It’s weird because Switzerland is one of the most armed countries in Europe, as in they have firearms but barely any shootings of any kind (so you don’t often hear news equivalent to a guy shooting students in a classroom or killing people at a shopping mall over there). Part of it has to do with the draft (most people who purchase firearms have a form of training, as they learnt how to properly handle them during military service).
It’s a bunch of reasons, but the one that we can actually do something about is the social democratic safety nets. We have way fewer in the US and that causes rampant anxiety, which leads to violence. Switzerland’s population isn’t on the brink of snapping, so they tend not to shoot each other.
Difficult to shoot that guy you don’t like when there’s a mountain in the way
Probably Switzerland has less morons
stannis_fewer.picx
I want to use the word ‘less’, so I’ll change it to “less moronicism”
I’m convinced that Americans are just inherently more violent/aggressive when compared to the citizens of any other developed nation.
Even without guns, their murder and violence rates surpass the UK/Aus/NZ/Canada (so all the anglo-nations) and all of Western, Northern and most of Central and Eastern Europe.
americans love violence, yes.
The question is, why.
it’s because our society is designed around the appeasement of the rich, instead of the common people. More people are living in poverty, in toxic conditions, or are outright homeless. This has been going on for generations now, of people living with nothing. When you have a gun, and can force people to give you what you want, the threat of prison isn’t a great deterrent when it’s literally better than your current living situation. Desperate hungry people do desperate things.
It gonna be education, training, and respect for firearms.
And fewer poor people. And regulations.
The difference isn’t culture it’s gun laws and regulations. Gun control works.
According to a quick check on Wikipedia Switzerland has 27.6 firearms per 100 people, so in average you can expect 1 in 4 people to be armed. While the USA has 120.5 weapons per person, so you can expect in average that 1 in 5 people has an extra weapon besides the one 100% of the population does.
I think the 436% increase in weapon per capita might contribute to an increase with gun violence, but that’s just my guess.
I think that should be 1.205 guns per person, or 120.5 guns per hundred people. I know we have some people with massive collections, but I’ve never met someone with literally 10s of thousands of guns. Also the people that own a few hundred are skewing the statistics. We aren’t actually all armed.
120.5/100 == 1.205, it’s the exact same number expressed differently. However, 1.205 implies that everyone has at least one firearm, which is not true. 120.5/100 implies that if you go to 100 random people and count all their guns together, you’ll end up around 120 guns on average.
You’re correct, in one my edits before submitting I must have erased the 100 there and forgot to move the decimal place, thanks for pointing it out (I’ve edited my post). The rest of the math was done considering the correct number, i.e. 1.2 weapon per person, it was just a wording mistake.
Because guns don’t cause gun violence; poverty, unemployment, drug addiction, and mental health issues cause gun violence.
Switzerland’s society and government place value on treating the underlying causes of gun violence. The US’s government has been captured by corporations who derive profit from the incarceration of people who commit gun violence.
Can’t gun violence without guns. If we can’t fix one component we need to fix the other.
Perhaps the Swiss have better social safety nets? The U.S. loves the idea that you can lift yourself by your own bootstraps (you can’t), and loves rugged individualism (you are alone). If an individual falls – or feels like they’ve fallen – there’s not much help. There’s guns, though.
It’s almost like gun violence is a symptom of larger sociological issues…
I don’t know much about Switzerland, but America has an incredible dehumanizing education system where if you don’t fit into a highly competitive capitalist, you have no value. Some kids don’t feel like they want to be a part of that, but they don’t have an alternative, so they don’t care anymore. Adults that that happens to become deranged and may think shooting up a school is doing the kids a favor. A few of them have had copies of Catcher in the Rye in their pocket which has those themes.
It’s not access to guns that’s the problem. It’s that we fundamentally have a broken psyche at a social level.
Can’t find a link but I watched a video on this recently. Some dude came over and visited the rifle ranges where they shoot over the cars on the highway and they talked a lot about gun culture as well.
I got you
https://youtu.be/2h1s6S4kotE
common sense
switzerland has mandatory military service, a small population, and is higher per capita wealth. their quality of life is among the highest in the world and swiss gun culture is very responsible and chill.
USA is the opposite of most of that.
People in Switzerland have a bit of discipline, common sense and a baseline of education.
That, and also likely better mental healthcare, less laws that would cause situations where someone can be pushed over the edge, etc…
I would assume better social safety nets, less income disparity, and less economic and social stress on their less well off members of society. Pretty sure their society doesn’t idolize criminals and antisocial people either.
Crazy what Nazi gold will buy you
At least the Swiss bought love and understanding; US Americans would buy a tomahawk 78 handgun with hatchet uploader, a 43 telescope visor with an automatic built-in HUK flamethrower and grenade catapult… and bring it to their daughter’s wedding.
And a magnum 53, a box of handgrenades and an ice cream as bonus. And a bonus card.
