The law will also leave untouched weaponry and registration procedures for shooting courses and competitions held in Switzerland. In addition to local festivals, Switzerland hosts the annual “Feldschiessen,” or field shoot, which organizers say is the largest marksmanship competition in the world, drawing about 127,000 participants last year.

After terrorists attacked the Bataclan concert hall and other spots in Paris in November 2015, killing some 130 people, and following deadly attacks on the subway and at the airport in Brussels a few months later, the European Union introduced new gun legislation in 2017 to make it harder to purchase the kind of semiautomatic rifles that were used in those attacks, as well as make it easier for the police to track ownership of such weapons.

Switzerland, which is home to 8.4 million people, has a ratio of around 27 firearms per 100 residents, based upon the most recent study from the Small Arms Survey run by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva.

According to the same study, more than a dozen countries have proportionally higher firearm ownership than Switzerland, led by the United States, where there are about 120 firearms for every 100 residents. The European country that ranks highest in the chart is Finland, with about 34 firearms per 100 residents.

The Swiss Parliament approved the new rules last September. But firearms and hunting lobbyists and associations, with the support of the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, campaigned to force a national referendum.

One of the arguments made by opponents is that Switzerland has had relatively few mass shootings, compared with the United States and other countries where weapons can also easily be acquired. Last year, 22 homicides were committed with a firearm in Switzerland, down from 43 murders the previous year, according to government statistics.