Chuck Holton, a correspondent for the National Rifle Associations NRATV, credited Switzerlands low crime rate on the homogeneity of its culture, echoing a long-held white nationalist talking point.
During the July 20 broadcast of NRATVs Stinchfield, Holton discussed his reporting on gun laws in several European countries and how they compare to those in the United States. Holton praised Switzerlands high gun ownership and low crime rate, which he attributed to the countrys homogeneity, saying he wished we could go back to having one culture in the U.S. NRATV host Grant Stinchfield attempted to clean up Holtons comment by adding regardless of color or race or religion, or any of those things:
You know it really has been fascinating to just kind of get an overview of the gun laws and how they affect -- how the culture affects the gun laws, I guess. Because you take a place like Switzerland, where they have a strong gun culture, number two to the United States as far as gun ownership and although they have very, very low crime. Very, very low murder rates. Essentially, maybe one per 100,000 a year or less. Very, very low and yet -- so what Im saying is that it doesnt have anything to do with the crime rate, as far as more guns equals more crime. Thats not true. What Ive seen is actually the safer places that weve been, be that Monaco, San Marino, even Italy to some extent up in the north, and here in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, those places tend to have higher gun ownership but lower crime. And it really doesnt have anything to do, I dont think even with gun ownership, as much as it does with the homogeneity of the culture. That is, the people who just -- they feel like theyre part of a country, they feel like theyre part of one culture and they arent so divided like we are in the United States. And thats something that kind of makes you go man, it would be really nice to go back to that time in the U.S. where we all just felt like Americans and we left each other alone to, you know, hey, its a free country.
Switzerland, the country with four official languages ---