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Comment by chroem- | Hacker News Reader

I would be interested in seeing a comparative study with Switzerland (legally encouraged gun ownership), as well as Mexico (legally restricted gun ownership).

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There might be some comparable points, but I believe that the overall social situation and the extensive activity of violent criminal organizations in the latter make those two countries hardly comparable in general.

Do you have a source for gun ownership being _encouraged_ in CH? Also, it's going to be a tall order to control for other factors when comparing these specific countries. They seem quite far from each-other culturally, geographically, historically and economically.

Switzerland's national defense strategy is designed around an armed civilian militia. They have some of the highest rates of gun ownership in the world, as well as some of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_regulation_in_Switzer...

The guns stored in homes as part of military service, are stored without ammunition. While CH does have a relatively high amount of guns per capita (~27), it pales in comparison to the United States (~120). Is the US 4X safer than Switzerland, or might there be other factors that account more for the low crime rates in Switzerland?

>The guns stored in homes as part of military service, are stored without ammunition

This is only partially true. The military allows them to keep the rifle but does not issue them ammo to take home. However, ammo is readily available most anywhere and perfectly legal to have.

Canada (34.7) has more guns per capita than CH:

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Estimated_number_of_civilian_g...

Lower firearm deaths as well (2.64 vs 1.94):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_firearm-r...

The comparisons show that the amount of firearms alone doesn't explain the number of deaths.

The Swiss government gives you a gun during mandatory military service. A government directly providing weapons seems to be a pretty strong encouragement. You're correct in noting it comes with a fair amount of training in a country that has strong social programs, which makes direct correlation between gun ownership and violence complicated.

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