Geneva: buying a weapon is too easy. Our editorial

Geneva police are investigating an attempted murder in Onex. In May, a resident who had just reached the age of majority shot a young person from the neighborhood who was saved at the last minute by emergency services. Beyond this shot, one detail is striking: the ease with which the accused obtained the weapon on social networks.

In a few minutes, the suspect, who says he acted to defend himself after an attack suffered in the past in the town, found on Snapchat, then on Telegram messaging, the means to obtain a pistol. He wanted it “as quickly as possible,” he wrote to his seller.

In the end, a delivery man made the trip from the Lyon region to transport the small caliber and the ammunition to a grove of Onex trees, which cost around 500 francs. Child’s play.

Even as a minor

Worse, investigators discovered that the shooter had already taken similar steps when he was a minor. The latter maintains that he had looked for, without purchasing, a weapon for a Lancéen who was not familiar with online purchases or on social networks.

Too easy to access a gun? An RTS journalist demonstrated, not without having to face trouble with the lawthat it was easy to make a weapon in a few clicks with a 3D printer.

In Onex, the police found images of the defendant posing with his pistol. For fun, he said. Without prejudging the outcome of the procedure, we generally feel that, among a fringe of young adults or minors, the possession of a gunto intimidate, boast or defend oneself, awakens base instincts and narcissistic peaks.

What to do? No ready-made solution, but an effort in terms of prevention, particularly in schools, would do no harm in combating a phenomenon which is not limited to this news item.

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