Swiss pro-gun lobby, Pro Tell, “Putsched out”

An original translation by Ava Lon with much thanks.

From the Swiss news site, 24 Hours:

The chairmanship of Pro Tell is gutted.
Swiss President Willy Pfund denounced a coup within the association Pro Tell, the gun lobby. He resigned with immediate effect.

Pro Tell defines itself as “the company for a liberal law on weapons.” Its voice weighs in about each policy on weapons. But there is now fire on the top, writes the Tages-Anzeiger in its edition of 12 September.

Its chairman Willy Pfund, 77, resigned Wednesday with immediate effect “for personal reasons”, said Pro Tell Friday. He’ll be temporarily replaced by the vice-president Werner Hohler, until the General Assembly in early 2017 will be able to appoint a new president.

An autocratic management style

The president’s departure does not unfold in serenity, as shown in his email dated August 29 sent to the presidency. Willy Pfund denounces a decision that day that suspends him from office with immediate effect due to a deemed autocratic management style and lack of communication.

The president described the process as a “putsch contrary to the statutes and disrespectful” to the person and work for Pro Tell. “I am upset. Trust is broken in every respect. ”

[…]

Schengen in the viewfinder

Tell Pro does not want to comment on the resignation of its chairman. “We agreed to remain silent,” said the interim president Werner Hohler. This departure will change nothing to the organization. “We will continue in the future to fight for a liberal law concerning arms.”

Pro Tell focuses on the next big battle ahead and particularly close to its heart: the tightening of legislation to come to Switzerland in the wake of what is being prepared in Brussels.

The lobby of 8500 strong, and many federations, could fight the Schengen agreement if the Commission were to require Bern that all gun owners in Switzerland submit to regular inspections. Pro Tell doesn’t want that. (Nxp)


Related:

Also from 24 Hours Switzerland:

The European Union wants to disarm Switzerland

Switzerland: Brussels will toughen its laws on firearms, including introducing psychological and medical tests for holders.

The EU wants [Switzerland] to tighten its laws on firearms. The first sketches of Directive 91/477 forced Simonetta Sommaruga [Swiss Federal Councelor, a socialist] to visit Brussels in mid-June, to plead for Swiss law be allowed to keep the service weapon at home. [Switzerland in NOT part of the EU]

If this derogation is accepted for now, it will be accompanied by many other obligations, such as psychological and medical tests, said the Basler Zeitung in its issue of August 24.

It is supposed to demonstrate that gun owners are not a danger to society and must be supervised. [do you see the contradiction? they are safe, but must be closely watched] Therefore 133,000 people will be compelled to do that: members of shooting clubs but also hunters, collectors or those who possess weapons without being part of a society.

The anti-terrorist law in the European Union already requires gun owners to pass such tests every five years.

Fear of referendum

Switzerland, a member of the Schengen area, is committed to automatically apply European law. Berne will therefore have to adapt its legislation, which could be the subject of a referendum. If not, the vote could result in the late-agreement Schengen-Dublin.

[the shengen and Dublin agreement was apparently signed by the Swiss]

It is to avoid this disaster scenario that Simonetta Sommaruga’s services were activated in June in Brussels for the service weapons to be excluded from the directive. The other obligations will also make the Swiss cringe.

[…]

The Fass 57 threatened [Swiss army riffle]

The terrorist attacks that shook Europe in recent years explain this tougher legislation, but the European Union has had to recognize that none of them had been committed by legally purchased and possessed weapons.

Switzerland could be obligated to destroy hundreds of thousands of weapons and neutralize them. The EU has in his sights rifles with magazines with over 20 rounds and guns that stores more than 10. The assault rifle 57 is particularly threatened with its original magazine of 24 cartridges.

The Directive is currently being processed by Brussels. But it is clear that if it were to pass as is, anyone past active service or is not a member of a shooting club, no longer will have the right to own a firearm. (Nxp)

(Created: 24/08/2016, 10:09)

 

 

About Eeyore

Canadian artist and counter-jihad and freedom of speech activist as well as devout Schrödinger's catholic

20 Replies to “Swiss pro-gun lobby, Pro Tell, “Putsched out””

  1. It looks like we are going to see how far the Swiss will go to keep their firearms, hopefully they will resist to the bitter end.

    • Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and resistance to forcible disarmament will NOT come about.

      • Hopefully there will be no forcible disarming.

        If there is, lets hope cooler heads prevail and there is resistance to it. Freedom always has to be fought for.

        • I don’t think the Swiss will willingly give up their firearms, their nations was formed by armed citizens fighting for their freedom and has remained out of all modern wars by being armed to the teeth. During WWII they were armed well enough that Hitler was going to leave them until all of the rest of Europe was pacified because they knew that fighting the Swiss in their own mountains would cause a lot of causalities. Hopefully this will to remain free still exists.

          • I wouldn’t mind having an Stg-57! What a cool gun, even if it does weigh a ton and is chambered for 7.5mm. It would cost $$$ if made for the civilian market; the closest thing would be the Sig AMT in 7.62mm NATO. Decades ago I bought an FN-FAL, and it was nearing a KILOBUCK. Factor in inflation, and OMG, that was really, REALLY EXPENSIVE.

            • The Keynesian and their planned inflation, they have driven up the price of everything and quality firearms are the worst. When I was a kid reading gun magazines and dreaming a Cold 1911 in 45 auto cost about 60 dollars. Now one will cost you between 640 dollars and a 1000 thousand dollars depending how strong the demand is. The outfit in Tennessee that makes quality working reproductions of the WWII M! rifle sells them for over 1000 dollars and has a massive back order for them and the M1a the civilian version of the M14.

  2. If the citizenry were to unite and NOT COMPLY it would render any disarmament attempt completely impotent. The system would bog down in attempted prosecutions and the effort would have to be abandoned. Shades of the “Poll Tax” riots in the U.K. in 1990, the people won, Thatcher resigned and the tax was scrapped.

  3. This underscores one of the fundamental flaws of the EU concept – that in order for there to be open borders between the states, there has to be perfect harmony between all the different legal systems. If, for instance, one country were to ban marijuana and another were to legalize it, it would become necessary to put up a border to insure that the marijuana is not brought from the yes-pot country to the no-pot country, and that would destroy the schengen zone instantly. It’s just a dumb idea, but they’re so sold on it that they cannot see the obvious. The only way to create a true schengen zone is to make all the countries of Europe follow the exact same laws, and that is a terrible idea.

    The Europeans are very lucky to have such a rich variety of cultures and histories and languages. But it seems that the ultimate hundred-year goal of the EU socialists is to turn all of Europe into one huge homogenous country. They’re out of their little left wing minds. It’s a bad idea!

    • You said it seems that the ultimate hundred-year goal of the EU socialists is to turn all of Europe into one huge homogenous country. They’re out of their little left wing minds. It’s a bad idea!

      That is what they want, but they don’t want to stop with Europe they want the world to be one homogenous country. Once they force everyone into one country with one set of laws (Ain’t gonna happen) they will start pushing to have jus tone language.

    • Thing is up into the 1920’s you didn’t need a passport to move throughout Europe, it was free passage between all the countries.

  4. Well, this is why GUN REGISTRATION is so important to the gun controllers. They want to be able to achieve fire superiority outside your home at a moment’s notice. That is why the Comopolitans have Deep Sixed the whole “Gun Control” phraseology and gone with the new-fangled “Gun Safety” phrasing. Note the MOST important thing now to the news media is the so-called “Gun Show Loophole,” the ability to make private sales between individuals sans government involvement. The Brady Campaign NEEDS to have the government involved with all gun transactions, so they can record them. Years ago, the US Congress passed legislation that was signed by the President that prohibited the BATF, the US Treasury arm that has control of the Form 4473s for firearm purchases, from computerizing those records with congressionally appropriated funds to act as defacto registration forms. Yet, one day on an ABC TV program (“20/20”?), the BATF was proudly showing their computer program that allowed them to do just that.

    All gun controllers are LIARS.

    I do note that in the 1984 “Red Dawn” there is a scene in there where the Red invaders are told to grab the 4473s from a gun shop. This I bet must have been seen by the writers of the Polish movie 2007 “Katyn,” because there is scene there where they announce a person with a “pistol license” is to be rounded up.

    Never give up your gun, because the next step is “The Camps.”

    • I know for a fact that the County Sheriff of the county I live in and the Commander of the local National Guard unit have said that if ordered to confiscate guns they would refuse. The way the Sheriff put it was if you knock on one of the local doors and demand the guns in the house you will probably get the wrong end of the gun.

      • Would you want to go up against a bunch of country boys armed with their personal firearms that they shoot all the time?

  5. Brussels cannot control their own citizens, the guns in their own country, nor the muzzies making mahem, so they pick on others that they think that they can control. Just like in the US.

    The Swiss need to tell Brussels to pound sand. They will not be dictated to by some second rate bureaucracy. The EU is falling apart. The Swiss have a long history of neutrality and independence. They best keep it that way.

  6. My next door neighbors here in Texas are airline employees from Switzerland. The husband served in the Swiss Army perhaps 25 years ago. He was explaining the Swiss relationship with the EU to me a few weeks ago. Basically, while still “independent” of the EU, Switzerland submits to EU law in order to obtain the favorable EU aircraft/airport landing rights which EU member states have. Landing fees and other air operations fees which the EU charges to non-members are much higher than those charged to member states. A non-member state can avoid the non-member surcharges by agreeing to either make its own laws consistent with the EU’s, or actually submit itself to EU law directly.

    This is one of the complications of the BREXIT – air travel between Great Britain and the continent is about to get a lot more expensive for British travelers flying on British air carriers, because those landing and ground operations EU surcharges will be passed on to the British consumers. Of course, if those consumers fly on Air France or some EU member’s airlines, they won’t see those surcharges in their airline fees. Switzerland is a landlocked country, and so it has only two choices, pay higher airline operational fees to fly almost anywhere on the european continent, or accept the tyranny of the EU – which is governed by a small clique of fascist bastards. And this is just the airline dilemma……..this kind of arrogance from Brussels is affecting many other strata of Swedish life besides air travel.

    My neighbor said that he thought that the British would come to regret the BREXIT when the costs started to roll in, but I told him that Liberty often comes with a price, and that price would stabilize and amortize eventually, no longer being a burden to the Brits, and they would be free from the tyranny of Brussels.

    And now the French are talking about a FREXIT, so it may be that the EU is starting to fall apart: http://www.express.co.uk/news/world/710517/Marine-Le-Pen-frexit-brexit-european-union.

    Anyway, as a Texan who enjoys quite a large collection of arms, I hope the Swiss tell the EU to go sod-off, and that they “stick to their guns”.

    • This article by Fjordman describes Norway’s accommodation to EU guidelines – total, over-the-top endorsement. h/t Readers' Links

      Brexit and Norway: What to Avoid

      “[Britain wants] to be like Switzerland but they don’t know that Switzerland has to pay an enormous amount to the EU… They will have to accept the free movement of people and pay high fees and accept some laws which they would have no influence on.” — Daniel Pedroletti, president of the Swiss community group New Helvetic Society London.

      Norway is the only country that has adopted all EU directives before their deadline. Norway, which is supposedly not a member of the EU, thus implements EU rules and regulations more obediently than do the founding members France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg.

      Most of Norway’s laws are currently written by bureaucrats in Brussels, not by elected parliamentarians in Norway.

      The citizens of Norway rejected membership in the EU, twice. Opinion polls today show that a very large majority of Norwegians are against membership in the EU. Despite this, the nation’s politicians have made the country more or less a member of the EU, only without any influence or voting rights — in opposition to the popular will, and possibly also in violation of the country’s Constitution.

      The British should study the case of Norway closely. But mainly as a negative example of what to avoid.

      https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/8892/brexit-norway