500,000 Military Rifles In The Hands Of The Swiss

This is a SIG 550. It’s designed to destroy anything standing within its 400 m trajectory. And there are over 500 thousand of them kept Swiss homes.

Guns and shooting are a strong Swiss tradition. Basic military training is mandatory for young men, and afterwards they’re required to keep their weapon at home.

Marc Heim is the Ticino representative for the lobby group ProTell.

MARC HEIM: This was my father’s military rifle and of course he got to keep it when he was finished. I have my grandfather’s military rifle hanging on the office wall. This was mine when I did service. It’s quite an old one it was introduced in 1957 and used until 1990. And this is my son’s. It’s the current model. That’s what’s being used today. That’s what we’ll be using the shoot the Feldschiessen today.

The Feldschessen, or Tiro Federale in Campagna as it’s known in these parts is an annual Swiss event and the largest shooting festival in the world. Roughly 200 thousand people come out to target practice all across the country. ammunition is provided by the government.

Heim goes regularly to this range, and it’s often a family affair.

HEIM: It was organized by the government to have a very high state of readiness for the Swiss military and population. The target has always been that within 24 to 48 hours, Switzerland could mobilize a pretty large army. I mean, even by European standards.

But it wasn’t the militia that sparked Heim’s interest in guns as young man. It was an unassuming trip to a holocaust museum.

HEIM: I was going through all the exhibits and the soaps and the lampshades made of people’s skin, and while I was looking, I heard a funny noise, and there was an old woman, maybe two metres from me. She was trying not to cry. She was sort of sobbing very quietly. She was sort of holding it back. If she had been a few more meters away I wouldn’t have heard her. And that’s when it all hit me. I promised myself I will never be in her situation. I would want to be free and never in a situation where they could just march us off to ovens or prisons.or just take away our freedom.

HEIM: The key to freedom is the ability to be able to defend yourself, and if you don’t have the tools to do that then you are at the mercy of anyone who wants to put you away. And the tools for that are guns.