Im going to guess there are fewer desperate, discarded, angry people in Switzerland.

switzerland has mandatory military service, a small population, and is higher per capita wealth. their quality of life is among the highest in the world and swiss gun culture is very responsible and chill.

USA is the opposite of most of that.

You got part of it. The Swiss get formal training during their military service, and understand that owning a gun is a responsibility and an obligation, not a right. They have a sense of duty around their ownership.

But another big part is that nobody on the planet fetishizes guns like the US. Guns are a symbol of virility, of sexual prowess, of "American Freedom." Facebook recently showed me a reel by a woman who poses (nude) on OnlyFans with guns and motorcycles. That is a profoundly US mindset. (And of course the guns are assault rifles.)

Only in the US and a few other pockets of rednecks are guns fetishized.

My mom (if she were still here) would say it's from Reagan taking money out of mental health.

Socio-economic sanity.

Because guns don't cause gun violence; poverty, unemployment, drug addiction, and mental health issues cause gun violence.

Switzerland's society and government place value on treating the underlying causes of gun violence. The US's government has been captured by corporations who derive profit from the incarceration of people who commit gun violence.

One reason I haven't seen mentioned yet is practicability.

Yes, people have the tools. But how do you get that tool to where you need it?

In the US I believe you can just carry weapons for whatever reason you want. That's not quite the case in Switzerland. If you've got a gun for military service, for example, you're only allowed to carry it from and to military service or the shooting range. You can't just go to a school with it. Same applies to other purposes. You can only carry a gun for the specific purpose you have your permit for. You can't just take it to a school or mall.

Plus, the people who have guns at home usually only have the guns, no ammo, iirc.

Difficult to shoot that guy you don't like when there's a mountain in the way

Probably Switzerland has less morons

Education

People in Switzerland have a bit of discipline, common sense and a baseline of education. There are also rules what kind of weapons you’re are allowed to have: you CANNOT get a subwoofer AK573-ultra assault rifeletta with powerbooster that shoots 263 253mm bullits per second. For your toddler.

I think it's a combination of factors but the largest (in my mind at least) is the capitalist fed toxically-independent mindset that has thrived in the US. It keeps people afraid of other people. It keeps them isolated which prevents community and safety and trust. It sows xenophobia. It prevents any preference toward a government collective.

Take a look at the difference between US towns and towns anywhere else in the world. Suburbs are extremely rural in comparison. They're re devoid of life. Life only exists in the little boxes. In Europe a town of 300 is built around an active town center and rural properties are all focused on that center. US suburbs are less connected than rural Europe or Asia. And then much of the US is way more rural than the suburbs. You've got a media and political system telling everyone they're alone and on their own. So when people have a psychotic break (not super uncommon) or just some form of extreme emotion, they do so with the fear of others in mind. And they lash out with one thing that makes them feel powerful in their solitude.

It's almost like gun violence is a symptom of larger sociological issues....

According to a quick check on Wikipedia Switzerland has 27.6 firearms per 100 people, so in average you can expect 1 in 4 people to be armed. While the USA has 1.205 weapons per person, so you can expect in average that 1 in 5 people has an extra weapon besides the one 100% of the population does.

I think the 436% increase in weapon per capita might contribute to an increase with gun violence, but that's just my guess.

It's a bunch of reasons, but the one that we can actually do something about is the social democratic safety nets. We have way fewer in the US and that causes rampant anxiety, which leads to violence. Switzerland's population isn't on the brink of snapping, so they tend not to shoot each other.

Because nearly all of those arms are under lock and key. They don't exist for fun shooting. They are federal property which is stored in the homes of reservists in case they are called in. Like they have their uniform and other items for their countries defence at home for this event. And people don't have the ammunition for it, which would be supplied at the assembly locations when push comes to shove.

"Most armed country in Europe" is still a pretty different category from the level of gun ownership in the US and they have CONSIDERABLY higher standards for background checking and permits than the US. The US is one of the only country on earth that just lets some random walk into a store and walk out with a firearm.

Perhaps the Swiss have better social safety nets? The U.S. loves the idea that you can lift yourself by your own bootstraps (you can't), and loves rugged individualism (you are alone). If an individual falls -- or feels like they've fallen -- there's not much help. There's guns, though.

in the US, theres significant propaganda to maintain gun ownership and ammosexuals, usually amongst conservatives and are quite misinformed about gun control in blue areas, because it also preys on paranoia, its ties into low education,not always but often. its also part of movies, shows,,,,etc.

plus the ammosexuals fantasize about shooting people all the time(they would love for people to give them an excuse to do so)

I'm convinced that Americans are just inherently more violent/aggressive when compared to the citizens of any other developed nation.

Even without guns, their murder and violence rates surpass the UK/Aus/NZ/Canada (so all the anglo-nations) and all of Western, Northern and most of Central and Eastern Europe.

Can't find a link but I watched a video on this recently. Some dude came over and visited the rifle ranges where they shoot over the cars on the highway and they talked a lot about gun culture as well.

Because they have a better culture than the US does.

It's gonna be education, training, and respect for firearms.

The difference isn't culture it's gun laws and regulations. Gun control works.

I don't know much about Switzerland, but America has an incredible dehumanizing education system where if you don't fit into a highly competitive capitalist, you have no value. Some kids don't feel like they want to be a part of that, but they don't have an alternative, so they don't care anymore. Adults that that happens to become deranged and may think shooting up a school is doing the kids a favor. A few of them have had copies of Catcher in the Rye in their pocket which has those themes.

It's not access to guns that's the problem. It's that we fundamentally have a broken psyche at a social level.

I'd have to guess they have a better distribution of good guy with gun vs bad guy with gun?

Or just fewer bad guys? or less-bad guys?

Wealth inequality.

This is solved and well documented and studied.

Next question.

Because theyre playing the same game except Switzerland is playing against 9 million people while the US is playing against 300 million people.