[COFFEE] Official way to get a gun in Switzerland as a foreigner

Coffee
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My experience has been that not only are the laws OK with allowing (some) foreigners to own a gun, but also that the KaPo people you’ll be talking with are much more friendly and polite than you might expect.

I have a B permit here and had a handgun permit (and a handgun) back in my home country. When I tried to transfer my gun to Switzerland, I was surprised how helpful the authorities were.
I talked with a police lady in my town, then with a KaPo lady in my canton capital, got a Strafregisterauszug, sent it with some other documents to the canton and to Bern, bought a safe, and voila - I got a permit to import my handgun and a permit to own it in Switzerland.

I am now in the process of exporting my gun from my home country and it’s way more complicated and exhausting, to a big extent because I’m emailing/phoning with grumpy government workers, that really only want me to just leave them alone. From experience I know very well it won’t become any better when I get to talk to them in person…

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Make sure you don’t forget to get the import marking (Waffenmarkierung; Art. 31 Waffenverordnung) within 30 days after importation, otherwise you will have to part with your gun.

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It’s not the exact case I’ve asked about, but I guess there may be people who can still benefit from this info.

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Lazy Saturday afternoon and went down a rabbit hole on the forum and found this thread.

Being a member of a gun club and owning several weapons was a plus for me when I had my Swiss citizenship integration interview with the cantonal police late last year.

For those interested, my collection (am curious what others own)

  • SIG Sauer P226 MK25 (9mm) = smooth as silk
  • Heckler & Koch Mark 23 (.45) = an absolute big beast
  • Sig Sauer MPX submachine gun (9mm) = fun and in my case pimped with cool but not entirely necessary extras (although I admit a red-dot has greatly increased my speed with target acquisition and shooting accuracy)

Stored in a very heavy vault in our Technikraum.

Still on the wish list but not a huge priority

  • Long distance rifle (was thinking of a Sako)
  • SIG Sauer P232 (.380) = more compact pistol, ideally stainless steel, will need to find and buy it second hand
  • Suppressor for the MK25 = probably too much hassle to get the permit
  • And have been thinking (for a long time) about getting a higher end crossbow

I was surprised at how easy it was to get my permits for this. Also, while not right next to your local Coop, there’s a lot of gunshops in Switzerland as well.

One thing I’ve never done and would love to experience is actually going hunting in the wild - does anybody have experience with that? Are there licensed hunters you can tag along with for a fee?

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I am sure there are many hunters open to take someone with them.

Just ask in your local Jagdverein