Latest update: 13/02/2011 

- law - referendum - Switzerland - weapons


Swiss voters to decide on proposal to tighten gun control

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Swiss citizens vote in a referendum on Sunday on whether to introduce new restrictions to the nation's liberal laws on firearms, including imposing new requirements for the purchase of certain weapons.

By Mairead DUNDAS (video)
News Wires (text)
 

AP - Swiss citizens vote Sunday on whether to tighten the Alpine nation’s liberal firearms laws.
Traditionalists fiercely oppose the plan to ban army rifles from homes and impose new requirements for buying other guns.
 
Proponents see it as a way to reduce domestic violence and Switzerland’s high rate of firearms suicide.
 
But the government says existing laws are sufficient to ensure some 2.3 million mostly military weapons in a country of less than 8 million people aren’t misused.
 
Many Swiss have already voted by post. The outcome of the referendum is expected to be decided by the turnout among young people and women who generally favor the ban.
 
A majority of Switzerland’s 26 cantons (states) must also approve the plan.

Date created : 13/02/2011 
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