Hunting and Weapons

Hunting is barely conceivable without weapons. Precisely for this reason, hunting is not only a question of nature conservation, but also a question of weapons. In many countries – including Switzerland – hunting is one of the central societal justifications for why private individuals are permitted to own and use firearms. This connection is often trivialised, even though it is highly relevant politically.

According to the Small Arms Survey, Switzerland counts between 2.3 and 4.5 million firearms in private possession – around 45 weapons per 100 inhabitants, placing Switzerland third internationally. More than a quarter of all Swiss households own a weapon. In 26 percent of these households, the weapons are privately owned – that is, not army weapons. Hunting weapons form a substantial part of this. Anyone who wishes for a society in which weapons are as rare and as strictly controlled as possible must also consider the hunting-weapons complex.

What awaits you here

• How many hunting weapons are there in Switzerland – and who really controls them? Figures, gaps, and what the statistics do not show.
• The 2025 silencer legalisation: a symptomatic step: What the JSV revision means for the political weapons discourse – and why the safety argument does not hold up.
• Hunting weapons and domestic violence: the blind spot in Swiss statistics: What we know, what we don’t know – and why this is not politically tolerable.
• Weapon ownership, identity and lobby power: Why hunting-weapons connections are politically so stable – and which interests lie behind them.
• The technicisation of the hunting weapon: when efficiency lowers the threshold of restraint: What modern optics, night-vision technology and shorter barrel lengths mean for weapons culture and safety.
• Theft and misuse: what happens to stolen hunting weapons: Data situation and structural gaps in the Swiss weapons register.
• What a consistent weapons policy would mean in the hunting context: Concrete demands that take safety seriously.
• Argumentation guide: Answers to the most common objections to a critical examination of the hunting-weapons complex.
• Quick links: All relevant articles, studies and resources.

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

Switzerland has no complete, publicly accessible register of all hunting weapons. The Weapons Act (WG) requires an acquisition permit and a reporting obligation for firearms, yet numerous legacy stocks exist that were never registered. Many hunting weapons, particularly older rifles acquired before the modern registration regime, are effectively invisible to any state control.

At the same time, the revised JSV, which came into force on 1 February 2025, now permits shorter barrel lengths – reduced from 50 cm to 40 cm – and legalises silencers for hunting use. The consequence: the arsenal of legally usable hunting weapons is growing, while the registration and control infrastructure has not kept pace. Hunting weapons are not listed separately in Swiss police crime statistics. For 2024, there is no official figure for how many crimes were expressly committed by hunters or with hunting weapons. Only the general figures on firearm violence are known – within which hunting rifles remain invisible.

More on this: Hunting accidents in Switzerland: the risk that is rarely discussed honestly and Hunting in Switzerland: figures, systems, and the end of a narrative

The 2025 silencer legalisation: a symptomatic step

As of 1 February 2025, silencers were removed from the list of prohibited hunting aids. The official justification: hearing protection for hunters and more precise shots for the welfare of wild animals. What this legalisation actually means is relevant to weapons policy.

A silencer makes hunting weapons less perceptible to third parties. This is not problematic per se – but it changes the signalling effect of shots in public space. A suppressed shot is harder to locate, harder to document and harder for uninvolved bystanders to classify. At the same time, under Art. 28b WG, silencers are now recognised as a «respectable reason» for weapons acquisition – which fundamentally makes access to silencers easier. What is missing in this context is a public safety impact assessment: what effect does silencer legalisation have on the monitorability of hunting in protected areas and the traceability of shots for control authorities? These questions were not asked. That is telling.

More on this: Night hunting and high-tech hunting and Recreational hunting starts at the desk

Hunting weapons and domestic violence: the blind spot in Swiss statistics

The figures on the connection between weapon ownership and domestic violence in Switzerland are clear – and alarming. Roughly one in two homicides in Switzerland is committed in connection with domestic violence – and of these, nearly half involve a firearm. Offences in which firearms are used end fatally in 45 percent of cases. On average, a woman dies in Switzerland every two weeks as a result of domestic violence. In 2024, police recorded 21’127 offences in the area of domestic violence – six percent more than the previous year, with 70 percent of victims being women.

What is missing from these statistics: hunting weapons are not listed separately. To this day, it is not known how many femicides in Switzerland were committed with hunting weapons or how many perpetrators held hunting licences. This is not a statistical coincidence – it is a political decision against transparency. This finding is clearly borne out by international studies: the availability of firearms in private households significantly increases the risk of fatal violence, particularly against women in a domestic context. Without differentiated data on hunting weapons, this risk remains in the dark. Authorities and policymakers are not in a position to seriously assess the extent to which hunting weapons contribute to femicides.

More on this: Protection from domestic weapon violence: hunting weapons, recreational hunters and femicides (template motion) and The psychology of hunting

Weapon ownership, identity and lobby power

Anyone who criticises hunting is indirectly criticising a system that socially legitimises and stabilises weapon ownership. This explains why criticism of recreational hunting from within hunting circles is often met with unusual emotionality: it is not merely about a leisure pursuit, but about identity, social belonging and tangible ownership rights.

JagdSchweiz and related associations are actively present in parliamentary work in Bern. Historically, hunting associations have exerted influence on the shaping of the Weapons Act, the Hunting Ordinance and cantonal enforcement practice. The legalisation of silencers, the shortening of the minimum barrel length and the expansion of night-hunting exceptions in the 2025 JSV are the results of this influence – not the results of an independent safety assessment. Weapons policy that is co-shaped by the primary beneficiaries of the status quo is structurally driven by self-interest. This is not an attack on individuals. It is the description of a democratic deficit.

More on this: Hunter lobby in Switzerland: how influence works and Ending leisure-time violence against animals

The technicisation of the hunting weapon: when efficiency lowers the threshold of restraint

Modern hunting weapons differ fundamentally from those of twenty years ago. High-quality riflescopes with rangefinders, thermal cameras for detecting wild animals, ballistic apps for wind correction and more precise ammunition significantly lower the technical demands of taking a shot. What does not grow to the same extent: ethical reflection.

When hunting becomes technically easier, the pressure to kill more – not less – often grows. Kill quotas are meant to be fulfilled, hunting ground leaseholders expect performance, and social recognition within hunting circles depends on results. Technology in this context does not lead to fewer shots under better conditions, but to more shots under conditions in which earlier generations would not have fired. At the same time, safety limits are shifting: long-range shooting seminars that define distance as a learning goal, and silencers that render shots inaudible, are changing the framework for action – without any societal debate about it.

More on this: High hunt in Switzerland: traditional ritual, zone of violence and stress test and Lead ammunition

Theft and Misuse: What Happens to Stolen Hunting Weapons

Hunting weapons can be stolen, passed on uncontrolled, or misused. There is no consolidated, publicly accessible statistic on the whereabouts of stolen hunting weapons in Switzerland. Although the Swiss Weapons Act includes an obligation to report the loss of licensable weapons, its consistent implementation and public oversight remain patchy.

What is known: hunting weapons are not tracked as a category in police crime statistics. Neither the number of stolen hunting weapons nor the number of offences involving hunting weapons can be reliably retrieved. In an environment where legislators are simultaneously expanding the legal availability of hunting weapons — shorter barrel lengths, silencers — while the statistics remain opaque, no robust risk assessment is possible. This is a control failure that needs to be systematically addressed.

More on this: Recreational Hunting and Crime: Suitability Checks, Reporting Obligations and Consequences (template text) and Independent Hunting Oversight (template text)

What needs to change

• Complete, publicly accessible hunting weapons register: All licensable hunting weapons are recorded, including existing stock, with periodic checks on their whereabouts. Template text: Recreational Hunting and Crime: Suitability Checks, Reporting Obligations and Consequences
• Separate reporting obligation in crime statistics: Hunting weapons are recorded as their own category in police crime statistics — offences, femicides, thefts, misuse.
• Safe storage requirement with checks: Hunting weapons must be stored in certified, locked gun safes — with unannounced, random spot checks. Template text: Public Safety: Minimum Distances, Exclusion Zones, Reporting Obligation
• Withdrawal of the hunting patent in cases of domestic violence: Anyone convicted of domestic violence, threats or bodily harm automatically loses their hunting patent and their licence to possess weapons. Template text: Protection from Domestic Firearm Violence: Hunting Weapons, Recreational Hunters and Femicides
• Reversal of the silencer legalisation or strict special regulation: If silencers are permitted, a mandatory register, a separate licensing requirement, and a clear justification requirement with a safety impact assessment are needed.
• Independent hunting weapons commission: A commission independent of the hunting milieu, made up of security experts, animal welfare experts, legal experts and media professionals, oversees hunting weapons law and practice. Template text: Independent Hunting Oversight: External Control Instead of Self-Regulation
• Mandatory safety training upon patent renewal: Analogous to a driving licence: periodic, independent suitability testing incorporating current safety standards.

Talking points

«Recreational hunters are responsible, trained weapons users.» This may be true in individual cases. The societal question is bigger: if a system normalises weapons ownership for leisure activities, weapons presence in society increases — with demonstrably higher risk of domestic violence, suicide and accidents. Individual responsibility is no substitute for structural control.

«Silencers are hearing protection — that’s a health measure.» Hearing protection is available as ear defenders and in-ear solutions — for a few francs, with no weapons-law consequences. Silencers don't just protect hearing. They alter the perceptibility of shots by third parties, the controllability of hunting in sensitive areas, and the signalling function of gunshot noise as a warning for uninvolved people. Framing as a safety measure what primarily increases the efficiency and uncontrollability of hunting weapons is misleading.

«A link between hunting weapons and femicides is not proven.» That is precisely the problem: it is not proven because the data is not collected. Internationally, the link between weapons availability in the household and femicide risk is well documented. Switzerland is not missing from this statistic because the risk doesn't exist — but because hunting weapons are invisible in crime statistics. This is not reassurance. This is a control failure.

«Weapons control is an attack on hunters.» Seatbelts are not an attack on motorists. Fire safety regulations are not an attack on restaurant owners. Weapons control is a basic requirement for any activity in which people come into contact with potentially lethal devices. Whoever frames this requirement as an attack is not defending freedom — but uncontrollability.

Quick links

Articles on Wild beim Wild:

• Protection from domestic weapon violence: hunting weapons, recreational hunters and femicides (template motion)
• Recreational Hunting and Crime: Tightening Suitability Checks, Reporting Obligations and Consequences (template text)
• Public Safety: Minimum Distances, Exclusion Zones, Reporting Obligation (template text)
• Lead-Free Hunting: Ban on Lead-Containing Ammunition in the Canton (template text)
• Hunting accidents in Switzerland: the risk that is rarely discussed honestly
• Independent Hunting Oversight: External Control Instead of Self-Regulation (template text)

Related dossiers:

• Hunting and Wildlife Diseases
• Night Hunting and High-Tech Hunting: How Thermal Imaging Cameras, Night Vision Devices, Drones and Digital Lure Calls Expose the Myth of Fair Chase
• Hunting Dogs: Use, Suffering and Animal Welfare
• Lead Ammunition and Environmental Toxins from Recreational Hunting: How a Toxic Legacy Burdens Birds of Prey, Soils and Humans
• High Hunt in Switzerland: Traditional Ritual, Zone of Violence and Stress Test for Wild Animals
• African Swine Fever: How an Animal Disease Becomes a Justification for Recreational Hunting
• Hunting Accidents in Switzerland
• Hunting and Animal Welfare: What the Practice Does to Wild Animals
• Hunting and Weapons
• Driven Hunt in Switzerland
• Wait Hunting: Waiting, Technology and Risks
• Earth hunting
• Trap hunting
• Wait hunting
• Special Hunt in Grisons

Our Standard

Hunting is a question of weapons. In Switzerland, recreational 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 crime statistics, stolen hunting weapons are not recorded in a consolidated manner, and the link between hunting weapons and femicides remains in the dark. The 2025 legalisation of silencers shows that weapons policy in the hunting context is shaped by the lobby, not by independent security experts.

This dossier documents the hunting-weapons complex using figures, legal foundations and structural gaps. The information is continuously updated whenever new data, rulings or political developments require it.

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

More on the topic of recreational hunting: in our hunting dossier we bring together fact checks, analyses and background reports.