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To: Leaning Right
But the armory rule shows that even Switzerland is drifting towards stupid.

Even in years past, Swiss citizen-soldiers were only issued a small quantity of ammunition with the rifle. The idea was simply for them to be effectively armed until they reached the assigned muster point (where additional equipment and supplies would be issued).

Rifle marksmanship is one of their national obsessions. There are public rifle ranges in every canton and a *national* shooting competition every few years (this year, IIRC) which will probably draw over 2,000 competing teams and over 40,000 individual competitors. Many Swiss citizens own privately-purchased rifles, so their capabilities are not entirely in the hands of the bureaucrats.

There's one odd thing, though: Despite making some of the world's finest sidearms, the Swiss view America's "gun culture" - as depicted in the media and in movies - as a problem related to handguns. It's as though they somehow cleanly separate the function of rifles from that of handguns in their minds. The former is good, the latter *could* be bad. Bicycling to the range with a true assault rifle slung across your back? Totally normal thing to do. Carry a handgun concealed? Unthinkable.

23 posted on 03/16/2015 8:16:55 AM PDT by Charles Martel (Endeavor to persevere...)
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To: Charles Martel
Despite making some of the world's finest sidearms

Swiss law is very restrictive to arms manufacturing - check out the SIG Sauer entry on Wikipedia, for example. I.e., they don't seem to make any at all.

25 posted on 03/16/2015 10:11:35 AM PDT by Moltke ("The Press, Watson, is a most valuable institution if you only know how to use it.")
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