It is probably a surprise that next to the U.S., the second first world nation with heavily armed citizens is Switzerland. Plus, most of those weapons are assault rifles.

You would think they have very strict gun control laws. They don't.
You would think given their centuries old position of neutrality that they would be unarmed. They aren't.

By extension, given all the guns in the possession of average citizens, you would assume that they should have lots of shootings and killings just like in the United States. They don't.

Why?

Because they take the position that it is not the prevalence of weapons that is the problem. It is education about those weapons. They believe if taught to use weapons responsibly, their citizens will actually use them responsibly. Not surprisingly, they actually do.

They teach students how to shoot guns. They have national contests similar to spelling contests here to see which student can shoot the best. They teach gun safety so the young gain a respect of the damage a weapon can do.

Then, to cement all that knowledge into each citizen, all males between 18 & 34 must enter the Army. After their Army training and time, they return home with their weapon but be a part of Switzerland's reserve army, and may be called to duty at any time.

Every household in Switzerland is armed. Virtually any kind of shooting is almost unheard of. Why? Clearly it's not a prevalence of guns.

See how that works here. http://world.time.com/2012/12/20/the-swiss-difference-a-gun-culture-that-works/