What's Worked, And What Hasn't, In Gun-Loving Switzerland
Switzerland has an entrenched gun culture that is embraced by most of its 8 million citizens, some of them as young as 10 years old.
Every Swiss community has a shooting range and depending on who is counting, the alpine country ranks third or fourth in the number of guns per capita.
"You can walk into a cafe in a town where there is a shooting festival and you'll see rifles hanging on the hat rack. It's just incredible. It's just proliferation all over the place, but it's all for a peaceful purpose," says Stephen Halbrook, a Virginia-based lawyer who has argued cases for the NRA.
Halbrook, who has written books on Swiss history, is a frequent visitor to Switzerland and takes part in shooting contests there.
At a shooting range in the town of Dielsdorf outside Zurich, school-aged children like 11-year-old Greta Wolff are introduced to target shooting, which is a popular Swiss sport.
The sixth-grader — who immigrated to Switzerland with her family from Germany, where guns are far more restricted — is one of the best shots at a recent practice session. She and the other children use air guns to learn proper handling and technique before graduating to real guns.
Firing a gun was easier to learn than playing the piano, says Greta, who is also an accomplished swimmer: "You have to be sure you stand still and breathe properly before you release the trigger."
Her father, Markus Wolff, who also shoots for sport, says his daughter first learned to shoot more than 18 months ago after seeing her older brother do it.
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