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I've asked this question a few times before and never gotten an answer approaching the thing I was asking about- are there any European gun owners on the motte, and if so, what's your experience dealing with the bureaucracy surrounding it?
Now, to be clear, what I am not asking is 'I live in x European country and here's a summary of the relevant laws from wikipedia, no I don't own guns and don't intend to, and nobody around me does or wants to either, but here's my opinion on these things'. What I'm asking is the experience of dealing with bureaucrats around this issue. Do they take for granted that gun ownership ought to be strongly discouraged and treat you with hostility, as blue states in the US are reputed to? Do they basically assume that if you're applying for a license you have a legitimate reason and are box-checking to make sure you aren't a criminal? Something in between? When I asked this when we were still on reddit I got an interesting comment about the politics of the situation in France, does someone have a commentary about actually going through the process and how government officials treat you? Is fingerprinting done through sympathetic government contractors as Texas CHL licenses use? If you had interview and character reference requirements what was that like? Is the license application processed faster or slower than the normal speed of bureaucracy in your country(Texas approves CHL licenses faster but actually prints them slower compared to most licenses with actual requirements).
I think broadly this? Depending on demographics? The people I know who have guns are upper-class, semi-rural people of the huntin' shootin' and fishin' variety, who are culturally expected to own guns and be responsible with them, and none of them ever complained of any difficulty with bureaucracy.
What country?
UK. I asked in a bit more detail and the matter is broadly evaluated on a spectrum from enthusiast devices (antiques, breech-loading shotguns) on one end to personal security devices (automatic pistols) on the other end:
Getting antique weapons from > 150 years ago requires no application, nothing.
Getting a breech-loading shotgun for pheasant or equivalent - easy if you're the right kind of person (rural farmer, country squire) and have no criminal record. You might be asked for a reference. These guys quite often make their own ammunition and there's no problem with that AFAIK. If you live in the city you may get probing questions about when and how you plan to use this thing.
If it's a rifle you will have to do a lot more work to make the inspectors happy but if you look like a plausible deerstalker you can do it without too much issue. My school had these for training cadets, but we had to count bullets in and out and account for all shells fired.
My friend knows one person who was allowed to have an automatic pistol. He was a banking family scion who could plausibly argue that he was under serious security risk, and he needed vast amounts of paperwork, checks with the local police, regular medical and psych evaluations, and even then he had to lock up both the pistol and the ammo separately and so it was almost useless to him. He just did it for fun.
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I tried, but couldn't make it happen. Getting a hunting license is too expensive, and I don't have enough free time to go the sport shooting route. I still want to, but it's unlikely to happen in the forseeable future.
Interesting, do you have a rough number? I know quite a few German hunters, some I'd clock towards lower middle class.
I tried to get mine a few years ago (2020, just as my world was about to end), and just getting the lessons, examination etc. necessary to acquire the license itself would have cost me around 3000€. Actually owning a gun comes with additional costs, including getting your individual guns licensed and getting a safe that fulfillfs the legal requirements. The least expensive part is actually buying the gun and ammo, though as with everything in Germany it's not actually cheap at all, of course.
I have a few friends who are either hunters or at least gun enthusiasts who got their hunting license in order to be able to own guns. Most of them are also middle class, though generally not lower.
Interesting, is it much easier to get a gun license for hunting than for sport shooting?
tl;dr: Not necessarily easier; it requires a different investment and the license you get works differently. But you can just get both.
Getting a Hunting license requires a course (about 80h worth, either spread over several weekends or done in two weeks) and an examination, in which the examiner has liberty to let you pass or fail as he sees fit. After this you can get several guns, of any type that you can convince your local buerocrat are useful for hunting.
Getting a sport shooter's license requires constant activity in a sports shooting club; you first need to be shooting in a given discipline for some length of time and for a minimum of X hours, then your club head needs to verify that you're a good'un, and then you can apply for a license which allows you to own a very limited number of guns that exactly suit the discipline you compete in.
And in either case, you still need to get an approved safe for storage, and a permit for each individual gun.
And from then on the police is permitted to search your house when they deem fit.
And if you break any law no matter how small, or none at all but your local buerocrat thinks your otherwise unfit to go armed, they can revoke your license.
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Alright, so it's about comparable to motorcycle riding (another popular (lower-)middle class activity), rather than horse riding or private aviation. Thanks!
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Swedish gun owner:
I have never really had to deal with them. I filled in my application online and a few weeks later I got a license in the mail. I have bought four guns from a store and in those cases the staff in the store filled out the forms and I just waited a few min for them to do the paperwork before I signed it.
A lawyer I know got fired from the police where he was processing licenses due to him being a gun lover and asking too many questions. The lawyers who work there not at all knowledgeable about guns and mainly go after what the gun looks like. They are obsessed with guns looking old.
For my handguns I had to get my shooting club to sign my applications. They required me to spend a few weekends working on the range and use their position of power to get applicants to work for free. However, I genuinely like the officials and the gun club. They are a trustworthy, friendly and have excellent taste in hobbies. They would make the best neighbours. A big part of the Swedish sport shooting licensing system is built on the clubs filtering people and only co signing applications for people they want as members. This is an effective way to filter people who seem like trouble but have clean records. On the other hand, nepotism is rampant and there is little equality before the law as our system gives licenses based on personal relationships to gun club chairmen.
When I had more time I used to help train people to meet the gun club requirements for licenses and I helped people get gun licenses. I want more people to get guns.
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