Why the Swiss love their guns (more than Americans)

quinnjalan

quinnjalan

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My bother who happens to live in Guatemala shared this video with me. As we grew up in Ireland and came to this country with a very different view of guns and gun culture. Like the Swiss it was more of a community event, folks went to a clay pigeon shoot on Sunday after mass, or several of my dads friends and children went hunting together. Like drinking it’s was an acceptable practice, no one pass any regard. Our dads shotgun sat in the corner of the closet and the shells sat in a once a year used kitchen bowl on top of a cabinet in the same closet. My dad had one rule “don’t touch the gun”. We all followed the rule, all the time.

After watching the video I was certainly struck by the similarities of how both countries were formed, what happened along the way and where we are at this point, especially here in Massachusetts and other blue states. In any event take a look at the video and let me know what you think.


View: https://youtu.be/wnBDK-QNZkM?si=q26_dRor1z0aqfn7
 
baaaat, ze gunz are baaaad!!!
there is no place for guns in massachusetts!
 
His ending, when he starts spewing crime statistics, is a complete failure because he doesn't properly covers how different both cultures are and who is committing those crimes.

The only interesting part about this video is the history part. The rest is complete sh*t.
 
He very clearly contradicts himself during the "editorial" aspects of the video, however if you disregard the obvious opinionated slant and hackorama editorial/narrative on the US, the production is overall presented well.

Edit: kind of falls into the trope where people fetishize anything european and try to present it best they can. Reminds me a little of the michael Moore film 'where to invade next'. The bright side, is that this guys documentary isn't entirely "gunz r bad mmmmkayy"
 
6Gears1Speed said:
Every male has to serve in the military so guns don't scare them. Plus they don't have cities like Chicago populated with thugs shooting at each other with illegal guns every day.
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That's worth noting. Switzerland is one of the whitest places on earth. They don't even collect stats on race and ethnicity.
It's like Vermont with bigger mountains and much more expensive. The thing that probably separates people most is language. Never been but had a coworker who was there for a while. Very peaceful/quiet and well-behave population, but very socialist-EURO culture...they like government taking care of them and generally trust them.

There is also a much much smaller population....8 million people. That's the same as what people refer to as "Chicagoland"...and many of them are isolated by geography. They have problems with immigration like most of Europe but don't have 10's of thousands of people showing up every month expecting "stuff".
 
Look up the stats.

If not for Black gun crime - the USA would be just as safe a the Swiss per capita.

Clearly the USA does not have a gun problem.
 
If you want a good video on gun violence that doesn't ignore certain statistics, try this:


View: https://youtu.be/10HLQCYyBYQ?si=AJxs98tmcvfoTuX0


The biggest takeaway i thought was that if 4 counties/cities were "removed" from the USA - los Angeles, st Louis, Chicago, Baltimore - we are actually one of the safest countries per capita w/r/t gun violence

Deduce from that what you will
 
aphextwin11 said:
If you want a good video on gun violence that doesn't ignore certain statistics, try this:


View: https://youtu.be/10HLQCYyBYQ?si=AJxs98tmcvfoTuX0


The biggest takeaway i thought was that if 4 counties/cities were "removed" from the USA - los Angeles, st Louis, Chicago, Baltimore - we are actually one of the safest countries per capita w/r/t gun violence

Deduce from that what you will
Click to expand...


Can we stop with the deducing and just say it's "Blacks".

 
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GL2020 said:
Interesting history presentation...the compare and contrast...disagree with some of the conclusions he made, but well presented IMO
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Yep. First 50% fairly interesting and informative... last 50% mostly just USA gun enthusiast bashing without any perspective on the massive cultural & population differences between the two countries. :(
 
That guy still has a number of stereotypes of the typical American gun owner and how firearms work.

Switzerland has a homogeneous culture that looks like the matterhorn in the dead of winter.
They have a unified culture that doesn't have many conflicts.

Swiss gun maker about American gun culture and firearms...you need rules.
Great coming from a country that encourages firearm use and possession.

Rules end up being restrictions and suspension of rights. There are too many groups that think I don't have the right to own any firearm.
We now have a state that has restricted and is restricting my firearm rights.
I am tired of of these groups applying their thinking to my rights.

Out of a country with 325+ million people, firearm deaths are lower than a lot of other death statistics.

Very simple concept, if you don't like guns, don't buy them, and stop trying to take mine away.
 
I think this vid (or a similar one) popped up on NES before. I remember commenting.

Broc Tuah said:
The only interesting part about this video is the history part. The rest is complete sh*t.
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Funny. The history is a superficial gloss with a ton of stereotypes. I’d give him a 15% accuracy rating. Once he started quoting Halbrook, I knew it was going to go to shit.

GL2020 said:
That's worth noting. Switzerland is one of the whitest places on earth. They don't even collect stats on race and ethnicity.
It's like Vermont with bigger mountains and much more expensive. The thing that probably separates people most is language. Never been but had a coworker who was there for a while. Very peaceful/quiet and well-behave population, but very socialist-EURO culture...they like government taking care of them and generally trust them.

There is also a much much smaller population....8 million people. That's the same as what people refer to as "Chicagoland"...and many of them are isolated by geography. They have problems with immigration like most of Europe but don't have 10's of thousands of people showing up every month expecting "stuff".
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The Swiss government *obsessively* gathers stats on everything, including race and ethnicity. There are about 9 million people living in Switzerland. Nearly 1/3 are foreigners. Yes, most of those are from neighboring EU countries.

You will see people of color on any street in any city. Less so in rural places, although Switzerland, like the US, imports farm labor.


(If I caught the right link, that’s in English despite the German in the url)

The one thing the vid captured was the sense of obligation that goes both ways in Switzerland. Yes, the Swiss, in general, trust their government more than the US trusts ours. (Well regulated in all things, not just militia … 😆) But the Swiss also have much greater opportunity to … correct … their government and courses of policy. The rights of petition and initiative embedded in Swiss tradition and law make it much easier to change the laws and constitution. (And objectively, for weird shit to make it to the ballot. My favorite example was “equal rights for housepets” - that sort of stuff NEVEr wins, but it gets voted on)

Devils Paintbrush said:
Switzerland has a homogeneous culture that looks like the matterhorn in the dead of winter.
They have a unified culture that doesn't have many conflicts.

Swiss gun maker about American gun culture and firearms...you need rules.
Great coming from a country that encourages firearm use and possession.
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I’m afraid you are incorrect. Even leaving out the “non Swiss” population, you’re looking at a remarkably UNhomogeneous population.

Modern Switzerland is an accretion of territories previously part of other countries/cultures[1]. The German and French speaking parts of the country are vastly different. Now mix in the Italian speaking canton. (Search “Rösti graben” if curious about this)

Swiss cultures are as varied as the US - and the same, in that in general city dwellers tend to see things one way, while rural dwellers see it another, regardless of primary language. Indeed, one of the primary benefits of conscripted service is that it brings recruits from different places together in ways not otherwise available. Just like military service in the US does.

R

[1] Modern Switzerland is a result, mainly, of the Napoleonic War and Napoleon’s lumping together of a “Helvetic Republic” on his way through to conquer Italy. That disappeared with the defeat, but most of the modern Swiss border (and Swiss neutrality) was guaranteed at the Vienna Conference that ended the war.
 
aphextwin11 said:
If you want a good video on gun violence that doesn't ignore certain statistics, try this:


View: https://youtu.be/10HLQCYyBYQ?si=AJxs98tmcvfoTuX0


The biggest takeaway i thought was that if 4 counties/cities were "removed" from the USA - los Angeles, st Louis, Chicago, Baltimore - we are actually one of the safest countries per capita w/r/t gun violence

Deduce from that what you will
Click to expand...



That's an inconvenient truth the gun grabbers don't want you to know about..
 
rali said:
You will see people of color on any street in any city. Less so in rural places, although Switzerland, like the US, imports farm labor.


(If I caught the right link, that’s in English despite the German in the url)
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I think the overall point is that there is no "inner city" problems to the degree we have here (irrespective of color/race). Take out LA, Baltimore, St Loius and Chicago from the stats and the US has a fairly low rate of crimes involving guns. I'm not saying they don't have cities, and maybe even some poor parts, but nothing compares to the south side of Chicago. I do know (second hand of course) there is a growing anti-muslim sentiment growing internally and affecting things politically.

What I can't get over, and hear repeatedly is this sense that the NRA is the bogeyman....an organization that has a membership of 1/5 what it once did. To those who cast the 2nd amendment as a collective right, I ask why the other 9 amendments refer to individual rights? and only the 2nd doesn't? It's clear the founders believed private ownership of firearms was an inherent right to be used against invaders or a tyrannical government (given they just did)

PS I'm ok with German (geht in Ordnung). Still resort to google translate now and then, but enough to get by
 
rali said:
The Swiss government *obsessively* gathers stats on everything, including race and ethnicity.
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Quoting from Wikipedia... "Unlike many other OECD countries, the Swiss Federal Statistical Office does not collect any data on racial identity or ethnic identity."

I believe that's what @GL2020 was referring to. While many are from other European countries, the population of Switzerland is overwhelmingly lily white. 🤔
 
GL2020 said:
I think the overall point is that there is no "inner city" problems to the degree we have here (irrespective of color/race). Take out LA, Baltimore, St Loius and Chicago from the stats and the US has a fairly low rate of crimes involving guns. I'm not saying they don't have cities, and maybe even some poor parts, but nothing compares to the south side of Chicago. I do know (second hand of course) there is a growing anti-muslim sentiment growing internally and affecting things politically.

PS I'm ok with German (geht in Ordnung). Still resort to google translate now and then, but enough to get by
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If you’re making the argument that inner city problems are poverty and education problems, then I concur that Switzerland has done a better job reducing poverty and insuring a decent education level than Baltimore, Chicago, their relevant states and fedgov.

Of course, most of the WORLD has done a better job than those cities, so … (And, tangentially, I’m pretty sure Mogadishu would decline the gift of some of the roads in this “top 10 richest” town … f***ing hell…)
 
rali said:
If you’re making the argument that inner city problems are poverty and education problems, then I concur that Switzerland has done a better job reducing poverty and insuring a decent education level than Baltimore, Chicago, their relevant states and fedgov.

Of course, most of the WORLD has done a better job than those cities, so … (And, tangentially, I’m pretty sure Mogadishu would decline the gift of some of the roads in this “top 10 richest” town … f***ing hell…)
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I'm not sure my argument was even that specific....it was more that a direct comparison is not possible. It's an apples to oranges comparison for too many reasons to count.
 
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