« When The Odds Are Against You | Main | Bigger Than The Moon Landing »

25 Nov 2008 08:46 pm

Swiss Diss

A reader writes:

The reason Switzerland has so many guns is every adult male below retirement is a reservist and, by law, has a fully automatic assault rifle (and none of your AK-47 dreck, these are SIGs, the creme de creme) plus some small but substantial supply of ammo.  46 out of a 100, yep about right for the pre-retirement male population.

Another adds:

At age 20, each Swiss man is required to officially join the armed service, beginning with a seventeen week boot camp-style initiation training.

After that, you are required to report in and participate in a three week training course every year for the next 8 to 10 years. This is followed by a period of years where men are called back every two years for two weeks, until age 40, I believe.  From then on you are considered "on call."  This of course only applies for non-career soldiers.

The entire time, each member of the military-- that is, every man in the country-- keeps their military-issued rifle, as well as their uniform, with them at home. 

There are efforts going on right now to change that practice.

Living in the United States when I turned 20, I was not required to report back to Switzerland for duty.  It is one of the few "outs" from the service requirement.

Permalink :: Trackback (0) :: Sphere It! ::

Share This