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Murders prompt Swiss gun review Swiss MPs put gun review on hold
(about 11 hours later)
The Swiss parliament is due to debate whether to end the unique practice that requires soldiers to take their guns and ammunition home with them. The Swiss parliament has decided not to vote on a motion which would ban the distribution of ammunition to soldiers in the Swiss army.
Every Swiss man has to serve in the army, which means that millions of assault rifles and ammunition are stored in homes across the country.Every Swiss man has to serve in the army, which means that millions of assault rifles and ammunition are stored in homes across the country.
This contributes to an astonishingly high number of family killings. Switzerland has one of the highest rates of suicide in the world and a high rate of family killings.
Every day someone shoots themselves. About every four weeks a man shoots his wife, his children or usually himself. However, parliamentarians say they need to know more to make a decision.
'Impenetrable wall' The decision will be a disappointment to the thousands of Swiss, especially women, who had been campaigning to get at least the bullets, if not the guns, out of Swiss homes - claiming the practice is outdated and dangerous.
Until now these tragedies have not attracted much attention, but the killing earlier this year of ski star Corinne Rey-Bellet by her estranged husband caused public outrage. Although they are not fired in conflict - neutral Switzerland has not been in a war for centuries - the guns are being used.
The man used his officer's pistol to shoot Corinne Rey-Bellet, her brother and her mother. Insulting militiamen
Now there is a motion in parliament to end the practice of handing out ammunition and to create a central register of gun owners. The death earlier this year of the ski star, Corinne Rey-Bellet, shot by her estranged husband with his officer's pistol, caused public outrage.
But these proposals, supported primarily by women, have run into an impenetrable wall of tradition. The proposal to take ammunition out of the homes and store it in a central location where it could be distributed in an emergency seems sensible to many.
The Swiss defence minister has already rejected them, saying guns and ammunition belong together. But parliament came under pressure from Switzerland's powerful gun lobby and from army supporters, who claimed taking the ammunition away would be an insult to Switzerland's thousands of militia soldiers.
And Switzerland's powerful gun lobby says it views any restrictions as an insult to the hundreds of thousands of Swiss men who have always behaved responsibly. Now the proposal has been sent back to the security committee for further scrutiny, effectively putting on hold a decision about a Swiss tradition which many believe should have died out years ago.