shooting range training practice
(AP Photo/Frank Jordans)

Go ahead, risk a little “EU tension” . . .

What the EU wants:

  • Under a Revised Firearms directive, a ban on weapons capable of rapidly firing multiple rounds
  • Automatic and semi-automatic weapons would either be banned or heavily restricted
  • Each owner of such a weapon, and the weapon itself, are known to police across Europe
  • All essential weapon components should be clearly labelled and registered electronically

Switzerland has an estimated 2.3 million guns, with a population of 8.5 million. …

But the proposals have raised hackles in Switzerland, which has a long, and for many Swiss, proud tradition of gun ownership. After Swiss men complete their obligatory military service, they are permitted to keep their assault rifles.

There are gun clubs in every town and village, and target-shooting is a hugely popular sport.

Swiss law does require gun owners to have a permit, but getting one is relatively easy.

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70 COMMENTS

  1. Sadly, they eventually will capitulate. Might take awhile though because of their history. And the fact they aren’t flooding themselves with 3rd world slaves. But, add enough time, pressure, few mass shootings, EU pressure, boom. Licensed bolt guns only. All the military stuff in locked warehouses, just like the USSR.

    • Happily you are wrong. Such a ban would have to be voted on by the country at large. It is highly unlikely that such a ban would pass.

      • Not sure about that. They had nationwide constitutional carry for handguns not too long ago, now the whole country is like New Jersey with carry laws. Their “right” is a collective one and not like ours. The country as a whole is getting more “liberal”. Universal income, universal healthcare, etc. Hope you are correct though.

        • The Czech Republic recently liberalized their gun laws. They won’t be complying either.

      • Yeah, you’re the one who’s wrong here, champ. 67-33. Game over. Bow before your Muslim masters.

      • Eh, they pretty much just voted away their sovereignty and neutrality. Soon they will be just another EU state, with all the joys that brings with it.

      • Unfortunately it did pass. Bloke On the Range posted as much on his YouTube channel. 🙁

    • Right, they capitulated on bank privacy. Now they tell other governments what their citizens have in their banks.

      • Sadly, your right. As long as the U.S.A. has the SWIFT banking system (Look it up) that forces all banks worldwide to go through the U.S. when transferring money overseas from one country to another they basically have no recourse. Both China and Russia and possibly Brazil may soon begin their own version of the SWIFT system to bypass the USA. The USA has in the recent past (basically since 9/11/01) abused this privilege severely and now it’s coming back to bite them right in the ass.

    • “These concessions, outlined in Article 6 of the EU Firearms Directive, mean that Swiss soldiers can continue to take home their service weapons, which have high magazine capacity, at the end of military service.”

      Well, because military service is mandatory, and getting a ‘high capacity semi auto’ will be a bit of a PITA after the law passes (they still can), any bets on how many more service riles are going to be going home?

  2. The appropriate response would be, “go pound sand”.
    And the EU can’t understand why the Brits want out…

    • In case that was unclear, Swiss citizens lost their rights, and the anti gun referendum won.

    • The Finns got an exception for everyone by classifying them militia members, right? Can’t Switzerland simply do that? Oh, and then run screaming from the EU, of course.

      I thought you guys weren’t in the EU; how are you getting their referendums? I thought the whole point of negotiating treaties independently was so you could avoid this heavy-handed bullcrap. My condolences if it is truly hopeless for you. My advice; leave, before it inevitably gets ugly, and the EU begins destroying your demographics through forced migration like Stalin.

      • They did get a bunch of concessions. The vote had to do more with keeping their sovereignty than their service rifles.

      • Switzerland is not a member of the EU, but does participate in the Schengen area which permits people to move between states without needing to clear passport control. If Switzerland had not complied with the EU directive, they might have been forced out of the Schengen area which would have had economic consequences.

        On top of this, it was the urban (read cities) areas that wanted gun restrictions while the rural areas did not (much like it is here in the U.S.). They seem to have wrangled some concessions out of the EU, but apparently there is a another review that will be conducted in five years that would enable to the law to be strengthened without having to pass the country-wide referendum. So, it’s merely a five year delay and the gun control folks get what they really wanted.

      • The electoral college analogy is irrelevant. The majority of cantons must also vote yes on something as well as the majority of the population too.

        Every canton adopted the EU directive except for Ticino.

        It was a “electoral college” landslide for the directive. Similar to FDR winning all but 2 states in one of his elections.

    • The Swiss stood up to the Socialist Adolf Hitler. Can they stand up against the Socialist EU super government?

      • The Swiss did shit against the Nazis. They were neutral so the Nazis could hide the money they took from the Jews and other nations.

        • The Nazis paid royalties to GM all through WWII. GM maintained ownership of Opelwerks , even though it was making military hardware (German army trucks mainly) being used against American soldiers. The Nazis made their last royalty payment to the GM office in Switzerland in April, 1945.

        • And we drove GM 2 ton trucks all over Europe kicking their asses. Your point?

          The Swiss were eating fondue while our folks were eating CRations fighting.

          At least the Brits got real after they allowed the Nazis to get a good foothold.

        • One way to determine if one’s actions are moral is to extrapolate what would happen if everybody did what you did.

          So the Swiss refused to fight fascist Hitler.
          Now extrapolate what would have happened if all countries did the same.

    • Tom Kratman thought the same when he wrote Caliphate in 2007.
      I had my doubts in the future he wrote of. He had the UK at war with the Islamic State of Europe, but I agreed with his vision of ongoing Swiss independence (until today).

      Now I think that it’s very believable that all of western Europe and the British Isles will be under Islamic rule in 100 years. Once there are enough Muslims in the EU to think it’s their turn to be in charge, the EU will be about as secular as Saudi Arabia is today.

      BTW, the book is a free Kindle download, and the Kindle phone/PC apps are free too.
      https://www.amazon.com/Caliphate-Tom-Kratman-ebook/dp/B00ARPJDLA

  6. Probably about $$$$…if they hadn’t they’d get a yellow 6 pointed star😩😡😏

    • Yeah. The EU threatened to boot them out of the Schengen area (and a couple other things) which would destroy their economy, as Switzerland is heavily dependent on free flow of capital, labor, and goods.

  7. Won’t be long before someone bent on getting gun control laws there does a New Zealand copycat shooting.

  8. Huge monolithic governing body you are not a part of asks nicely for you to disarm. What could possibly go wrong? This is your cue to arm up Switzerland.

  9. all the news I’ve been able to find on this says the Swiss “approved” the measure based on “projections”. It’s 4PM over there right now by my watch, anyone know what the actual numbers are?

    • Remember how they projected Hillary was winning Florida? Maybe it’s intentional fake news. We know which side the media is on.

  11. Metrocentroid sissies will kill Swiss gun rights. It’s happening everywhere else too. Coming to the USA the next time democrats get control of Congress. Even B guns will have to be permitted and registered.

  12. Get ready for it gun confiscation is rapidly coming we need to decide now what side we’re on freedom or slavery

  13. “The EU Wants the Non-EU Swiss to Enact Tougher Gun Control Laws”

    Of course they do, and they will use every means at their disposal to accomplish this…

    • Kind of funny… we had a foreign exchange student from Switzerland who stayed with us for a while. We took her shopping and asked if she wanted Swiss cheese. She had no idea what the hell we were talking about, which was particularly disappointing for me because she worked at her family’s cheese factory and I had several times made the joke that her job was to poke holes in the cheese with her fingers. She must’ve been so confused. Haha.

  15. Ain’t direct democracy with no constitutional protections grand? People voting their will to strip the rights of 1/3 of the population.

  16. Just wait until the EU decides to try the disarmament sh*t with Viktor Orban’s Hungary. It’s just a matter of time before EU collectivists confront less cooperative countries such as Italy, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary over finances, immigration, and defense issues.
    When that ill wind blows I wonder which direction the US will move to when an EU army decides to force issues on their European neighbors. Don’t laugh, that day’s coming.

  17. The saddest thing is that the lessons of the cold war and the iron curtain have been forgotten in a generation or two.

    • The eu told them,the Swiss, that they would be cut off from certain agreements that are beneficial to the swiss in terms of trade and finances and the swiss capitulated.

      • Sounds familiar…to be fair, part of being neutral is recognizing who runs Barter Town (was: Nazis, now: EU) and being open to doing business with them so as to make your independence an asset rather than a hindrance to their plans. The Swiss may have been neutral, but they’ve never been a hermit kingdom.

  19. “Under a Revised Firearms directive, a ban on weapons capable of rapidly firing multiple rounds.”

    There it is. Nobody’s coming for your guns, just, you know, your guns.

    What problem is this solving?

    Somewhere behind the twits who can’t tell a “folding thing that goes up” from a “high-capacity clipazine” is a relentless intelligence that wants citizens less capable. You can’t feed yourself. Can’t fix your own car. Can’t defend yourself from assault.

    Millions of actual military arms in citizens’ hands, with no mass arms problems at all, so step all over a third of tbe people’s hobby. Because reasons.

    The most generally effective self-defense arm, said the feebs, is an intermediate calibre semi-auto carbine. Which is why some “they” don’t want you to have one.

    Where was “You wanna see some tension, keep telling us what to do in our country, outside your union.” Why did the Swiss even put this up for a “vote?”

    • Just make sure that Miculek never visits Europe for a competition, or revolvers will be on that list as well.

  20. The voluntary E U also wants an E U army to impose unity across Europe at the point of a gun. Because that’s always worked out so well.

    • Indeed. My prediction is eventually as Eurabia is cemented it’ll eventually send it’s army east into Russia, where it will be destroyed.

  21. The Swiss should tell the EU to go to hell and if they want the guns to climb those mountains or come through those narrow mountain passes and get ’em. And then ask the EU why there are so many nationalist parties arising in Europe.

  23. We’ve seen this movie. Nice Brexit you got there; would be a shame if you got cut off from everything n starved.

    Nice culture you got there; would be a shame if there were any tansion about that.

    The liberal E U sure seems to like international extortion to get their way. This would be less bothersome if their “officials” weren’t all the time talking like some middle-school clique.

    • Jim Bullock,

      The liberal E U sure seems to like international extortion to get their way.

      Well, if you have no enduring standards of right-versus-wrong and all you care about is getting what you want, why not?

      • “Why not?”

        Yeah, I know. But sometimes in a long-con the mark catches on along the way. In repetitive games, it actually makes sense to be a reliable partner.

  24. Another one bites the dust. I’m sure their version of a Fudd was all for it, I mean what need do you have for anything better than a k31?

  25. The 50 United States are not going to go the way of Europe when it comes to guns. Individual states such as California or New Jersey their gun rights are gone. (Trump’s judge appointments are their last hope) However the former Confederacy of the United States is a different matter. Gun rights are strong in those States.

    And one of those states, Mississippi, has constitutional carry for all citizens regardless of race, Creed, color, or national origin.

  26. Had some young (late 20’s) Swiss guys work for us a two years ago. The official line they were given in the army was only government to own guns. Older people I know from there is buy as much as you can afford.

  27. The drinking age in each US state was once decided by the state itself. Then along came MADD and they got the feds to withhold highway money if they didn’t make it 21 .

    Money talks and bullshit walks.

    The Swiss people who voted for this were bought off by the EU. And when they start getting billed for Europe’s problems and told to take refugees we’ll wonder what it meant to be swiss.

  28. FRANCE24NEWS REPORTED TODAY THAT THE SWISS ACCEPTED THE E.U. RESTRICTIONS. THEY SAID THEY HAD TOO MUCH MONEY TO LOSE IF THEY DID NOT. FRANCE24 NEWS REPORTS AN OVERWHELMING 64 PER CENT OF SWISS VOTERS APPROVED THE NEW RESTRICTIONS. SWISS GUN OWNERS CHARGED IT WAS E.U. BLACK MAIL WHICH IS EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS BUT BIG MONEY TALKS AND GUN RIGHTS WALK. IS WAS BASICALLY A DONE DEAL BEFORE THE VOTE EVER TOOK PLACE.

    • THERE ARE LOTS OF EXCEPTIONS INCLUDING KEEPING YOUR SERVICE RIFLE. ALL THEY DID WAS REQUIRE REGISTRATION OF “PROHIBITED” firearms in 3 years an basically required a permit for one. AGAIN their service rifles are not included. Any bets on a dramatic increase in the number of service rifles kept?

      Both sides are ignoring the details. Details are everything.

  29. There must be a bevy of mass shootings by the Swiss that I’m unaware of. That’s how this works, right?

  31. Now that the EU tyrants know the Swiss will surrender to pressure, more pressure will be applied regularly to achieve other forms of submission to the EU. This is not the end of it. The beatings will continue until moral improves.

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