stormdelay

Correct, no comma before the last element if it is preceded by a conjunction (e.g. "et", that is "and" in English) in French

In Switzerland's case, most of these "military guns" are not kept with ammo, so it's not like Timmy can go on a shooting spree with a glorified pipe section. There's also an actual license system for buying and owning weapons and ammo.

I always wonder why especially liberal/left-leaning people (not implying/saying you are one) are so opposed to private gun ownership

Well, there's a pretty good example of why virtually unrestricted gun ownership is a bad idea in the USA. Are poverty, healthcare the bigger issues? Of course. That doesn't mean you should compound them by making it easy for people to act with deadly force at the tip of their finger on impulse. Have a proper license system, make gun safes mandatory, don't give licenses without good reasons (self defense isn't one in 99.99% of cases), control ammunition sale.

Yeah I'm aware legislation can vary a lot between states, I suppose I'm more talking about what one might call a minimum federal standard? To take an example, legal drinking age is technically free to be set by states, but the federal government will stop paying for highways if it's below 21, or something along these lines.

Not that I particularly care to defend the french government, but there was 3 referendums, with voting restrictions in favor of the kanak, as per an agreement between the government and the kanaks. The first 2 went against independence and the kanaks decided to boycott the third (the polling was going against independence, again)

Does that mean all is fine and dandy? Obviously not, but I don't think the story is as one sided as "classic french colonialism"

I'm no swiss law expert, but that's not what wikipedia says regarding buying ammunition. And even what you describe is already more than what is needed in the USA isn't it?

I seem to have misread the license part as an additional requirement rather than an optional one with the criminal record, thanks for the correction