I keep seeing people on Facebook doing two things, denying access to guns are the problem, and pointing to Switzerland as proof that lots of guns doesn't lead to lots of violence.
I finally got tired of it and posted this response on Facebook-
"For people referencing Switzerland, and their gun laws as pointing to the fact that lots of guns doesn't necessarily lead to lots of crime, again, look at the facts. Every male in Switzerland has to join the army, it is mandatory if you are an able bodied male to serve in the military, hence when you hear "Every male in Switzerland has to have a gun" it means that every able bodied male has military training, psychological evaluations, and strict rules with the gun he has, he can't go anywhere with it, he can't even keep it anywhere, and in some cases he can't even take it home because the Swiss government has realized having a gun in the home puts the safety of everyone in the home at risk. Over the past ten years gun regulation in Switzerland, as in most of the industrialized world, has gotten much stricter, and because of their super strict regulation and training, gun violence is very low in Switzerland, true. But just saying "well look at all the guns Switzerland has, every man there has a gun, and they have low gun violence, so it isn't the guns!" is an invalid and incorrect argument. There are ways to limit access to firearms, especially ones like assault rifles, and there is no reason to close your ears and your mind to the facts."
Please, spread this message if you hear people incorrectly using Switzerland as an example of a "gun toting utopia", and here are links if you would like to do further reading-
http://www.washingtonpost.com/...
This is from Wiki-
"When their period of service has ended, militiamen have the choice of keeping their personal weapon and other selected items of their equipment. In this case of retention, the rifle is sent to the weapons factory where the fully automatic function is removed; the rifle is then returned to the discharged owner. The rifle is then a semi-automatic or self-loading rifle."
http://en.wikipedia.org/...