3 dead in Swiss shooting

MENZNAU, Switzerland - A longtime employee opened fire at a wood-processing company in central Switzerland on Wednesday, leaving three dead, including the assailant, in the country's second multiple-fatality shooting in two months, police said.

Seven people were wounded, six seriously, in the shooting at the company Kronospan, in the town of Menznau, Lucerne criminal police chief Daniel Bussmann told reporters.

The incident occurred as the parliament prepares to consider tightening some aspects of the country's famously lax gun legislation.

The assailant, a 42-year-old male, arrived at the premises at 9 a.m., drew a pistol, and started firing. Police spokesman Kurt Graf said the shootings took place in the building's canteen area.

Officials did not immediately have further details on the weapon or how the assailant acquired it. They also did not know how the assailant was killed.

"A lot of things are unclear at this stage," said lawmaker Ida Glanzmann-Hunkeler.

She said a proposal will be put before parliament in the coming weeks that would require greater exchange of information between the gun registries kept by Switzerland's 26 cantons. Officials would also record whether people are considered mentally fit to own a gun, and increase power to confiscate guns if they aren't.

The shooting is unlikely to revive calls for ex-soldiers to store their military-issued firearms in army depots. The country has a long-standing tradition for men to keep their military rifles after completing compulsory military service.

This partly accounts for the high rate of gun ownership in the country, where some 2.3 million firearms are owned by a population of about eight million.

A referendum to tighten the laws was defeated in 2011. At the time, opponents pointed to Switzerland's relatively low rate of gun crime, with just 24 gun killings in 2009, which works out to a rate of about 0.3 per 100,000 inhabitants. The U.S. rate that year was about 11 times higher.