Hunting and weapons

Hunting and guns Why "hobby" and firearms are politically connected

Hunting is hardly conceivable without weapons. This is precisely why hunting is not only a question of nature, but also a question of weapons. In many countries – and also in Switzerland – hunting is one of the central social reasons why private individuals are allowed to own and use firearms. This connection is often trivialized, although it is politically highly relevant.

According to the Small Arms Survey, Switzerland has between 2.3 and 4.5 million privately owned firearms – around 45 weapons per 100 inhabitants, which puts Switzerland in 3rd place internationally. More than a quarter of all Swiss households have a gun. In 26 percent of these households, private weapons are involved – i.e. not army weapons. Hunting weapons are an essential part of this. If you want a society in which weapons are as rare and strictly controlled as possible, you have to think about the hunting-gun complex.

What to expect here

How many hunting weapons are there in Switzerland – and who really controls them? Numbers, gaps and what the statistics don’t show.
The legalization of silencers in 2025: A symptomatic step: What the JSV revision means for the political discourse on weapons – and why the security argument does not hold water.
Hunting weapons and domestic violence: The dark field in Swiss statistics: What we know, what we don’t know – and why this is politically intolerable.
Gun ownership, identity and lobbying power: Why hunting-gun connections are so politically stable – and what interests are behind them.
Mechanization of the hunting weapon: When efficiency lowers the inhibition threshold: What modern optics, night technology and shorter barrel lengths mean for gun culture and safety.
Theft and misuse: What happens to stolen hunting weapons: Data situation and structural gaps in the Swiss firearms register.
What a consistent gun policy would mean in the context of hunting: Concrete demands that take security seriously.
Arguments: Answers to the most common objections to a critical view of the hunting-weapon complex.
Quick Links: All relevant contributions, studies and resources.

How many hunting weapons are there – and who really controls them?

In Switzerland, there is no complete, publicly accessible register of all hunting weapons. The Weapons Act (WG) requires a purchase permit and a reporting obligation for firearms, but there are numerous old stocks that have never been registered. Many hunting weapons, especially older rifles, which were acquired before the modern compulsory registration regime, are de facto invisible to any state control.

At the same time, the revised JSV, which came into force on 1 February 2025, now allows shorter running mass – from 50 cm to 40 cm – and legalises silencers for hunting use. As a result, the arsenal of legally usable hunting weapons is growing, while the registration and control infrastructure has not grown with it. Hunting weapons are not shown separately in the police crime statistics of Switzerland. For the year 2024, there is no official figure for how many crimes were explicitly committed by hunters or with hunting weapons. Only the general figures on violence with firearms are known – hunting rifles are invisible in them.

Silencer legalization in 2025: A symptomatic step

As of February 1, 2025, silencers have been removed from the list of prohibited aids for hunting. The official reason is: hearing protection for hunters and more precise shots for the benefit of wild animals. What this legalization actually means is relevant in terms of gun policy.

The silencer makes hunting weapons less noticeable to third parties. This is not problematic per se – but it changes the signal effect of shots in public spaces. A muffled shot is harder to locate, harder to document and harder to classify by bystanders. At the same time, silencers are now recognised in Switzerland as a “respectable reason” for the acquisition of weapons in accordance with Art. 28b WG – which generally facilitates access to silencers. What is missing in this context is a public safety impact assessment: What effects does the legalization of silencers have on the monitoring of hunting in protected areas and the traceability of shots for control authorities? These questions were not asked. This is significant.

Hunting weapons and domestic violence: The dark field in Swiss statistics

The figures on the link between gun ownership and domestic violence in Switzerland are clear – and alarming. Around one in two homicides related to domestic violence are committed in Switzerland – and almost half of them are committed with a firearm. Crimes in which firearms are used end fatally in 45 percent of cases. On average, one woman dies every two weeks in Switzerland as a result of domestic violence. In 2024, the police registered 21,127 crimes in the area of domestic violence – six percent more than in the previous year, 70 percent of the victims were women.

What is missing from these statistics: Hunting weapons are not shown separately. It is still not known how many femicides were committed in Switzerland with hunting weapons or how many perpetrators were hunting licence holders. This is not a statistical coincidence – it is a political decision against transparency. This finding is clear in international studies: The availability of firearms in private households significantly increases the risk of deadly violence, especially against women in the domestic context. Without differentiated data on hunting weapons, this risk remains in the dark. Authorities and politicians are not in a position to seriously assess the extent to which hunting weapons contribute to femicides.

Mehr dazu: Schutz vor häuslicher Waffengewalt: Jagdwaffen, Hobby-Jäger und Femizide (Mustervorstoss) und Psychologie der Jagd

Waffenbesitz, Identität und Lobbymacht

Wer Jagd kritisiert, kritisiert indirekt ein System, das Waffenbesitz gesellschaftlich legitimiert und stabilisiert. Das erklärt, warum Kritik an der Hobby-Jagd aus dem Jagdmilieu oft mit ungewöhnlicher Emotionalität beantwortet wird: Es geht nicht nur um eine Freizeitbeschäftigung, sondern um Identität, soziale Zugehörigkeit und handfeste Besitzrechte.

Swiss Hunting and related associations are actively involved in parliamentary work in Bern. Historically, hunting associations have exerted influence on the design of the Weapons Act, the Hunting Ordinance and cantonal enforcement practice. The legalization of silencers, the shortening of the minimum barrel length and the extension of the night hunting exceptions in the JSV 2025 are results of this influence – not the results of an independent safety assessment. Gun policy, which is shaped by the most important beneficiaries of the status quo, is structurally interest-driven. This is not an attack on individuals. It is the description of a democratic deficit.

Mechanization of the hunting weapon: When efficiency lowers the inhibition threshold

Modern hunting weapons are fundamentally different from those of twenty years ago. High-quality scopes with rangekeeping, thermal cameras for wildlife detection, ballistic apps for wind correction and more precise ammunition significantly reduce the technical requirements for the shot. What is not growing to the same extent: ethical reflection.

When hunting becomes technically easier, the pressure to kill more – not less – often grows. Shooting plans are to be fulfilled, hunting ground owners expect performance, social recognition in the hunting environment depends on results. Technology in this context does not lead to fewer shots in better conditions, but to more shots in conditions where previous generations would not have fired. At the same time, safety boundaries are shifting: long-range seminars that define distance as a learning goal, and silencers that make shots invisible are changing the scope of action – without this being debated in society.

Theft and abuse: What happens to stolen hunting weapons

Hunting weapons can be stolen, passed on uncontrolled, or misused. There are no consolidated publicly available statistics on the whereabouts of stolen hunting weapons in Switzerland. Although the Swiss Weapons Act has an obligation to report losses for weapons requiring a licence, its consistent implementation and public control is incomplete.

What is known is that hunting weapons are not listed as a category in the police crime statistics. Neither the number of stolen hunting weapons nor the number of offences in which hunting weapons were used can be reliably retrieved. In an environment in which the legislator simultaneously expands the legal availability of hunting weapons – shorter barrel lengths, silencers – and the statistics remain non-transparent, it is not possible to weigh up the risks in a reliable manner. This is a control failure that would have to be systematically remedied.

More on this: Hobby Hunting and Crime: Aptitude Tests, Reporting Obligations and Consequences (Sample Motion) and Independent Hunting Supervision (Sample Motion)

What would have to change

Complete, publicly accessible hunting weapons register: All hunting weapons requiring a licence are recorded, including old stocks, with periodic checks of their whereabouts. Model Proposal: Hobby Hunting and Crime: Aptitude Checks, Reporting Obligations and Consequences
Separate expulsion obligation in the crime statistics: Hunting weapons are listed as a separate category in the police crime statistics – offences, femicides, thefts, abuse.
Secure storage obligation with control: Hunting weapons must be stored in certified, locked gun cabinets – with unannounced, random checks. Model initiative: Safety of the population: minimum distances, exclusion zones, obligation to report
Revocation of the hunting license in case of domestic violence: Anyone convicted of domestic violence, threats or assault automatically loses their hunting license and the permit to possess weapons. Model Proposal: Protection against Domestic Gun Violence: Hunting Weapons, Hobby Hunters and Femicides
Withdrawal of silencer legalisation or strict special regulation: If silencers are approved, there needs to be a mandatory register, a separate licensing requirement and a clear obligation to justify with a safety impact assessment.
Independent Hunting Weapons Commission: A commission of security experts, animal welfare experts, legal experts and media representatives, independent of the hunting milieu, monitors hunting weapons law and practice. Model initiative: Independent hunting supervision: External control instead of self-control
Mandatory safety training for patent renewal: Analogous to the driver’s license: periodic, independent aptitude test with inclusion of current safety standards.

Arguments

“Hobby hunters are responsible, trained gun users.” In individual cases, this may be true. The social question is bigger: If a system normalizes gun ownership for recreational activities, gun presence in society increases – with a demonstrably higher risk of domestic violence, suicide and accidents. Individual responsibility does not replace structural control.

“Silencers are hearing protection – that’s a health measure.” Hearing protection is available as an ear capsule and in-ear solution – for a few francs, without consequences under weapons law. Silencers don’t just protect hearing. They change the perceptibility of shots by third parties, the controllability of hunting in sensitive areas and the signal effect of gunshot sounds as a warning signal for bystanders. Framing as a security measure, which above all increases the efficiency and uncontrollability of hunting weapons, is misleading.

“A connection between hunting weapons and femicides has not been proven.” That’s exactly the problem: it’s not substantiated because the data isn’t collected. Internationally, the relationship between the availability of weapons in the household and the risk of femicide is well documented. Switzerland is not missing from these statistics because the risk does not exist – but because hunting weapons are invisible in the crime statistics. This is not an all-clear. This is a failure of control.

“Gun control is an attack on hunters.” Seat belts are not an attack on female motorists. Fire safety regulations are not an attack on restaurant owners. Gun control is a basic requirement for any activity that exposes people to potentially lethal devices. Anyone who frames this requirement as an attack is not defending freedom – but uncontrollability.

Quick Links

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Our claim

Hunting is a question of weapons. In Switzerland, hobby hunting normalises the private ownership and use of firearms on a scale that ranks 3rd internationally. At the same time, basic data is missing: hunting weapons do not appear as a category in the crime statistics, stolen hunting weapons are not recorded in a consolidated manner, and the connection between hunting weapons and femicides remains in the dark field. The legalization of silencers in 2025 shows that gun policy in the hunting context is shaped by the lobby, not by independent security experts.

This dossier documents the hunting weapons complex on the basis of figures, legal bases and structural gaps. The information is continuously updated when new data, judgments or political developments require it.

What security gaps around hunting weapons do you know from your region? We collect concrete demands, examples and incidents: wildbeimwild.com/kontakt

More on the topic of hobby hunting: In our dossier on hunting, we bundle fact checks, analyses and background reports.