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I read quickly France's gun laws, and personal protection is a valid reason to apply for a firearms license. Totally flies in the face of RWNJs here saying that "communist countries" like France don't allow gun ownership. That's pretty much limited to the UK (except Northern Ireland), which is probably the most difficult country to get a gun in Europe
At least in Finland, Sweden and Denmark it's very common to have like 5 guns, partly for legislative reasons, as you can't shoot a bird with the same caliber rifle as you shoot an elk.
So like one rifle for big game, two for small game and two for birds. And maybe a couple in reserve.
Sweden, Finland, Norway, Iceland and Denmark have strong hunting traditions with a quite big percent of the populations being hunters, and therefore higher gun ownership rates than most of Europe. Hunting here is not just a rich man's hobby, its actually quite common and wild game is a common food source.
Not sure about hunting in Germany and France, but I don't think its as common there as in Scandinavia.
What makes Sweden/Germany/France have 30-50% gun ownership, whereas countries like UK/Ireland/Portugal/Poland, hardly has any guns (0-10%)?
To reiterate, the statistic is guns per capita (not percentage of people who own guns). Gun collecting may simply be more popular on the continent. Also defense should be considered. The number of guns in Switzerland is largely explained by the government arming it's population in the event of hostilities.
Many gun enthusiasts own two pistols, a .22, a rifle, and a shotgun.
Switzerland 45.7 #4
Finland 45.3 #5
Cyprus 36.1 #6 Sweden 31.6 #10
Norway 31.3 #11 France 31.2 #12
Austria 30.4 14 Germany 30.3 15
Iceland 30.3 15
Republic of Macedonia 24.1 20
Montenegro 23.1 21
Greece 22.5 23
Northern Ireland 21.9 25
Latvia 19 32
Bosnia and Herzegovina 17.3 34
Belgium 17.2 36
Czech Republic 16.3 38
Luxembourg 15.3 41
Slovenia 13.5 47
Denmark 12 54
Italy 11.9 55
Malta 11.9 55
Spain 10.4 61
Estonia 9.2 65
Russia 8.9 68
Albania 8.6 70 Ireland 8.6 70 Portugal 8.5 72
Slovakia 8.3 73
Moldova 7.1 83
Ukraine 6.6 84
Bulgaria 6.2 88 England and Wales 6.2 88 Scotland 5.5 93
Netherlands 3.9 112 Poland 1.3 142
Romania .7 160
In France it's unusual to have a firearm for domestic defence purposes. They're more common in areas that have seasonal hunting (a license is required) and by those that own them for livestock protection.
Like others have said the image in the OP is pretty non-representative of overall gun ownership. I lived/live in the Rhône-Alpes region and not many own guns but, like others have said, those that do tend to own a couple. Once you have a permit there are still limits on how many and what type of weapons you may own though.
From what I can gather the rate of registered guns per 100 people in France is 4.44 (from http://www.gunpolicy.org/firearms/region/france . There is also the same information on the site covering all European countries and many others).
Those numbers are very exaggerated. According to the interior ministery the gun registry has 1,600,000 guns, and 600,000 people with gun permits. So 30 guns per 100 people.
I can hardly believe that there's 500k illegal guns in this country.
In Sweden there is 615,000 people with gun permits, and almost 2 million guns in the gun registry. About 563,000 of Swedish gun owners are hunters. Sweden has a population of about 9 million. Hunting is the primary reason for owning guns here, to just collect guns as a non-hunting hobby or owning them for just the sake of it, is rare. Its practically impossible to own guns as a way of self defense as the guns has to be properly locked in a gun safe.
Just like Spain, lots of people with shotguns in the countryside just for hunting, they need permits.
Many people have old firearms from past wars, but most don't work...
The Police has a unit charged with spiking old weapons, so you can have your grandpa's gun but spiked. Statistics for Spain are not right, many shotguns are not registered.
You need elaborate permits for handguns, but there's a black market.
Never heard a single shot here except shotguns to hunt boars and partdrige.
What's interesting, is it's quite low in places like Ireland, the UK, The Netherlands, Portugal, and much of former Eastern Europe.
However, there is a strong contrast with Scandinavia, the Germanic countries, and France...all of which have a much more sizeable presense of guns...from 1/3 to 1/2 of their populations seem to have guns.
What makes Sweden/Germany/France have 30-50% gun ownership, whereas countries like UK/Ireland/Portugal/Poland, hardly has any guns (0-10%)?
This article from April 2014 says 1.45 million people owned 5.5 million guns. That's less than 2% of the population.
Last edited by Glucorious; 11-28-2014 at 07:42 AM..
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Why is the source missing...?
