I live in
Switzerland and I have been through
military service and yes: I had my
assault rifle with 24
rounds of ammunition at home. So here's my
theroy of why the
swiss are not using the
guns to kill each other senselessly.
First: Every
male with a
gun has gone trough
boot-camp. He has learned to live with a weapon, shoot with a weapon, walk with a weapon, handle a weapon, clean a weapon, hate a weapon (on the walks), love a weapon. He has made himself
aquainted with his weapon - even learnt the
serial-number by heart. He knows what his weapon is capable of - and
respects it. It's like
martial arts in a way. When you practice
Karate you soon learn how to
inflict injury or
death on others. You learn that you
wield power. And you also learn instinctively that the
power is within you all the time - you don't need to prove it by showing off. There is
respect for your powers and you become
calm and
confident.
Second:
Swiss people are not constantly
barraged with mindless violence as
US people are. Here, no
parent would take their 4 year old
child into a
movie that was rated for a much older audience. (As I have witnessed in a
US movie theater:
Kids that cry because they are frightend of what they have to see on the
big screen.) The quality of the
television programming here is slowly detoriating to
lower standards but still - we are not there yet, so there is some hope left.
Third: Any
male who has gone through the
military would not use his
assault rifle because he then would have to explain the missing rounds at the next
inspection of the stuff you got from the military to the inspecting officer. And
that would be really
difficult and
embarrassing.