If only we were Swiss #guns #again

If you follow gun rights and gun safety issues at all, you’ve undoubtedly seen this viral meme in your social media stream:

Aside from the truly questionable safety issue of someone riding around on a bicycle with a presumably loaded weapon (what would be point otherwise?) slung over your back, the picture implies quite a lot, doesn’t it? Here are two happy-go-lucky young white women without a care in the world, free to ride around the bucolic countryside with semi-automatic weapons. And because of that freedom, the rate of gun deaths in their country is among the lowest in the world, which supposedly means a couple of things simultaneously: First, it means that widespread gun ownership must prevent gun violence. Second, it means that having lots of guns doesn’t cause gun violence. Therefore, if you are upset about gun violence you should want every young American woman to be carrying loaded weapons slung over her back on her bike rides.

Let’s take a look at what’s actually likely to be going on in that picture. Switzerland’s high rate of gun ownership is tied to the fact that it does not have a standing army so virtually every male citizen is conscripted into the militia where they receive comprehensive weapons training. Since they are a militia, they keep their government issued weapons (without ammunition) at home. Therefore, many of the guns in Swiss homes were issued to them by the government and most Swiss gun owners are highly trained in gun safety. This is in contrast to many untrained American yahoos who hang around Starbucks with loaded AR-15s leaning dangerously against the table top while they sip their mocha frappucino.

When Swiss militia members complete their service they are allowed to keep their weapon once they’ve been approved for an acquisition permit and can prove they have justification for having it. Private ownership of guns, along with ammunition, is also allowed under an acquisition permit with certain restrictions, including against those with criminal records and history of addiction and psychiatric problems. And with a law worthy of Orwell’s worst nightmare, every gun in Switzerland is registered by the government.

Unless those two laughing women on the bicycles are transporting those weapons to a gun show or are members of the militia reporting for duty (in which cases the guns must not be loaded) or they are security personnel licensed to guard Roger Federer, they are probably breaking the law. “Open carry,” as we understand it in the United States, is only allowed in those very limited circumstances.

So, the first part of the meme’s implicit argument, that large scale gun ownership prevents gun violence is disproven by the good old USA. Switzerland may have have high gun ownership per capita but so do we.  And our crime rate is the highest in the developed world — by a mile. Clearly having a bunch of guns is not the key to a low crime rate.

The second part of the argument, that large scale gun ownership doesn’t cause a high crime rate is more complicated