A referendum was held in Switzerland on 13 February 2011 on the federal popular initiative "For the protection against gun violence".

2 Anyone who intends to acquire, possess, carry, use or hand over a firearm or ammunition must justify a need and have the necessary capabilities.

3 No person may acquire or possess a particularly dangerous weapon such as an automatic firearm or shotgun for private purposes.

7 It works at the international level to limit the availability of small arms and light weapons.According to polls from January 2011, the initiative was favoured by 45% of respondents, with 34% opposed and a relatively high amount of undecideds at 21%.

[3] More than half, 56.3%, of all voters were against the initiative, with only the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Zurich, Geneva, Jura, Vaud and Neuchâtel in support; this meant the initiative would have narrowly passed in western Switzerland, but clearly failed in the German-speaking parts.