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Any gun friendly countries in Europe?

17K views 40 replies 30 participants last post by  misfit-x 
#1 ·
As I read threads here and there about how restrictive some countries are with firearms (Canada, ireland, Australia etc) just wondering are there countries in Europe that are a bit more gun friendly? I know there are folks on this forum who reside overseas...just curious.
 
#2 ·
None are as gun-friendly as the USA, but I do know that Norway, Finland, and Switzerland have fairly tame gun laws compared to the rest of Europe.
 
#3 ·
The British commonwealth had a bad experience with armed American rebels that they haven't forgotten. An unarmed peasantry is a compliant peasantry. Norway and Germany allow pistols in military calibers, despite unpleasant incidents. Israel and Switzerland encourage firearm ownership for their citizens. Tolerance and solvency seem to go hand in hand. I'm not packing my bags any time soon, however.
 
#14 ·
The British commonwealth had a bad experience with armed American rebels that they haven't forgotten.
Actually, they had some pretty bad shooting massacres in the mid-1990s, lots of dead people.

Had absolutely NOTHING to do with the American Revolution or War of 1812.

All told, the British have done an amazing job of curbing gun smuggling into the country in the 17 years since. Pretty much any handgun you find in the UK is an old WWI or WWII gun at this point.
 
#8 · (Edited)
Lithuania (mid EU, on the coast of Baltic Sea) is fine with guns. There is absolutely no gun culture here, but as a result nobody really thinks about guns in the first place.

CCW requires a licence and an age of 24, but one can carry only in condition 3 for reasons unknown (revolvers are allowed in condition two). Open carry is forbidden by law, with the exception of officers on duty.
To get a CCW licence one must get his health checked out and to pass an exam, which consists of memorizing every word of Lithuanian gun and ammo control law. Having a gun requires a registered living place and I am not sure how is it for foreigners. There is an international EU licence, but I don't know if it covers carrying.

We can obtain shotguns for home defense, but we can't bring them outside. Rifles are only allowed for hunting and sportsmanship. Fully automatic firearms are banned (certain organisations can get a specialized licences). Edged weapons are banned as well (no combat-enabled swords, battle-axes or knives). Most firearm accessories are either banned or restricted to hunting/sports (such as silencers, laser sights and night vision optics). Handguns sales are centralized by govt. and there are only 2 places in the entire country where you can buy them and related ammo. One is in capital, another in a main seaport city. The amount of ammo you can have at any given time isn't limited, though.
 
#13 ·
You're looking at the world through a straw. With the restrictions you've listed 99% of us in the US would consider Lithuania as very unfriendly to firearms and firearms ownership.
 
#9 ·
Greece has CCW permits available. However, according to a couple of government officials i've spoken to, it is "easier" to carry an unregistered gun, get locked up and get released... Than to obtain a legal CCW permit :rolleyes:

Shotguns are legal in Greece with a hunting liscence and only if they are limited to 3 rounds.
 
#10 ·
The Czech Rep is intresting. When I went there they had gun stores, and sold some neat guns. There was more hunting than anything for private use of guns. I spent most of my time with the Czech Military. When off duty we could go to the ranges and shoot private guns.

Money was driving factor and some calibers/ammo was limited. The soldiers I was with owned a lot of guns, some very rare, but they did their own work on them and a lot of it was older weapons. CZ pistols cost more there than they do in the states.

From what I took of the CZ your status and money were trump over most things. I got to spend time with both the CZ Military and some local and "state" police. Its very different how things are done.

IMHO its a great country, just they have some gray area's with laws/rules. I hope to visit again as a tourist
 
#31 · (Edited)
Not completely correct, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and the Channel Islands still allow the ownership of 'conventional' handguns.

Mainland UK still has firearms ownership, however as a result of an incident of mass murder of children in 1996 that turned into a political football in an election year we did lose firearms with a barrel length of less than 12 inches and overall length of 24 inches (apparently there was no definition in law of a 'handgun' and these are the parameters used) other than muzzle loaded handguns. The right of ownership of other rifles and shotguns was otherwise unaffected.

So the UK does still have private gun ownership.
 
#17 ·
Hi All.

I'm from Malta a very small island in centre of Mediterranean.We can keep:

10 modern firearms for collection no full-autos.
10 modern firearm for target shooting (pistol or rifles)No short barrel under 3''and shotguns not under 20''
Black powder,shotguns.air guns no limitation.
Pre 1946 we can keep up to 50 pieces including full-autos.like MG42,Thompsons etc.
No ccw permits in Malta.
Ammo 5000 limitation.
Powder 1-1/2 kilos only.
Must have a strongroom-or a good quality safe.
Weapons must be locked.
The only dark side is the ranges limitations.We have to go to Sicily for rifle shooting because the two ranges here are for the army only.and we have a private pistol range for pistol shooting including carbines.Talking with other friends in europe we are lucky compared to them.Hope Laws don't change. Better a bird in your hand,than 100 in the sky ;)

Best regards
mag357.
 
#18 ·
No gun-friendly environment over here with more restrictions to come.
I really do not know what the Government wants to achieve; those who did not obey the law yesterday will not do so today and neither will do tomorrow.
The only category all this affects are law-obeying people, but as a political statement it is easy scoring this way.
 
#21 ·
Hi, i am italian so i know italian laws even if not in details;
only few, really very fiew, peoples have CCW permit because the laws are very restrictive (in U.S.A. you say "may issue");
it is easy to obtain a permit for hunting or for own guns for sporting purposes (i think you must be an italian citizen);
any permit type allow the owner to own:
3 "common" guns (really handguns),
6 "sporting guns" (both hanguns and long guns, there is a list of them),
unlimited hunting long guns (all those above .22);

a recently proposed law will limit long guns (and more, i think) : all the ex-military (even if converted to semi-auto) and all the long guns with the appearance of automatic weapons are defined "sporting guns";
the text of the law say literally "ex-military guns and guns with the appearance of autmatic weapons" so i don't know what will happen with ex-military rifles that originally are not automatic (bolt action and so on),
i don't know what will happen with the glock pistols with appearance of autmatic weapons (remember the glock 18???) or with beretta 92 / 96 pistols (remember the 93R???),
if this law will be approved it will be a sad day for all the italian gun entusiasts!
 
#23 ·
Is there another country anywhere on Earth with guns laws like found in most of the USA?
 
#27 ·
Bunch of drunk people doing stupid things with firearms? Just wait till Wednesday.
 
#30 ·
I live in the UK and to be honest I don't really have too much problem, epsecially in the part of the country I live in.

There are some parts of the country which have unfortunately become the haunt of various elements of scum from former eastern bloc countries and other crapholes of the world.

As to any internet censorship, I think the term is monitoring for key phrases - IIRC correctly this relates to site in respect of terrorism and other sites that contravene the law e.g paedophilia.

In terms of gun friendly - well despite how our laws are portrayed in other parts of the world, we can still own firearms. Certain things are restricted but we have a healthy sport shooting and hunting scene over here.
 
#33 · (Edited)
<...>

As to any internet censorship, I think the term is monitoring for key phrases - IIRC correctly this relates to site in respect of terrorism and other sites that contravene the law e.g paedophilia.

In terms of gun friendly - well despite how our laws are portrayed in other parts of the world, we can still own firearms. Certain things are restricted but we have a healthy sport shooting and hunting scene over here.
Regarding the internet, things are getting completely out of hand in UK. Govt. spying/monitoring *all* the traffic (to be honest, including even regular mail, phone calls and literally everything else, not only online content). That, in addition to banishment of the famous Pirate Bay and even seizing and extraditing its own citizens for crimes (copyright infringement) committed by another countries law.
I don't know how it is viewed in UK, but from here the situation in your country looks completely horrible. No right to self defense, no privacy, interest of international corporations taking precedent over citizens and government hell bent on control. If it goes like this, you will end up like North Korea.
But I'm rambling. This forum is certainly not a place to discuss things like this, I think.

Regarding gun ownership, sports and hunting is all good and well, but being denied to carry a gun in self defense (not even police officers) is something I'd rather not even think about.
 
#35 · (Edited)
rockdrill, I apologize if you found my comment offensive, it was not intended. I did not do serious research about things I posted, it's just the things that are on the online media these days and media can't always be trusted (if ever).

For the record, however, sending people to jail for "copyright infringement", which is basically an act of copying something by pressing two buttons, clicking a link or sharing a link, is downright retarded in my own personal opinion. Jail is intended to protect society from dangerous individuals. Somebody please tell me how any of that counts as a danger to society. As studies have proven, it doesn't even affect sales. All the Pirate Bay admins did was hosted a bunch of links to external user machines, that had (copyrighted) files on them, so other users could connect directly and download it. How is that a crime? To be jailed for? And pay millions of dollars as fines? There is your corporation thing (corporations that pressed charges). It has nothing to do with justice. Simply a cover-up for extracting money and enforcing control – you could sentence the entire generation of teens in first world countries by "copyright" charges. Especially if all of their online activity is monitored.

I should stop typing, this is offtopic.
I will try to find your comment about self defense in UK later, thanks for heads-up.
 
#39 ·
As I understand this still applies in Switzerland as they have a system of compulsory service in the state militia for all citizens.

Here is a link to Wikipedia that gives fuller detail (bearing in mind how accurate Wiki may or may not be): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_politics_in_Switzerland


rockdrill, I apologize if you found my comment offensive, it was not intended. I did not do serious research about things I posted, it's just the things that are on the online media these days and media can't always be trusted (if ever).

For the record, however, sending people to jail for "copyright infringement", which is basically an act of copying something by pressing two buttons, clicking a link or sharing a link, is downright retarded in my own personal opinion. Jail is intended to protect society from dangerous individuals. Somebody please tell me how any of that counts as a danger to society. As studies have proven, it doesn't even affect sales. All the Pirate Bay admins did was hosted a bunch of links to external user machines, that had (copyrighted) files on them, so other users could connect directly and download it. How is that a crime? To be jailed for? And pay millions of dollars as fines? There is your corporation thing (corporations that pressed charges). It has nothing to do with justice. Simply a cover-up for extracting money and enforcing control – you could sentence the entire generation of teens in first world countries by "copyright" charges. Especially if all of their online activity is monitored.

I should stop typing, this is offtopic.
I will try to find your comment about self defense in UK later, thanks for heads-up.
No worries, as you have quite rightly pointed out yourself don't automatically believe every piece of information in the media because I consider there to be a bias and agenda in much reporting nowadays.

In respect of copyright laws - well I didn't write them but the issue is these laws exist and it is for the individual to abide by them. But as you say it is drifting off topic.

Should you ever manage to visit the UK and can make it down to my part of the country let me know and I will see if I can arrange a visit to one of the gun clubs I am a member of so you can have a go.
 
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