I thought this was interesting. I remember the old days of Switzerland when it was easy to get full auto weapons (with approval), suppressors and even CCW licenses.
Thanks to some shootings and changes in the social make up the laws were tightened. Fortunately this time around their latest efforts were rebuffed.
Good on them!
I had a customer about 20 years ago who was Swiss and worked for a multinational corp. They moved him all over the world.
He was a shooter, and I’m quoting here…“The worst firearms laws I’ve ever experienced were when we lived in New Jersey.”
Apparently, military calibers (7.65x21mm Parabellum, 9mm Parabellum, 5.56x45mm and 7.5x55mm) are subsidized by the government to help keep costs low and promote people shooting their weapons, but non standard calibers like .357 magnum or .45 ACP were extremely expensive over there, which prompted most shooters to handload them.
I was over there in '84. Beautiful country, friendly people from what I remember.
Village shooting range:
Going to market after the range…
Grabbing some chow at the food court…
I remember going to a store outside of Basel in around 1993/94. They had AK’s, M16’s with M203’s mounted, belt feds, all kinds of stuff. I bought a 7.62 suppressor over the counter for cash.
They even had some crazy .357 rounds with explosive tips. I was amazed.
That’s some range. Looks like it can be used in winter. I wonder what happens if some clueless person points a firearm down the firing line.
Gotta love the Swiss. No politician in the USA would have the balls to say this:
In a newspaper interview Defence Minister Ueli Maurer argued that women are more likely to approve the initiative because of an inability to handle firearms
Goddamn. I gotta go to Switzerland.
The Swiss take their shooting competitions and training very seriously.
Those ranges are gov’t subsidized, and especially in more rural cantons (states), young men are taught to shoot at a very early age. Gun safety is drilled into them from the start.
Since Switzerland is an alpine country, those guys shoot in the snow.
One big reason Hitler never invaded Switzerland was the cost-benefit analysis…sure, they might have taken the country eventually, but at a huge cost.
The bridges that span alpine valleys have explosives built into them so that in case of invasion, Switzerland can cut the autobahn off. Many of the major roads have built in tank obstacles that can be raised at a moment’s notice. Many of the mountains are hollowed out and filled with F-18 Hornets and shelters for the population.
Magic…dude, I need to get back there soon!
It was a toss up between Budapest or Switzerland for my first R&R, now it’s gotta be the latter… 
Swiss German does sound funny to me though. 
This is telling.
From the article;
There are signs, however, that even in Switzerland attitudes to guns are changing. Young people are among those most likely to favour curbs on gun ownership.
In most shooting clubs the average age is “closer to 50 than to 40,” says Gerhard Schneider, president of the pistol shooters association in Bueren an der Aare.
There’s a lesson to be learned there. Need to get the kids out of the house and onto the range.
Switzerland’s firearm policies (or lack of to this point, anyways) is how the Founding Fathers intended the US to be. Makes me both elated and yet sad at the same time to see another country with less restrictions than we do.
Girls on bikes with Stg90s…wow.
Yeah Ive been to Switzerland before, and saw the people walking around with mil rifles slung.
Try doing that here, and they’ll get you for at least disorderly conduct.
Switzerland was the best country Ive been to in Europe just visiting. The trains were full of people going skiing, hiking, whatever. Seemed like the people there like to be active outdoors. I do, too, but within 100 miles there is maybe 2 state parks you can go “hiking” in and thats more of a light walk than hiking. One thing I don’t like about TX is theres hardly any public land to do anything on.
Except in Arizona.
Don’t the Swiss also have some hot women?
Yes they do…
Just out of curiosity -
Is learning German a necessity? My German sucks. My girlfriend’s dad was teaching me, but I can’t understand a lot of what he says and need her to translate.
What would be the German replacement for ‘‘Spanglish’’?
Gerglish?.. That’s what he speaks.
BTW… M4C vacation!
German is the predominant language but Switzerland is a multi-lingual society with French, Italian and Romanche also being spoken. Virtually everyone speaks English.
Immigration laws in Switzerland are very, very strict if you’re considering going there full time.
Schweizerdeutsch, or Swiss German, as GermanSynergy said, sounds funny to people who learn Hochdeutsch, or standard German.
Just about everyone speaks English anyway. Switzerland also has French, Italian, and Romansh as official languages, really depends on whether you’re in the northern, eastern, or southern part of the country as to what you’ll hear.
Again, just about everyone can understand English.
The same could definitely be said of Swiss French. It’s positively bizarre.