The EU is Aiming for the Guns of the Swiss

[Old Bill Dibble]

In tiny Switzerland nearly half the household have a gun, most often a semi-retired military rifle. With the Swiss being a member of the passport free travel system in Europe (Schengen), the EU demanded a series of gun control measures including club membership of gun owners and psych tests as a measure to fight terrorism.

I don't know of any Swiss terrorists, or Swiss people behind terror attacks so it is unclear what the EU beef is. In fact I don't even know of any terror attacks in Switzerland by Swiss people, ever. The last terror attack took place 46 years ago with a plane bombing by the Palestinians. The last time anyone was shot in a terror attack was in 1955 when a foreign group muffed a raid into the Romanian embassy in an attempt seize documents and shot a staff member, mostly by mistake.



Switzerland has the 12th lowest murder rate in the world, lower than 90% of all EU countries, much lower than the EU as a whole.

Swiss political leaders are not nonplussed:

"With our direct democracy, Swiss people are accustomed to having the last word," said ProTell's Dominik Riner. "We're opposed to any and all efforts to make current weapons laws more restrictive."

"When conflicts arise, Switzerland must put its sovereignty first," said Blocher, a businessman and vice president of the SVP, which is the country's biggest party. "In an emergency, Switzerland should be ready to exit Schengen."

http://www.businessinsider.com/r-swi...-rifles-2016-8

[g.willikers]

Switzerland must put its sovereignty first

Something our politicians should be reminded of often and loudly.

[FITASC]

Quote:
Switzerland must put its sovereignty first
Something our politicians should be reminded of often and loudly.

With a good, old-fashioned tar and feathering................(or a public hanging)

[44 AMP]

Despite speaking 4 different languages (German, French, Italian, & Swiss) Switzerland has one of, if not the most uniform culture in Europe.

Switzerland has also been the least violent place in Europe FOR CENTURIES!!!!

There have been no political revolutions, nor warfare with any one for centuries. And they have had and kept their tradition of the citizen soldier the entire time.

They have their own, unique culture, and are not really interested in changing it in the name of "diversity". They tend not to listen to any non-Swiss who tells them how they should live (and I gather they tend to ignore any Swiss who does the same, ).

I don't think they accepted any of the "refugees" from the middle east, and they have some of the toughest rules about immigrants, of any of the European nations. As I understand it, the main rule if you want to move to Switzerland and live there, is that you better have your own money!

Many people supported the concept of a European Union, the Swiss never joined. They're probably even happier about that today.

As the Brexit vote has shown, many people in the EU are unhappy with the way it is run, by fiat, from "Bureaucrats in Brussels".

So, here we have a "foreign" power group (the EU) pushing for their style of gun control and allowed gun ownership, on the Swiss claiming authority because they have a border control agreement.

There are some parallels to our situation with foreign power bloc wanting their style gun control in the USA, because we have a treaty (about something ELSE) with them!

its not about terrorism, though that is the claim, its not about "gun violence" (Switzerland has virtually none), its about power, and control, and who, in Europe, gets to tell others what to do and how to live their lives.

Historically, the Swiss have turned a deaf ear to this, and I hope they continue to be able to do so.

[FITASC]

Just to clarify, there is no "Swiss" language.

The four national languages of Switzerland are German, French, Italian and Romansh.[2] All but Romansh maintain equal status as official languages at the national level within the Federal Administration of the Swiss Confederation.[3]

And they just deported a huge number of refugees to Como Italy (how's them street bums Clooney?)

[mete]

I laughed when those beautiful mansions of the rich guys like Clooney became surrounded by the homeless who trashed the place ! And I bet that all those rich supported multiculturism of the muslim invasion !

[FITASC]

As long as it happened NIMBY, they're all for it.

[pnac]

As long as it happened NIMBY, they're all for it.

Sort of like the "glass parking lot" crowd, it's a different tune if the glass parking lot might well be a few thousand miles closer to home.

BTW, is Switzerland even IN the EU? Surely not!

[JWT]

The Swiss have it right. They need to tell the EU to 'shove it'.

[Guggmeister]

FACK EU.
The gun ban directive, as it stands at this moment, would make magazines more expensive and make full capa magazines harder to obtain.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Pond, James Pond]

The EU firearms directive is actually quite a short document which outlines the minimum standards that all member States have to adhere to. States can, of course exceed those requirements ( UK most notably), or simply stick to that minimum. I don't know that any actual do but some States come quite close, Czech Rep being a good example and, actually, Estonia does a pretty good job too: very permissive firearms law compared to other EU States.

Anyway, in about July 2015 the EU commission raised a proposal to tighten certain aspects of the firearms directive. Those rules were said, at the time, to be only aimed at things like decommissioned firearms sold in unrestricted commerce (ie no licence needed). Then came the Paris attacks and...bang, the authors jumped on the opportunity to stick loads of proposals aimed at legal firearms ownership.

We here in the European firearms community have been fighting it ever since with moderate success but it still seems likely to be passed in some form or another. Needless to say there are staggering logic fails in the proposal. Essentially, it is that action should be taken in the wake of the Paris attacks and so firearms collections should be heavily restricted as should semi-autos, particularly rifles resembling military issue rifles...

The fact that none of the weapons used in the Paris attacks had ever seen a police approval form or firearms dealer's counter is not something they mention. They all came from one of two sources: either stashes dating back to the Yugoslav civil war that have been floating on the black market ever since (the Bataclan) or reactivated weapons that had previously been decommissioned and sold as inactive (I believe that was the case with the VZ58 and Tok pistol used in the Jewish Supermarket hostage taking that was part of the Paris attacks).

In fact, the ONLY part of the new proposal that actually addresses what happened in Paris is that about controlling deactivated weapons. There had been no real homogenised approach to that for about 6 years since it was first noted. Politicos did nothing about it and now that this has come home to roost, they're making legal firearms owners pay the price for their complacency. Sound familiar?

All the other aspects are essentially chest-thumping and desperate attempts to look reactive (seeing as they weren't proactive) in the eyes of the general public.

I've personally written about 180 letters to MEPs in Brussels on this issue. Few responded. A number favourably, and a number not. In the case of the latter I responded further and one analogy that I gave which I think encapsulates the absurdity is that of trying to control the illegal drugs trade in cocaine or heroin by imposing tighter laws on drugstore pharmacists.

Anyway, whilst I respect the principles and many benefits of the EU, if they want to remain relevant, they'll need to stop ramming policies down people's throats without a care of the populations wants or thoughts. That is pretty much why Brexit is now a reality.

I hope Switzerland "sticks to its guns", in the same way that I hope the EU parliament will follow my advice in the letters I wrote and throw this proposal out on its ear but I'm not hopeful.

[Pond, James Pond]

I'm not against the EU per se, but I think this is an example of why they need to shape up and rethink their game.

They keep playing these same shenanigans and they'll see fresh IN/OUT referenda in the future. Perhaps not due to this issue, but because of the overall attitude of detachment from what is really going on.

There are far too many heads in the sand in Brussels right now and I don't like to see taxes syphoned from my local infrastructure and service to then be wasted on ineffective and unfair legislative processes in the European capital.

Far better they spend the money on beefing up the external borders of the Schengen area and fighting the illicit gun trade!

It does seem that one possible outcome might be a hi-cap mag ban... Hat's off to the lobby groups for their work so far: if a mag ban is the worst that happens, they'll have done a good job, such is my level of confidence in this being shelved once this far down the line.

[Guggmeister]

I am against the Soviet European Union, and in addition against all forms of legislation towards stricter "gun laws."

[SIGSHR]

Interesting how in all this quacking about "human rights" the Right of Self Defense and the RKBA which is the only way it can be carried out are always given short shrift. And I now how the threat of "terrorism" is always used by governments as an excuse to curtail civil liberties.
I like to quote the line uttered by the Walter Matthau character in Fail Safe -"How far do you think Hitler would have gotten if every Jew he went after had a gun in his hand!!"