Dear friends,

I am trying to put together all the relevant information regarding gun laws, in each European country.
I am mainly interested in knowing about: firearms classification, licensing procedures for each type of weapon, limitations on number of guns, limitations on calibres, import of guns, etc..
Links to actual legislation (if in English, French or Spanish) would be welcomed!

Thanks for your help on this subject.

B.Martins

I already wrote something about Italian gun laws, but if necessary I'll give my pennies again, I only need some time.

In Spain:

http://www.guardiacivil.org/quesomos/organizacion/operaciones/icae/index.jsp

If anyone needs help, please ask!

Julian

Went to your link- You don't speak English in Spain?

yes, i speak english, i am english, but the link is to the website of the Guardia Civil, who are responsible for firearms, explosives,etc in Spain.
Is there something in particlar that i can help you with?

There seems to be a lot of interest lately in European legislation on arms. If you do a search in the European Hunting section and search for Categorie 1 you will get a link to my post on the controlled caliber list for shoulder firearms in France. For a complete list of the all caliber classifications, I believe I still have a soft copy which I could e-mail to you. Please send a PM with your e-mail instructions.

Assuming you speak French, the French police have a web site which purports to give correct information on the subject. My dealings with the police lead me to believe that not many have ever consulted the site.

http://newspolice.free.fr/armes.htm

Wink,

I already have the list of the controlled calibres. I believe I got it from your old post.
I am trying to put together the legislation of the different countries, in order to identify and compare the different ways in which each government approached the issue.

Thank you very much for the link.

B.Martins

Honestly speaking, I think that if I wrote in Italian, maybe the fingers of two hand could be enough to count the people that understand my answers, for this reason I write in English.

Ok, some info about Italy: we have several type of licences here the list:
for sportive guns,
for wingshooting,
for hunting
for collection
for automatic pistol
for revolver
for animated sticks (sticks that contain blades or guns).
The first two have the limitation of the path from home to the shooting range and viceversa, the first one has also a limitation on the number of guns, max 6.
The last three are considered for self defense, but the licence for animated sticks is obsolete, of course; and actually the difference betwwen revolver and AP is pratically cancelled, and is commonly defined short gun licence. It has limitations like the places where guns are forbidden, strict controls and a lot of particulars that make long and difficult the description. One is easy, it is not possible to have a semiauto pistol in 9 Parabellum or 9x19. It is possible to have max 3 pistols.

To have it anyone has to have serious reasons like to be a jeweller, a doctor wha has to go also in notorious and dangerous districts, this was the case of my grandfather and my father, or a people that has to bring money on his person, or something like this. A personal danger situation it is not always enough. the constant attempt is to reduce the number of these licences.

The licence for collection has for limitation the prohibition to shoot the guns registered as in collection, and for the same reason is prohibited to have cardtrige of the caliber of the guns registered as in collection except you have another gun regitered as hunting or common gun.

I have introduced the concept of common and hunting guns, ok what does it mean:
are common all the guns with the bullet caliber is less than .224 AND the case lenght shorter than 39 mm.
Are hunting guns all the other. *
Are forbidden all the guns in 12.7BMG and over, but have been classified as hunting cartridges the 408 CheyTac and .338 Lapua Magnum.

Coming now at the hunting licence, to have it is necessary :
to have a police record absolutely clean!
to sit exam on huntable animals (mainly birds), on laws and rules on hunting, on guns and ammo and balistsics, first aid, hunting techniques and some other arguments;
to be member of a shooting range that certify the skill in gun handling and the knowledge of the safety rules;
to be declared sane and healthy, no drug or alchool addicted, with a medium good eyesight by two docs, one is the family doctor, the other one is a military doctor;
to pay taxes to the regional and to the national government,
to produce all the documents above a someone else to the police command that in some week prepare the licence that have a validity of 6 years. After 6 years, except the exams session on hunting, is necessary to produce again all the documents to renew the licence.

The licence permits to buy with no limits hunting guns see (*), registration is free, to have 1500 hunting cartridges (see *) or powder up to 5 KG, calculated summing a conventional weight of 1,5 grams of powder for any loaded cartridge (20 rounds = 30grams of powder) and the real weigh of the powder in the canisters.
It is possible register also 3 common guns.(see *)

In a next answer, eventually, more details.

quote:

Originally posted by b.martins:
Wink,

I already have the list of the controlled calibres. I believe I got it from your old post.
I am trying to put together the legislation of the different countries, in order to identify and compare the different ways in which each government approached the issue.

Thank you very much for the link.

B.Martins

There is of course a legislative history to the present French legislation; it has evolved over time with a succession of laws that added on to the the previous ones, as in most countries.

At present, for a French citizen or legal resident, to purchase a hunting firearm (categories 5 and 7) and/or ammunition you must either 1) be a member of a gun club or 2) hold a valid (yearly stamp) hunting licence. Once a firearm is purchased there is no obligation to renew your membership or validate your hunting licence, but you won't be able to buy ammunition or hunt. This applies to longarms in legal calibers as well as smoothbores. Black powder legislation is different.

To purchase and own a handgun (categories 1 and 4), or one of the controlled calibers in a longarm, you must be a member of a gun club and you must obtain authorization from the prefecture to buy the firearm. The application isn't a significant burden but it is very bureaucratic and does take several months. It has to be renewed every three years.

There is of course a myriad of additional details about specific firearm types (pump action shotguns are now controlled weapons but authorization is rarely given), semi-automatic rifles and shotguns have magazine capacity limits, semi-automatic rifles cannot have removable magazines, there are minimum firearm overall length and barrel lengths, etc.

Surprisingly (at least when compared to US legislation) some things are less restricted. One example is silencers; there are no restrictions in France and they are sold over the counter with no requirements whatsoever.

a good source is here:

http://www.face-europe.org/fs-hunting.htm

DO not attempt to bring a silencer in Italy, the jail doors are always open, but can close behind you in a second if found with one of them

Hi Julian

Thank you for posting the link for Spain. Just playing the dumb American...as in you mean they don't speak (and legislate) in ENglish in Spain?

I apologize if my attempt at humor rubbed you the wrong way.

Cheers

If enyone has eny links to what laws are valid for UK im very interested to read them