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PaperclipPerfector  20hr ago (text post)   569 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for April 26, 2026

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Any European(or Australian, or Asian, etc) gun owners here? What's your experience of dealing with regulatory authorities- is it hostility, or general bureaucratic culture, or what?

To be clear, I am not asking for non-gun owning Europeans to post a link to wikipedia and explain how their system is superior, which is usually what clogs up such threads. I can read the wikipedia article on gun politics in the EU.

Sweden. Generally fairly relaxed. I got my hunting license in three days through a course and they guy who administered the test was the same guy who gave the course. He pretty much fed us the answers. I have sent in paperwork and gotten a yes on my 6 applications within a few weeks. The rules are wonky but following them strictly usually leads to consistent results. The main complaints are the nonsensical rules. But as long as I stick to them there are no problems.

What kind of guns are you allowed to buy? Just bolt-action hunting rifles or shotguns? Anything semi-auto?

Could you expand on or give an example of one or two of the nonsensical rules? Japan also has a very intransigent bureaucracy regarding such things.

In general, in urban Russia it puts you on the list. Not in the sense of the FSB watching you, but local cops have a list of "people of interest" that they keep, with everyone else a statistic. People like ex-cons, dysfunctional families, known criminals with no case to pin on them, activists of both Karen and political kind, and gun owners. Every time there's something, you can expect them to pay you a visit to check your gun safe.

I assume ‘something’ means ‘any front page news story about your city/neighborhood/whatever’?

Do you know what those inspections are typically like? Is it a ‘ok, show me your safe, let me count the guns, I'm off for donuts’ or is it decidedly more unpleasant? Is a bribe normally involved?

I can read the wikipedia article on gun politics in the EU.

I don't think you can because there is no such thing as "gun politics in the EU" (something people on The Motte very often fail to realize). There's gun politics in country X that happens to be in EU but those are all different between the countries.

But there is an article on ‘gun politics in…’ Germany, France, etc.

Broadly in the UK it’s ‘are you a citizen in good standing?’ plus ‘are you someone with a credible interest in the type of gun you are asking for’ + ‘how controlled is that type of gun’?

So farmers/aristocrats get shotguns to shot pheasant or foxes with no trouble as long as someone vouches for their mental health, but will be asked a lot of questions if they want an anti-material piercing rifle.

The right kind of sportsman can get a rifle.

My father knew somebody who got a concealed handgun, but he was a very rich financier with credible threat of being targeted, those were laxer times, and it came with strings attached.

None of my friends with guns encountered institutional hostility, annd in general you wouldn’t unless you were taking the piss. Guns aren’t really a culture war issue. Something like the Planning Authority is way more hostile

What are the laws on what constitutes a firearm? I've seen that some Scandinavian countries consider the barrel to be the primary serialized part, because it's pressure bearing and harder to manufacture than a receiver.

I know a lot about what goes on there. They tend to heavily regulate ownership but it nonetheless has a higher rate of ownership and is mostly used in recreational activities. It’s because (mostly prior to the migrant invasion), the ethnic homogeneity of Scandinavia has made it a high trust society.

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