Swiss Review 3/2019

Swiss Review / May 2019 / No.3 5 murder has changed the landscape for ever down under. Nobodywill stop you fromusing your semi automatic guns for sporting or leisure purposes – but it might just make it more difficult for an illegal buyer to purchase a weapon. It is a fact of life that there are bad fruit in every delivery of the harvest – be that in Switzerland or anywhere else in the world. JOST SIEGFRIED, WHAKATANE, NEW ZEALAND Firearms are not the problem in the horrible tragedy that hap- pened in New Zealand, racism is. If firearms were not accessi- ble, the extremist would have set themosque on fire, or driven a truck through it; the firearms were just the means to an end. Restrictive laws impede good citizens in practising their hobby and living the way they wish. DANIEL CONUS, BETHLEHEM, USA The Swiss still don’t get it. Without bilateral agreements with the EU, Switzerland would have had to shut up shop long ago. It’s also about being able to compromise. The question of whether a few gun enthusiasts can keep their weapons is a prettyminor issue in the grand scheme of things. But what I do know is that fewer guns equals fewer potential problems with guns. ROLAND SCHMIED, FRANCE In my opinion, the Swiss government are giving the EU ever more opportunity to meddle with the rights and laws of our country. To date, no other country hasmanaged to regulate and control things as well as we do when it comes to gun owner- ship. Remember that virtually every Swiss male has an army gun including ammunition at home. URSULA RAUEN, SPAIN ‘House rules’ for our comments section “Swiss Review” reports on events in Switzerland – and is keen to receive feedback from Swiss nationals living abroad. Therefore, letters, comments and other input are most welcome. The same applies to lively debate. The “Swiss Review” editorial team regular- ly gets contacted by readers asking why the comments that they have written online do not appear immediately on our website. This is not a technical problem. Comments are not published automatically. Instead, they are checked first by the editorial team before being manually approved. First and foremost, this is a routine procedure to eliminate obvious typing errors and thereby ensure that the automatic translation feature that many readers have enabled works more accurately. The editorial team will not and can- not publish any comments that are deemed under Swiss law to be racist, defamatory, insulting or offensive in any other way. (MUL) For the rules on posting comments, please visit ogy.de/comments Readers can also join the debate in the online discussion forums of the platform for the Swiss Abroad, swisscommunity.org voter. I have always followed a rule of thumb whereby I choose not to vote on issues that do not directly affect me. I did the same when I was still living in Switzerland. Swiss citizens should be able to make up their own mind either way though. PATRIK MÜLLER, GERMANY Swiss by marriage and French by birth, I lived in Switzer- land for 28 years without ever voting in France, despite the border being just a few kilometres away. For the last 23 years, my husband and I have lived in France. We do not vote in Switzerland, but I do now vote in France. All of which is to say that we find it unacceptable to participate in the politics of a country inwhichwe are not living. Only the residents of a country should be allowed to vote in it and this should be defined by law. I therefore find it com- pletely logical that this subject should be put to the vote. GINETTE MEMBREZ, DORDOGNE, FRANCE Since retirement, I have been living in the Philippines. I would love to vote but my voting papers never arrive on time. I have now decided to stop receiving them and will wait until I am able to vote electronically. I basically don’t have any voting rights at this time. PETER SCHMUTZ, DUMAGUETE, PHILIPPINES The question of whether voting rights for Swiss Abroad are justified in their present form generated a huge amount of debate among our readers. For more reader comments, visit www.ogy.de/stimmrecht Tighter gun laws If the suggested changes lead to one less death over the next twenty years it is worth the inconvenience of all those gun ownerswho have to jump through extra loops. At the end of the day it appears you can still keep your guns. Try to look at it fromthe point of viewof families who have been affected by senseless murders – and don’t ever think it could not happen in Switzerland. NewZealandwas in the same situation until twomonths ago – and the recentmass MIET-PW, MIET-Camper, MIET-4x4 Ilgauto ag, 8500 Frauenfeld 200 Autos, 40 Modelle, ab Fr. 500.-/MT inkl. 2000Km Tel. 0041 52 7203060 / www.ilgauto.ch