OSD 275: What’s gun ownership like in Europe?

Let’s be international vibes dealers.

May 28, 2024

(This newsletter is brought to you by intrusive thoughts during a recent trip to Europe. There’s 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’s gun owners live outside the US. What’s that like?

The answer is surprisingly mixed. Residents of gun-friendly American states have more gun rights than Europeans (with some exceptions — such as the fact that there’s a process to acquire full auto rifles in Switzerland and the Czech Republic). But if you’re a resident of a state with an assault weapons ban, in some ways you’d have more gun access in, say, France.

We can break down European gun laws by category. Let’s take them one at a time.

Permit to purchase

Every country in Europe has two things in common here:

They create a classification system that groups weapons into categories from least restricted to most restricted.
They require a permit to purchase anything that qualifies as a gun.

Re #2, items that don’t require a permit to purchase vary by country but are typically things like air rifles or antique black powder guns. Switzerland is relatively permissive on this front and says that the following items, while they must be declared to police after purchase, don’t require a permit to purchase: “manual repetition rifles for hunting, rabbit slayers, airsoft guns, blank cartridge guns, paintball guns, etc.”

The requirements to get the permit always include training and a test. Most countries also have multiple permit categories. The Czech Republic’s system of permit types is representative:

A – Firearm collection
B – Sport shooting
C – Hunting
D – Exercise of a profession
E – Self-defense

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’s just a matter of being willing to go through the process.

Here’s a map of guns per capita in Europe:

r/MapPorn - Gun ownership in the Europe.

The data is a bit old (e.g. Ukraine is probably much higher now), and it’s also just number of guns divided by number of people. So it will be higher than “what percentage of people own guns?”, since some people own multiple guns. But we can treat it as an upper bound estimate of gun ownership rates.

Carry

This one’s pretty simple: you can’t carry outside of a handful of countries. From Wikipedia:

The colors are:

Dark blue: shall-issue
Light blue: may-issue, but with varying strictness based on local police (similar to California and New York)
Yellow: may-issue but restrictive
Orange: may-issue but in practice no-issue
Red: no-issue

Ukraine is dark blue in the map, but that’s only in the context of the current Russian invasion. Before that they would have been orange.

Carry conditions are more nuanced than in the US. The four “real” shall-issue countries in Europe are the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. A Lithuanian redditor explained the rules like this:

I ccw a G19 with FMJ rounds in an appendix IWB holster. Expansive ammo (and they have a very extensive list of what counts as "expansive" including dum-dums, wadcutters, JHP, frangibles, etc.) is not allowed for ccw in Lithuania. Semiauto pistols also cannot be carried while chambered (empty-chamber carry is required; however, revolvers can have rounds in all chambers).

Gun type bans

There are more rules in this category than in the US, but for the most part the rules are more straightforward. France’s categorization of guns is representative:

Category A
Category A1: Firearms disguised as another object, firearms with fully automatic fire capacities, firearms of a caliber greater than 20mm, handgun magazines with a capacity greater than 20 rounds, and rifle or shotgun magazines with a capacity greater than 31 rounds. There is an exception for magazines owned by IPSC (TSV in French) shooters with a certificate from the shooting range where they are registered.
Category A2: Military materiel, materiel for transportation, or weapons used for combat.
Category A11: Semi-automatic rifles shorter than 60 cm with the stock detached or folded.
Category A12: Rifles converted from automatic to semi-automatic.
Category B
Category B1: Handguns with a capacity of 20 rounds or fewer.
Category B2: Manually operated long guns with a capacity between 11 and 31 rounds, semi-automatic long guns with a capacity between 3 and 31 rounds and smooth bore pump-action shotguns.
Category B4: Any firearm chambered in the following calibers: 7.62×39mm; 5.56×45mm NATO; 5.45×39mm; .50 BMG; 14.5×114mm.
Category B5: Any registered parts of a Category B firearm.
Category B6, B7, B8: Specific weapons for riots and crowd control.
Category C
Generally-accepted hunting weapons in France: manual operation long guns with a capacity of 11 rounds or fewer, and semi-automatic long guns with a capacity of 3 rounds or fewer. Pump-action rifled shotguns with a capacity of 5 rounds or fewer are within Category C, as long as they have fixed stocks, a fixed capacity of 4+1 or less, a barrel length 60 cm or greater and an overall length over 80 cm. Manually-operated rifles in any caliber must have a barrel length of 45 cm or greater to be a Category C weapon. All shotguns must have a barrel length of 60 cm or greater, have fixed stocks, fixed magazines of 2+1 and an overall length greater than 80 cm to be allowed for hunting.[3]
Category D
Pepper spray, air guns, non-convertible guns designed to fire blanks, gas, or signal ammunition, stun batons, black powder guns (non-metallic cartridge), deactivated guns, guns with a patent older than January 1st, 1900, and weapons that fire projectiles in a non-pyrotechnic manner with a muzzle energy between 2 and 20 joules (e.g. airsoft guns, paintball guns, etc.). Exceptions include all metallic, smokeless-powder firearms made before 1900.

As in all countries in Europe, different rules attach to the different classes. In France the rules are again representative (from Wikipedia):

Category A11 and A12 firearms are unavailable for purchase since August 1st, 2018, whereas beforehand they held the same requirements as Category B. As of November 1st, 2022, all weapons classed as Category A11 and A12 are being seized or destroyed by the French government without compensation to the owners.
Category B requires the owner to be older than 18, be affiliated with a shooting range for at least 12 months, have attended at least 3 shooting sessions with an instructor within a span of 3 months, and have a medical certificate. Proof of the purchase of a safe is mandatory. The shooter will then receive authorization for 6 months to purchase Category B firearms (and therefore Category C firearms since they are affiliated with a shooting range). The category B authorization is valid for 5 years and must be renewed. Only a maximum of 12 Category B firearms, 10 magazines for a given weapon, and 1000 rounds per weapon can be obtained per person. If the firearms owner fails to renew their hunting or shooting sport license, they will then have 6 months to get rid of all their Category B firearms and ammunition.
Category C requires the owner to be older than 18 and have a valid hunting, shooting, or clay pigeon license.
Category D requires the owner to be older than 18.

There are some deviations from this European norm, in both directions. In Switzerland and, judging by reddit comments, a few other countries, residents can still acquire new full-auto rifles. They all require may-issue permits, and there are restrictions on when/how/if the gun can be fired, but it can be done. Unlike in the US where it’s not possible for a non-FFL.

In the other direction, some countries are extra restrictive. In 1997, the UK banned and confiscated all handguns, which it defines as guns with a barrel length under 12 inches or overall length under 24 inches. You can still own handguns in the UK if you put on a >12-inch barrel and then put a rod on the back to bring the overall length over 24 inches.

Ammunition

Most countries in Europe treat ammunition similarly to guns themselves. It’s the norm that ammo purchases require a gun permit, and often you can only buy ammo if you own a gun chambered for it. Restrictions on the total amount of ammo you can buy are common, although far from universal. Here are Italy’s rules:

Each licensed individual can keep up to 200 rounds of handgun or rifle cartridges and 1500 rounds of shotgun shells. Competition shooters can request a special license that allows them to keep up to 1500 cartridges and carry up to 600 rounds. Every cartridge purchase that is not a replenishment (reintegro) of a previously owned and registered quantity must be registered within 72 hours, while shotgun shells require registration only over 1000 rounds. The replenishment occurs when, after depleting a certain amount of ammunition, the subsequent purchased or reloaded amount is smaller or equal to the initial quantity. In these cases they don't need to be registered again.
…
5.56×45mm NATO is forbidden but .223 Rem is permitted; 7.62×51mm NATO is forbidden but .308 Win is permitted.

That last provision comes from a ban on possession of “military” calibers. France has a similar ban.

This reddit thread has lots of country-specific details.

Magazines

An EU law bans handgun magazines over 20 rounds and rifle magazines over 10 rounds, so on paper that’s the law across the continent. In reality it’s more nuanced, because the law allows countries to grant exemptions, and some countries are more permissive than others. Basically in most European countries you can get standard-capacity magazines if you qualify as a sport shooter or get some other exemption (e.g. collector). It’s doable in most countries but does take some paperwork. Here’s a summary of how it works in a subset of countries.

Silencers

Laws here vary most widely of all. They range from completely unrestricted where you can buy a silencer over the counter (Norway) to completely banned (Italy and Spain). In most of Europe, silencers are available pretty freely, but only for use with a gun for which you have a permit. So the gun permit is harder to get than in the US, but the incremental paperwork to then get a silencer is much lighter than a Form 4.

Conclusion

Europe — more gun-friendly than people think! Buying a handgun in most European countries is roughly the same difficulty as buying one in New York. Buying a modern semi-auto rifle in most European countries is easier than in most American AWB states (although buying a ban-compliant design in an AWB state is easier than the European process to get the “real” gun).

But gun culture in, say, California and New York is stronger than gun culture in, say, France. Why is that? This stuff is about more than just laws and ownership rates. It’s also about the stories we tell ourselves about who we are. Even people who don’t believe in gun rights would readily acknowledge that the idea of gun rights is central to America’s self-image. Most countries in Europe (with the notable exceptions of Switzerland and the Czech Republic) don’t have that self-image. So they might have room in the laws, but they don’t have the vibe. And without the right vibe, it’s hard for a culture to thrive.

This is where American gun owners can help our pals in other countries. The internet allows for the creation of extranational cultures. Gun culture doesn’t have to be about which country you’re in.

Let’s be international vibes dealers.

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