Swiss politician calls for tighter gun laws after rave shooting

SP National Councillor: 1,900 Kalashnikovs are registered in Aargau Keystone-SDA

According to Social Democrat parliamentarian Gabriela Suter, around 1,900 Kalashnikov rifles are registered in canton Aargau. Speaking on Tele M1's programmeTalkTäglich, the Aargau politician said the figure was based on police data.

“We are committed to public safety, and as things stand, that cannot be guaranteed,” Suter said, referring to the shooting at a rave in Aarau that left one person dead and several others injured. Suter argues that semi-automatic firearms should be banned from Swiss households.

Opposition has come from Swiss People’s Party parliamentarian and competitive shooter Christoph Riner. He rejects the idea of taking guns away from law-abiding owners. “I really don’t think that’s fair. We must not place hundreds of thousands of our fellow citizens under general suspicion,” Riner said. He added that shooting clubs provide a form of social oversight. If someone stands out, action is taken and the case is reported.

Suter, however, said that her criticism was not aimed at sports shooters or hunters. Instead, she is calling for a national firearms register and tighter controls on the inheritance of firearms.

+ Fact-check: Do tightened gun laws lead to greater security?

Riner warned against a blanket ban, saying it would effectively bring 300-metre shooting to an end. “A long-standing Swiss shooting tradition would then be lost,” Riner said. He owns a Sturmgewehr 57 and a Sturmgewehr 90.

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Translated from German, reviewed by an English Department journalist.