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about 10:30 A.M. on September 27, a 57-year-old man from Zurich
(we won't give the killer publicity by mentioning his name), burst
into the regional parliament of Zug — a canton in central Switzerland,
near Lucerne — and opened fire, killing 14 people, all of them
elected officials. He then appears to have committed suicide.
Fourteen more
were wounded. The killer thought he was on a vendetta against government
and law enforcement. He had brought charges against public officers
seven times; all his accusations were dismissed as frivolous. While
shooting, he called his victims "Mafia" and "bastards."
A letter was found wherein he referred to a coming "day of
reckoning for the Zug mafia."
The killer
wore a jacket with the word "Polizei," although the jacket
was not an official uniform of Swiss police. He fired several 20-round
magazines from a semiautomatic SIG PE 90 rifle. He also had a pump
action shotgun, a Sig Sauer 7.65mm pistol, a revolver, and a canister
containing gasoline.
In 1970, according
to Swiss television, the killer had been sentenced to 18 months
in prison for several crimes, including sexual offenses against
children. Because his felonies had been legally expunged due to
the passage of time, he was allowed to purchase firearms. In the
1980s he was investigated for various offences, including assaults.
Finally, in 1998, he used a revolver to threaten a bus driver. In
his demented mind, he was fighting his own battle against the local
transportation agency "Zugerland" whose chief, Robert
Bisig, was also a member of the local parliament, and was wounded
in the recent shooting.
The murderer's
character was "stubborn and quarrelsome," investigating
magistrate Roland Schwyter said. The killer was probably insane.
"Such a paranoid usually is an individual who believes [himself]
to have strong and mighty enemies. Not carelessly, [the] Zug murderer
cried hate and revenge words against a group of people, calling
them Mafia," psychiatrist Claudio
Rise noted. As in most of Europe, it is much harder in Switzerland
than in the United States to have a person legally committed for
insanity.
To find a precedent in Swiss history, one must look back to 1992.
In Ticino, another Swiss canton, an Italian killer shot six people
to death in five different towns. He planned to kill another, but
the intended victim was away on vacation. After a few days, the
killer gave himself up and, once in prison, hanged himself.
Murders of public officials in Switzerland have been very rare.
In 1923, a Swiss citizen shot the Soviet delegate to the Lausanne
Peace Conference. Before that, an Italian bum used a sharpened file
to stab Austrian Empress Elisabeth in Geneva on September 10, 1898,
prompting Mark Twain to write an anguished
essay, which he never published.
To find a murder
of a politician, one must go back to September 11, 1890, when the
liberal state councilor of Ticino, Luigi Rossi, was killed by conservative
rivals.
Swiss politicians
are now worried about their safety. Regional and federal government
ordered metal detectors placed at the entrances of their buildings.
But, of course, this won't stop a killer who simply shoots his way
past the metal detector.
Switzerland's justice minister has announced that the federal government
will introduce new gun-control laws. So let's take a step back,
and look at Switzerland's unique gun laws and culture.
"While
traveling around Switzerland on Sundays, everywhere one hears gunfire,
but a peaceful gunfire: this is the Swiss practicing their favorite
sport, their national sport. They are doing their obligatory shooting,
or practicing for the regional, Cantonal or federal shooting festivals,
as their ancestors did it with the musket, the arquebus or the crossbow.
Everywhere, one meets urbanites and country people, rifle to the
shoulder, causing foreigners to exclaim: 'You are having a revolution!'"
These words were written by General Henri Guisan, commander in chief
of the Swiss Militia Army, the year before World War II began.
Having participated
in Swiss shooting matches for over a decade, Stephen Halbrook can
attest to the continuing validity of this statement. Throughout
the country, people are free to come and go for shooting competitions,
and competitors are commonly seen with firearms on trains, buses,
bicycles, and on foot.
In 1939, just before Hitler launched World War II, Switzerland hosted
the International Shooting Championships. Swiss president Philipp
Etter told the audience, which included representatives from Nazi
Germany:
There is
probably no other country which, like Switzerland, gives the soldier
his weapon to keep in the home.... With this rifle, he is able
every hour, if the country calls, to defend his hearth, his home,
his family, his birthplace.... The Swiss does not part with his
rifle.
Switzerland
won the service-rifle team championship. The lesson was not lost
on the Nazi observers.
Halbrook
detailsin Target
Switzerland: Swiss Armed Neutrality in World War II, the
Swiss militia policy of a rifle in every home deterred a Nazi invasion.
A Nazi attack would have cost far more in Wehrmacht blood than did
the easy conquests of the other European countries, whose governments
had restricted firearm ownership before the war. Many hundreds of
thousands, perhaps millions, of Swiss — and refugees who found
sanctuary there — were saved because every Swiss had a rifle,
and was prepared to resist.
To this day, every male, when he turns 20, is issued a full automatic
military rifle and required to keep it at home. Universal service
in the Militia Army is required. When a Swiss is no longer required
to serve, he may keep his rifle (converted from automatic to semi-automatic)
or his pistol (if he served as an officer).
American Founding
Fathers such as John Adams and Patrick Henry greatly admired the
Swiss militia, which helped inspire the Second Amendment to the
U.S. Constitution — the preference for a "well regulated
militia" as "necessary for the security of a free state,"
and the guarantee of "the right of the people to keep and bear
arms." Late in the 19th century, the American military sent
observers to Switzerland in hopes of emulating the Swiss shooting
culture.
The American
Founders also admired Switzerland's decentralized system of government.
Switzerland is a confederation in which the federal government has
strictly defined and limited powers, and the cantons, even more
so than American states, have the main powers to legislate. The
citizens often exercise direct democracy, in the form of the initiative
and the referendum. The late political scientist Gianfranco
Migliosaid the Swiss enjoyed the "last, real federalism
in the world," as opposed to the "false and/or deteriorated"
federalism of Germany or America.
For centuries, the Swiss cantons had no restrictions on keeping
and bearing arms, though every male was required to provide himself
with arms for militia service. By the latter part of the 20th century,
some cantons required licenses to carry pistols, imposed fees for
the acquisition of certain firearms (which could be evaded by buying
them in other cantons), and imposed other restrictions — albeit
never interfering with the ever-present shooting matches.
In other cantons
— usually those with the lowest crime rates — one did
not need a police permit for carrying a pistol or for buying a semiautomatic,
lookalike Kalashnikov rifle. A permit was necessary only for a non-militia
machine gun. Silencers or noise suppressors were unrestricted. Indeed,
the Swiss federal government sold to civilian collectors all manner
of military surplus, including antiaircraft guns, cannon, and machine
guns.
In 1996, the Swiss people voted to allow the federal government
to legislate concerning firearms, and to prohibit the cantons from
regulating firearms. Some who favored more restrictions (as in other
European countries) saw this as a way to pass gun-control laws at
the federal level; those who objected to restrictions in some cantons
saw it as a way to preempt cantonal regulation, such as the former
requirement in Geneva of a permit for an air gun.
The result is a federal firearms law that imposes certain restrictions,
but leaves virtually untouched the ability of citizens to possess
Swiss military firearms, and to participate in competitions all
over the country.
The Federal
Weapons Law of 1998 regulates import, export, manufacture, trade,
and certain types of possession of firearms. The right of buying,
possessing, and carrying arms is guaranteed with certain restrictions.
It does not apply to the police or to the Militia Army — of
which most adult males are members.
The law forbids fully automatic arms and certain semiautomatics
"derived" therefrom; but Swiss military assault rifles
are excluded from this prohibition. (The exclusion makes the prohibition
nearly meaningless.) Further, collectors may obtain special permits
for the "banned" arms, such as submachine guns and machine
guns.
In purchasing a firearm from a licensed dealer, a permit is required
for handguns and some long guns, but not for single-shot rifles,
multi-barrel rifles, Swiss bolt-action military rifles, target rifles,
or hunting rifles. Permits must be granted provided the applicant
is at least 18 years old and has no disqualifying criminal record.
Authorities may not keep any registry of firearms owners. Private
persons may freely buy and sell firearms without restriction, provided
that they retain a written agreement, and that the seller believes
the purchaser is not criminally disqualified.
A permit was
already required for manufacturing and dealing in firearms, but
now there are more regulations still. Storage regulations exist
for both shops and individuals. During the Cold War, the government
required every house to include a bomb shelter, which today often
provide safe storage for large collections of firearms (and double
as wine cellars).
Criminal penalties depend on intent. Willfully committing an offense
may be punishable by incarceration for up to five years, but failure
to comply through neglect, or without intent, may result in a fine
or no punishment at all.
Before 1998, about half the cantons (like 33 American states) allowed
all law-abiding citizens to carry handguns for protection in public;
in some cases, an easily obtainable permit was needed. The new federal
law makes permits necessary everywhere, and, so far, permits have
been issued restrictively. (Still, one can freely carry a handgun
or rifle to a shooting range, and there is one in every village,
nook, and cranny.)
Zug, site of
the September murders, had always been a difficult place to obtain
a handgun carry permit (Waffentragschein). Even if permits had been
issued readily, it might not have made a difference on September
27, since, as one of our Swiss friends put it: "the mental
climate of Zug was entirely peaceful. While I would — before
the outrage — not at all have been surprised to learn that
in the Uri or Ticino or the Grisons assembly there were members
carrying arms, in Zug I would have been surprised indeed. This is
exactly what the mad felon exploited, a state of mind. There are
more parallels between the hideous September crimes than first meet
the eyes!"
Any proposed new restrictions on peaceable firearm possession and
use will be opposed by the Militia
Army; by shooting organizations, such as the Swiss
Shooting Federation; and by the gun-rights group ProTell,
named after William Tell, who shot an apple off his son's head.
Their allies are the political parties that support free trade,
federalism, limited government, non-interventionism, and remaining
independent from international organizations such as the European
Union or United Nations.
Supporters of firearm restrictions tend to be socialists and Leftists
— including those who wish to abolish the Militia Army, to
strengthen the central government to be more like Germany, and to
join the European Union. Ironically, the Swiss Socialist Party went
through a similar period at the beginning of Hitler's rise. But
the Swiss socialists soon recognized the danger, and in 1942 —
when Switzerland was completely surrounded by Axis dictatorships
— the Socialist Party resolved that "the Swiss should
never disarm, even in peacetime."
Since September 27, the European media have been complaining about
this "armed country" where every citizen is a "potential
sniper." But the fact is, Switzerland is just as safe as countries
where firearms are far more restricted. In 1994, the homicide rate
in Switzerland was 1.32 per 100,000 in the population. Of those,
0.58 (44 percent) involved firearms. Compare this to Italy 2.25
(1.66 firearms), France 1.12 (0.44), and Germany 1.17 (0.22).
The Swiss household
gun-ownership rate is 27 percent excluding militia weapons. Contrast
this with the household gun-ownership rates (at least for households
willing to divulge gun ownership to a government-affiliated telephone
pollster) of 16 percent for Italians, 23 percent for French, and
9 percent for Germans.
The far left has been demanding massive new gun control, and prohibition
on keeping militia rifles in the home. The Defence Minister has
ruled out such changes, however. The Justice Department will push
for an amendment to the
federal gun law which would abolish private firearms transfers;
all private transfers would require police approval.
While most
of Switzerland's less-armed neighbors are as peaceful as Switzerland,
danger emanates from the Balkans — the former Yugoslavia and
Albania — not to mention from the chaos that's followed the
breakup of the Soviet Union. Political terrorists and organized
criminals are swamping Europe. Indeed, the same terrorist organizations
that murdered Americans on September 11 operate in all European
countries, including Switzerland. The new Swiss federal-weapons
law is in part a reaction to this turmoil. But given that terrorists
may buy black market AK-47s from the former Red Army in all European
countries, the Swiss federal law impinges more on law-abiding Swiss
than it does on foreign miscreants.
One wonders whether more gun laws will do as much good for Switzerland
as would imprisoning people who threaten bus drivers with a gun,
or improving supervision of released felony sexual predators against
children.
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