Swiss authorities approved tens of thousands of banned gun sales
Sunday 6th September 2026 on 11:30 in
Switzerland
Swiss authorities have approved permits for the sale of tens of thousands of weapons prohibited under a 2019 law change, SRF reported, citing research by NZZ am Sonntag.
Semi-automatic rifles with large magazines have been banned since 2019. Sports shooters and collectors can still obtain them with an exceptional permit, and the cantons appear to have issued many such permits.
In Zurich, almost 20,000 weapons were sold under exceptional permits over the past seven years. Thurgau issued more than 5,300 permits, Basel-Landschaft almost 1,900 and Geneva nearly 1,300. Valais approved almost 400 exceptions this year alone, rejecting only two applications. In Neuchâtel, NZZ found that one in four gun acquisition permits included an exceptional permit.
There is no precise nationwide total because Switzerland has no national firearms register and some cantons do not keep statistics. NZZ estimates that tens of thousands of the weapons have been sold since the ban came into force in 2019.
The findings follow a shooting in Aarau after a techno party on the grounds of the Schachen horse-racing track during the night of August 30. The gunman fired more than 40 shots into the crowd with an AK-74 assault rifle and a pistol. A 22-year-old Italian woman was killed and six other people were injured, some seriously.
The suspected attacker, a 43-year-old Swiss man from Montsevelier in the canton of Jura, had no previous convictions and lived in isolation. He turned himself in to police about 24 hours after the attack. Aargau cantonal police said they believe he acted alone, while the investigation into the motive continues. His parents said shortly after the shooting that he had been diagnosed with schizophrenia about 20 years ago.
Fully automatic weapons have been banned in Switzerland since 1999. People who legally acquired a semi-automatic Kalashnikov before the 2019 law change were allowed to keep it. Older weapons also did not have to be registered again in 2019, meaning the suspected Aarau attacker legally retained a weapon he had bought in 2005.