard from friends there is a similar passion in many towns in Germany and Austria. I would venture a guess that outside many European cities shooting for sport is much more commonplace.
- aksss 6y agoSchuetzen matches and anschutz are a thing in the US but come to us courtesy the Germans.
- rascul 6y agoHow does "schuetzen" and "anschutz" translate to English? Google Translate doesn't appear to be very helpful.
- aksss 6y agoI think schuetzen or schützen is kind of generic for a shooter/marksman. I don’t know about Anschutz - I always associated with the particular rifle maker/style and the associated matches but I know it’s a surname as well. https://blog.westernpowders.com/2017/11/schuetzen-the-purest-form-of-competitive-shooting/ https://blog.westernpowders.com/2017/11/schuetzen-the-purest...
- aksss 6y agoFinland also has a very proud firearm history - particularly related to their independence, high quality firearm manufacturing history, and hunting.
- ashtonkem 6y agoI own no firearms, but I’ve gotta admit that Sako does some really good advertising to connect their firearms to everything you just mentioned. I don’t even hunt and it makes me want one.
- AlgorithmicTime 6y agoThat NJ number is misleading, as you're not actually required to register guns in NJ. I am quite sure there are far more than 57k guns in NJ, as you can watch the NJ NICS updates daily and it's been like "1500 in the queue, 2500 in the queue" every day for the past 11 months.
- riffraff 6y agoI am betting that 90% of those are hunting rifles, and the overlap between computer geeks and people who hunt these days is pretty low based on my personal experience.
- bitxbitxbitcoin 6y agoIt's growing though! Growing right alongside the Farm to Table movement is the Catch, Clean, Cook movement. There's also a significant, separate overlap between computer geeks and people that like to exercise their rights (See: Crypto Wars) which results in non hunting gunowners.
- riffraff 6y agoin the US maybe? My comment was in the context of Europe. In my father's generation there were a ton of hunters (something like 70% of my in laws), but I have met a single person who hunts in my career in IT in Europe. Guns for personal defence/sport are just not common on this side of the pond, I think.