Wuerenlingen, Switzerland: When a ghastly event like Saturday night’s Swiss shooting happens in Scandinavia, people will bat many more eyelashes than if the same were to happen in the U.S. The tragic events of the shooting in Northern Switzerland have left five dead all because of a family dispute. The Swiss gunman, age 36, was among them.
The little town of Wuerenlingen is located northwest of Zurich. Police chief Michael Leupold reported that investigations were able to determine that this crime was actually not fueled by terrorism but by an apolitically-derived family dispute. The gunman’s victims were a 57-year-old man, a 59-year-old woman, a 31-year-old man, and his neighbor. He broke into the house and killed the first three there. Other than the lack of motive for killing his neighbor, it was easy to see that this tragedy may have been relationship fueled. They happened to be his parents-in-law and brother-in-law rather. He was separated from his wife. The gunman was a former policeman and father of three. He did not use a police firearm, but also did not have a license for a firearm.
Gunshots heard by fearful neighbors alerted the authorities to the horrific incident. Like the 2011 massacre in Oslo, Norway, discovering such volatile news as this Swiss shooting comes as a shock when it occurs in communities and nations as peaceful as Scandinavia. It feels impossible for randomized acts of violence to occur in nations. Switzerland was even found to have the world’s happiest and richest people. There were however similar incidents this past November and January.
Something to keep in mind is that there are approximately 4.5 million firearms in circulation within Switzerland. If that sounds like a high number, that is because it is. To give a better picture: Switzerland is one of the world’s top countries in this standing following the United States, Yemen, and Serbia.
The problem with Switzerland’s gun laws has been of public interest in the Alpine nation quite a bit recently. This is because of the other Swiss shooting incidents in the past year. Switzerland has the most liberal gun policy in the world. Switzerland endorses responsible gun ownership in their nation of low crime. Especially because there is such a low crime rate, there has not been much push for a ban on privately owned firearms. This incident is likely to spark the continual debate on Switzerland’s lax gun policies.
