Majority of Swiss vote to keep a place in home for firearms

Official results showed more than half of Switzerland's 26 cantons voted against the proposal to ban army rifles from homes and impose new requirements for buying other guns.

"This is an important sign of confidence in our soldiers," said Pius Segmueller, an MP with the Christian People's Party and former commander of the Vatican's Swiss Guard.

The proposal would have abruptly ended the Swiss tradition of men keeping their army weapons at home – even after completing their military service. Backers of the plan argued this would have reduced incidents of domestic violence and Switzerland's high rate of firearms suicide.

The government had argued ahead of the vote that existing laws were sufficient to ensure some 2.3 million mostly military weapons in a country of less than eight million people aren't misused.

Opposition against the proposal was strongest in rural and German-speaking parts of the country, which tend to be more conservative and where shooting clubs are popular.

French-speaking cantons in western Switzerland backed the plan, but woman and young people – who according to opinion polls favour more restrictive gun laws – failed to turn out in sufficient numbers when it counted.

"Women in Switzerland have only had the vote for 40 years, and yet they aren't engaging in politics, even when the issue concerns them," said Martine Brunschwig-Graf, a national MP with the left-of-centre Social Democratic Party.

Doctors, churches and women's groups launched a campaign four years ago to force former soldiers to store their military-issued firearms in secure army depots. They also want the Swiss government to establish a national gun registry and ban the sale of fully automatic weapons and pump-action shotguns.

Gun enthusiasts say limiting the right to bear arms in the land of William Tell would have destroyed a cherished tradition and undermined the citizenarmy's preparedness against possible invasion.

Dora Andres, president of the Swiss Sport Shooting Association, said last week that the measure would kill off many of Switzerland's 3,000 gun clubs, which she said are a pillar of community life in many villages.

Both sides used graphic images to make their point, with proponents producing posters showing teddy bears oozing blood below the slogan "Protect families." Opponents' posters have featured muscular cartoon criminals threatening the nation's law-abiding citizens.

About a quarter of Switzerland's 1,300 suicides each year involved a gun. The exact number of military-issued weapons involved is disputed, but those calling for tighter rules claim they account for between 100 and 200 suicides a year, mostly among men.

Advocates for tighter gun control noted that since Switzerland cut the size of its army in 2004, the number of firearms suicides among men aged 30-40 has been cut in half.

It is not known how many military-issued guns are involved in murders each year, though Switzerland's gun murder rate is relatively low – just 24 in 2009, or about 0.3 firearms homicides per 100,000 inhabitants. By comparison, the US rate in 2007 was 4.2 per 100,000 inhabitants.

While final results were still awaited, a majority in at least 18 of Switzerland's 26 cantons voted against the measure. Popular referendums in the Alpine nation require a majority of both votes and cantons to pass