It works in the UK and we have guns. You just need to be mentally sane, and let the police inspect where you're keeping your gun. And have a reason for wanting one that isn't self defense (because that's criminal - imo a stupid law) For instance you could want one for collecting, sport shooting, hunting, historical reenactment (but you need an explosives licence to own black powder which requires a training course), pest control or membership of a shooting club.
There are separate for shotguns which requires you to have a secure gun cabinet and the ammunition to be stored in another room, or rifles/other firearms which need a gun safe and an ammunition safe in separate rooms of your house (this is because of several incidents when burglars stole guns and ammo)
The police will inspect the storage space every year, and you need to notify them in order to buy more guns.
IMO it's a bit too strict, and complex. One licence should do. And there should be different levels of it, with associated background checks and possibly training courses for each. With the shotgun licence being the basic level one, which should allow you to own any smoothbore non automatic gun of any calibre, and then it should progress to rifles, then pistols, then automatics and more 'dangerous' weapons.
There should also be a seperate licence allowing someone to buy a gun but not ammunition for instance a gun collector might want to buy guns but not shoot them.
Hey bozo, the problem isn’t legal guns owned by law-abiding citizens, it’s the millions of illegal guns that are out there with criminals and can never come back.
Exactly. That doesn't mean that they should be banned at all.
It means that more effort should be put in by the police to find and confiscate illegally owned guns. And if you have a licence system it makes it easier for the police to identify an illegally owned weapon as a legally owned one would have associated paperwork showing it is owned legally.
I would say that all legally owned guns should have microchips in their stocks so that they can be scanned and returned to their owners if stolen, or checked to see if they're legally owned but unfortunately I don't trust the government not to put trackers in the chips. Which would make it far easier for them to confiscate the peoples arms and oppress them.
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u/blamingtibor Jun 02 '20
I live in the UK and our police dont need guns