Expert urges caution after rise in Swiss firearm offences

Switzerland recorded a sharp rise in attempted killings and serious assault cases involving firearms in 2025, but criminologist Nora Markwalder says the figures do not yet justify alarm, SRF reported.

Police crime statistics show that someone attempted to kill another person with a firearm 32 times last year, twice as often as in the previous year. There were also 13 cases of serious bodily injury involving firearms, compared with significantly fewer cases in earlier years.

Markwalder, a professor of criminal law, criminal procedure and criminology at the University of St Gallen, said a longer period would be needed to establish a genuine increase. The figures could also reflect chance or a single incident involving several victims, she said.

The number of completed killings did not increase in 2025 compared with the previous year. Markwalder noted that Switzerland recorded far more firearm killings in the 1990s. The number has declined steadily since then and has stabilised over the past decade, she said. In 2009, there were 55 firearm killings.

Markwalder said the lower figures today could be linked to there being fewer firearms in Swiss households, according to survey data. Possible reasons include the smaller size of the army and fewer people choosing to keep army firearms.

Since 2016, the statistics have recorded more killings involving stabbing weapons than firearm killings. Incidents such as the shooting in Aarau on Sunday, in which one person died and several others were seriously injured, remain rare. In most cases, there is one victim and the perpetrator and victim know each other.

How those circumstances apply to the Aarau case is still under investigation. Aargau cantonal police have announced a news conference for Wednesday afternoon.