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Comment by naveen99 | Hacker News Reader

i wonder how countries with mandatory military service deal with gun control for people after their mandatory military service is over.

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During military service, you're typically not home with service weapons. You're stationed wherever you're receiving training, and that's where weapons remain.

The army in Switzerland does exactly this. They can mobilize faster with the guns and ammo at home.

They have their weapons at home, but not anymore the ammunition.

I wonder when they changed it. Haven't really paid attention to guns etc in a while

What is the point of keeping the weapons then? Is it easy to buy your own ammunition?

The point is, not everyone can start a amok run at any time, but in case of mobilisation, it makes logistics much easier.

I'm not Swiss, but a quick peruse of Wikipedia says that this is no longer the case except for ~ 2,000 specialist militia members at any given time - the Swiss keep their militia-issued firearms in the home but ammunition is kept in government armouries.

You can purchase your militia firearm after your service has ended but it must be converted to semi-automatic and you have to apply for a permit - a semi-automatic firearm would fall under the "may-issue" permits which requires justification for why you need said firearm, and it seems that ammunition falls under the same rules. It'd be great if a Swiss person could chime in since I don't know anything more than what I've gleaned from this article.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firearms_regulation_in_Switzer...

That (having ammunition at home, or not, for various parts of their forces) sounds like a detail which would be relatively easy to dial up or down, depending on the Swiss Dept. of Defense's current assessment of the threat level...

Up until recently (here's an article from 2014 [1]), the Swiss still had explosives near major bridges just in case of attack. They seem to have taken home defense rather seriously in more than one way.

"Until now, hundreds of key roads and bridges across Switzerland have held stores of explosives for use in the event of invasion. The policy was developed during the Cold War, because of fears of an attack by Warsaw Pact countries, eight communist states of Central and Eastern Europe." [1]https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/cold-war-defence_army-to-find-a...

That is not the case in Israel. Soldiers on leave would typically have their personal weapon ( assault rifle ) with them.

When you are in army, army rules apply to you. When you are at home, civilian rules apply to you. Which may mean that you are not allowed to have guns or it may mean there are special regulations.

Sometimes, your ability to have gun is dependent also on you finishing the service - tho I think that is mostly to stop people from dodging the draft. (In Iran, you are not allowed to have passport without military service. They can deny you driver's license too.)

Service weapons are, obviously, returned. Privte ones are, obviously, not used during service. In Switzerland for example service weapons can br stored at home.

Edit: Spelling

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