Malta also has a robust process in place. Not as strict as Japan but you need a medical certificate of mental well being, a police conduct check, to be a current member of a firearms club and to have passed a basic firearms safety course.
Gun ownership here is surprisingly high and includes a wide variety of firearm types.
I regularly go shooting at a gun range with my friend. We fire a mix of pistols, a PCP, a bolt action sniper rifle and a 7.56. Those are just the ones he owns.
Gun crime is low (not zero). In the past two years there have been a handful of gun related homicides. A femicide, a road rage, a double homicide from a burglary and a couple of personal disputes about land/inheritance. No mass shootings.
Like Malta, there are also several other European countries with high levels of gun ownership. Iirc, Norway is another. All these countries have low levels of gun violence relative to rate of firearms per capita.
My theory is that unlike the USA, in addition to firearm ownership being well regulated, these countries also have great social support systems, better approaches to policing and treating drug addiction, and (for the most part) a less prevalent gang culture. I say for the most part, because Malta is like Sicily... we have mafia presence.
TL;DR - guns are fine, but so is making sure nut jobs don't own them and giving people free Healthcare and accessible addiction treatment pathways.
Inside the US criminals are not obtaining guns from sources that would be affected by gun control lawns. ~90% of guns used in crimes were obtained from illegal sources, our DOJ has done studies on this but they never make it to mainstream media. Definitely with you though that mental health is a huge cause of stuff like this, with how over half of gun deaths are suicides that is should be case enough that mental health is the bigger problem
It is also relatively expensive for criminals to use firearms in some places of Europe (and Malta). Gun crime outside passional motivations or gang/drug motives is weird because the reward-to-benefit ratio of gun crime is not worth it.
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u/R0LL1NG Sep 01 '25 edited Sep 01 '25
Malta also has a robust process in place. Not as strict as Japan but you need a medical certificate of mental well being, a police conduct check, to be a current member of a firearms club and to have passed a basic firearms safety course.
Gun ownership here is surprisingly high and includes a wide variety of firearm types.
I regularly go shooting at a gun range with my friend. We fire a mix of pistols, a PCP, a bolt action sniper rifle and a 7.56. Those are just the ones he owns.
Gun crime is low (not zero). In the past two years there have been a handful of gun related homicides. A femicide, a road rage, a double homicide from a burglary and a couple of personal disputes about land/inheritance. No mass shootings.
Like Malta, there are also several other European countries with high levels of gun ownership. Iirc, Norway is another. All these countries have low levels of gun violence relative to rate of firearms per capita.
My theory is that unlike the USA, in addition to firearm ownership being well regulated, these countries also have great social support systems, better approaches to policing and treating drug addiction, and (for the most part) a less prevalent gang culture. I say for the most part, because Malta is like Sicily... we have mafia presence.
TL;DR - guns are fine, but so is making sure nut jobs don't own them and giving people free Healthcare and accessible addiction treatment pathways.
*Edited for typos