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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   2074 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for September 7, 2025

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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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 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.

Getting a hunting license is too expensive

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.

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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