Thursday, June 03, 2010

Why Switzerland Has The Lowest Gun Crime Rate In The World



Which country in Europe has the lowest gun crime? (Yes, there's a clue in the title of this piece, but just go with it.)

Which country in Europe has the highest number of guns per capita?

Yep, you guessed it.

It's Switzerland!

As a regular traveller there myself to visit my Swiss relatives, I still flinch a bit when I see groups of men wandering around Zurich Hauptbahnhof railway station carrying machine guns and other automatic weapons, or when some badly-moustached bloke who lives upstairs in the apartment building hops on a tram with rifle (which one always presumes is fully loaded), but you get used to it.

You also get used to feeling TOTALLY SAFE in Switzerland. Yes, the federal government there has tried to ingratiate itself with the EU by allowing in lot of immigrants who the Swiss people would rather had stayed in the old Yugoslavia because of the crime they commit, and I'm sure there's SOME gun crime amongst these badly-integrated immigrants. However, do not let the British press in the next few days bamboozle you with stories of gun-crime USA or gun-crime Britain, to further restrict your rights to bear arms.

Ask yourself, if so many people in Switzerland carry guns (and legally, every Swiss man over a certain age MUST bear arms), and if gun crime in Switzerland is so low, then why must all Englishmen be stripped down to lockless penknives with blades less than an inch long (and they'll probably ban these too, eventually).

Just look at the equation:

HIGH GUN Switzerland = LOW GUN CRIME Country (actually, virtually non-existent gun crime)

LOW GUN England = HIGH GUN CRIME England

Will lowering the amount of legal guns in England even further somehow make this equation magically reverse itself? If there are no legal guns left in the country whatsoever, except those possessed by angels in state uniforms, do you really think all gun crime will disappear?

Yes, Tonto. But only if you read about Fantasy Land in The Guardian.

As Dr Gabb said yesterday, until an Englishman can once again go into a gun store with nothing but cash and no ID, to buy any amount of weaponry and ammunition he likes, as was once his right, then gun crime is going to do nothing but get even worse, especially once the disastrous economic effects of government money printing really start ramming home.

Guns started being really restricted in this country in 1920, when the British government feared a Russian-style revolution. It was NOTHING to do with crime figures. Ever since that time, gun crime has increased in Britain, until we now expect a Hungerford-style massacre every ten years.

The more we control guns, the lower this ten-year figure will shrink, until it just becomes an annual or semi-annual 'going postal' event. There will be much gnashing and wailing of teeth, and more and more controls, but that won't stop me from being any more right about it, will it?

HT to Mr G

14 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was on holiday in the UK in 2002. Citizens are arming themselves. I know exactly where to buy guns and next trip over will buy one to carry for protection. Richard

Anonymous said...

Every Swiss man does not have to own a gun. He can serve in the fire service for example. Gun ownership is very high but more so in older generations.

Owning a gun does not make you safer. Except when at home of course. Very few carry guns and then only with special permits for a short duration of time.

Switzerland is a special case. It is very safe (though the ethnic Swiss would disagree) and problematic nationalities are not permitted guns though they seem to have them for committing crimes with.

At the end of the day Switzerland treats its people like adults and has created a very free country.

The UK has relatively high gun crime in comparison but that is expected due to the ridiculous restrictions. It could have Swiss levels of safety but would have to restrict ownership by ethnic origin which I do not see happening.

Anonymous said...

Tell me, if you own a gun and you want to rob someone but you know that person has an entire cabinet full of guns, would you try to rob that person?
I didn't think so.
Britain has a high gun crime rate because the younger people of the country have never seen one and desire to use one without going through the difficult process of getting a license, so they buy one illegally and get caught or use it because their mates tell them to.
If you were to simply allow them to have one but make sure there were no bullets loaded into it, interest about the gun would be lost and it will be put in a cabinet to be forgotten.
Anyone that thinks that having a gun automatically leads to crime or drugs is an absolute moron.

Anonymous said...

This is a totaly mis-representative and mis-leading source of information. Switzerland has a rate of homicide by firearm more than thi rteentimes (yes folks that's 14x) greater than the UK. Check the facts for yourselves, they are freely available on-line from objective offical sources. Gun-related homicides in the UK are lower than they've been for twenty years.

Anonymous said...

What a stupid and one sided article. The UK does not have a high gun crime and the only reason it is so low in Switzerland is whilst citizens are allowed to own guns (because all males between 20-30 are in the Army) They are not allowed to keep ammunition.

I wish people would check real facts before publishing their own

Anonymous said...

It is obvious that many people that have written into this blogg dont have a clue how the real world works.
"locks keep honest people honest" the old saying goes.
If the thug on the street knows you are packing do you think he will think twice about trying to rob you?
Go ahead and band all guns like some moron. Keep all the good law abiding citizens armless that way when the dirt bag breaks into your house and beats you up and rapes your wife you can just sit back and watch.
There has been so much brainwashing on this subject its pathetic. You morons dont have a clue how large and deep the black market is for weapons which you will never be able to beat. You can buy anything from a bb gun to a rockets. Go ahead and ban weapons that way the criminals can just get stronger and there will be nothing you can do.

Anonymous said...

He is right ...it has been proven over and over again...

The gun is to protect yourself....protecting yourself is your responsibility ....

By your way of thinking...it is better to be a sitting duck and beg someone for your life that is just as soon going to shoot you anyway....

The way things sit now the thugs have at least an 89% chance that you don't have a gun...why? because they know most people are law abiding citizens and they count on that....

If people were able to defend themselves like they should and carry a gun....that would make it a whole different thing...because now the thug doesn't know if you are carrying or not....he also doesn't know who is carrying ad how many on the street are carrying...that puts the odds a lot less in his favor and a lot more in ours...

I would rather have the thug have to think about it ....than see me as a sitting duck with no risk to himself....Thugs are more coward as not...except when they have a gun and you don't

Hunter said...

Some people prefer to be UNARMED and HELPLESS, they cannot protect even themselves, they like to be helpless. This is their right. They are pacifists.
But I cannot understand why do pacifists impose their views on others? Why are there so many pacifists?
Switzerland is the best example of free and democratic country with armed people. It is a beautiful country with beautiful traditions.























































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































































Anonymous said...

correlation does not equal causation.

Anonymous said...

GUN HOMICIDE BY COUNTRY (for every 100,000 people)

England & Wales = 0.12
Switzerland = 0.56

Funny how Switzerlands gun homicide rate is almost 5 times as high as that of England and Wales.

What happened?! I though more guns protected people!

Guns said...

I don't think so that Switzerland is having lowest gun crime rate in the whole world.

Anonymous said...

Well I would rather live in a country that if someone had a mental or sociopath tendency's that they committed suicide rather than going into an elementary school and killing 18 innocent children before taking themselves out. Just like people have the right to be victims people also have the right to end their own life, and that is better then the alternative of taking someone else's.

Anonymous said...

So let me ask this. Do you all think that an insane person who wants to go on a shooting spree would most likely do it at a place where there's a sign that says "NO GUNS ON PREMISES" or where there's a sign that says "ARMED GUNMAN ON DUTY"? Bottom line is that someone who is going to commit homicide with a gun is going to do it regardless if they get the gun legally or not. If they can't get their hands on a gun, they would use some other method to do it. If a person knew that everyone around him/her was carrying a gun and knew how to use it, that person would less likely pull out their gun and start shooting. If that person was STUPID enough to pull out their gun and start shooting, they MIGHT shoot ONE person before their body is pumped full of lead. But let's be real, NO ONE would be stupid enough to pull a gun on someone while everyone else has a gun. Even if they want to die anyway, they would only kill maybe one person before he or she is stopped. NOT 26! I don't see how anyone can see that in any other way! LESS GUNS = DEFENSELESS AGAINST THEM!!! NO GUNS = THE END OF SOCIETY!!!

Anonymous said...

Conservatives love cost/benefit when it comes to pollution controls but are blind to the cost of lax gun laws. Is the occasional prevention of a crime with a firearm worth the 12,000 deaths per year? Is the cure worse than the disease? At what number do we see the need for reasonable controls? 20,000? 50,000? Our gun homicide rate is 40 times the British.