{"id":75012,"date":"2024-05-31T14:03:01","date_gmt":"2024-05-31T20:03:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/?p=75012"},"modified":"2024-05-31T14:03:01","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T20:03:01","slug":"whats-gun-ownership-like-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/2024\/05\/31\/whats-gun-ownership-like-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"What\u2019s Gun Ownership like in Europe?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

What\u2019s Gun Ownership like in Europe?<\/a><\/h1>\n

 <\/p>\n

(This newsletter is brought to you by intrusive thoughts during a recent trip to Europe. There\u2019s something about seeing all the cops carrying UMPs and FAMASes.)<\/h2>\n

Culturally, the US carries the fire for the world on gun rights. But most of the world\u2019s gun owners live outside the US. What\u2019s that like?<\/h2>\n

The answer is surprisingly mixed. Residents of gun-friendly American states have more gun rights than Europeans (with some exceptions \u2014 such as the fact that there\u2019s a process to acquire full auto rifles in Switzerland and the Czech Republic). But if you\u2019re a resident of a state with an assault weapons ban, in some ways you\u2019d have more gun access in, say, France.<\/h2>\n

We can break down European gun laws by category. Let\u2019s take them one at a time.<\/h2>\n

Permit to purchase<\/h2>\n
\n

Every country in Europe has two things in common here:<\/h2>\n<\/div>\n
    \n
  1. \n

    They create a classification system that groups weapons into categories from least restricted to most restricted.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n
  2. \n

    They require a permit to purchase anything that qualifies as a gun.<\/h2>\n<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Re #2, items that don\u2019t require a permit to purchase vary by country but are typically things like air rifles or antique black powder guns.\u00a0Switzerland<\/a>\u00a0is relatively permissive on this front and says that the following items, while they must be declared to police after purchase, don\u2019t require a permit to purchase: \u201cmanual repetition rifles for hunting, rabbit slayers, airsoft guns, blank cartridge guns, paintball guns, etc.\u201d<\/h2>\n

    The requirements to get the permit always include training and a test. Most countries also have multiple permit categories. The\u00a0Czech Republic\u2019s system of permit types<\/a>\u00a0is representative:<\/h2>\n

    A \u2013 Firearm collection<\/h2>\n

    B \u2013 Sport shooting<\/h2>\n

    C \u2013 Hunting<\/h2>\n

    D \u2013 Exercise of a profession<\/h2>\n

    E \u2013 Self-defense<\/h2>\n

    Each category requires the applicant to demonstrate that they qualify. Most countries require a sport shooting applicant to belong to a shooting club, a hunter to demonstrate some actual intent to hunt, etc. The specifics vary widely, but the application process is usually extensive, similar to New York City. Permits for the lower categories of weapons are shall-issue, though, so it\u2019s just a matter of being willing to go through the process.<\/h2>\n

    RTWT<\/a><\/h2>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    What\u2019s Gun Ownership like in Europe?   (This newsletter is brought to you by intrusive thoughts during a recent trip to Europe. There\u2019s something about seeing all the cops carrying UMPs and FAMASes.) Culturally, the US carries the fire for the world on gun rights. But most of the world\u2019s gun owners live outside the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[3812,5525,6199,3631,5549,4579],"tags":[6266,7817,13838,17470,470],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75012"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75012"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75012\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75016,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75012\/revisions\/75016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thetacticalhermit.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}