[onetimeusename]

The US is kind of an outlier in gun ownership. What should we take away from this?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-r...

Estimated number of civilian firearms per 100 people and gun deaths per 100000:

- El Salvador: 5.8, 78.52

- Brazil: 8.6, 23.93

- Colombia: 10.10, 20.38

- U.S.: 120.5, 12.21

- Mexico: 15, 11.55

If anything it seems like proximity to cartels is the most likely predictor of gun homicide rates

Meanwhile Switzerland has 27.6 guns per 100 civilians and 2.64 gun homicides per 100,000. So not sure what to conclude about gun ownership and homicides. Note that gun deaths not equal to gun homicides since deaths includes suicide and the CDC reports these items combined. If you wanted to discuss gun suicides that's fine but note this was about homicide.

[dctoedt]

> Meanwhile Switzerland has 27.6 guns per 100 civilians and 2.64 gun homicides per 100,000. So not sure what to conclude about gun ownership and homicides.

Another data point: Switzerland has strict gun laws that mostly ban the kind of military-grade firearms we see used in mass murders in the U.S. (and yes, some Latin American countries), and smaller guns require permits. [0]

More: "Switzerland has a stunningly high rate of gun ownership — here's why it doesn't have mass shootings ... Unlike the US, Switzerland has mandatory military service for men. The government gives all men between the ages of 18 and 34 deemed 'fit for service' a pistol or a rifle and training on how to use them. After they've finished their service, the men can typically buy and keep their service weapons, but they have to get a permit for them." [1]

[0] https://www.ch.ch/en/safety-and-justice/owning-a-weapon-in-s... (scan down for a useful chart)

[1] https://www.businessinsider.com/switzerland-gun-laws-rates-o...

[xyzzyz]

> Switzerland has strict gun laws that mostly ban the kind of military-grade firearms we see used in mass murders in the U.S.

This is completely, verifiably false. It even contradicts the rest of your comment, where you quote:

> After they've finished their service, the men can typically buy and keep their service weapons

The “service weapon” here means literally the one that they used in military, which, as I presume, is “military grade”.

[dctoedt]

You must have overlooked the word "mostly" in my comment.

The first link in my post is to an official Swiss government site. If you want to quibble about what constitutes a "military-grade" firearm, that's certainly your privilege.

[xyzzyz]

Yes, you can follow that link and find that you are completely wrong. Please name one weapon that is “military grade”, commonly available in US, but banned in Switzerland. You can’t, because you’re wrong.

[dctoedt]

From the Swiss government Web page I linked: Banned weapons include "semi-automatic firearms with a large magazine" — as just one example, recall that the Las Vegas shooter used "a large quantity of ammunition in special high-capacity magazines holding up to 100 cartridges each."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Paddock#Las_Vegas_shoo...

[xyzzyz]

No, because this doesn’t ban anything that’s in common use in US. The 30 rounds magazines in common use in US do not count as “large magazines” for the purposes of that Swiss law, because these are normal capacity magazines. As I said, you are completely wrong about this.