BERN. Seven in ten Swiss favour stricter access to firearms and tighter rules on gun ownership, according to a representative survey published on Sunday. It is the clearest measure yet of how the Aarau rave shooting, in which a 22 year old Italian woman was killed, has shifted the politics of the weapons law.
The survey was conducted by the LeeWas institute on behalf of 20 Minuten and the Tamedia titles between 24 and 27 September, among 10,858 people across all language regions. The margin of error for the overall results is plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.
The numbers
Asked whether access to firearms should be made harder and possession rules tightened, 50 per cent answered with a clear yes and a further 20 per cent with a qualified yes, for a combined 70 per cent in favour. On the other side, 27 per cent opposed tighter rules, 18 per cent of them firmly.
Support is broader still for a compulsory psychological assessment. Eighty per cent of respondents back the idea that anyone buying or owning a firearm should have to present such a certificate: 58 per cent answered with a firm yes, 22 per cent with a qualified yes, and only 17 per cent were opposed. The demand crosses every demographic and political group. Even among supporters of the People’s Party, the electorate most sceptical of tighter gun law in general, 71 per cent favour the certificate.
The political response
The debate was reignited by the Aarau attack and by several other killings this year, and it has already reached the Bundeshaus. A Green National Councillor has filed several parliamentary motions, and the survey numbers give that camp a mandate it did not possess a year ago. Centre right politicians, meanwhile, are urging restraint.
Martin Candinas of the Centre Party rejects both a general tightening and a compulsory certificate, arguing it would blanket affect very many lawful and responsible gun owners. The Green parliamentarian behind the pending motions counters that an assessment is in principle a sensible additional prevention measure, while warning against expecting too much of it: “A psychological emergency or an acute crisis can also arise after a weapon is acquired.”
Swiss law already requires an acquisition permit for most firearms, with background checks tightened in 2019 when parliament adopted the revised European gun directive to protect the Schengen association. What it does not require is any medical attestation of fitness. Several European states do, a comparison supporters of the certificate have begun to cite at every opportunity.
The survey lands at the start of the political year that will decide the question. The pending motions come before the chambers in the winter session, the same session that will elect a new federal councillor and continue the fight over the EU package. Gun law now has something it rarely has in Switzerland: a measured, representative majority asking for change. What parliament does with that mandate is the next question.