Very strict. Even if you HAVE connections, most of the time you’re gonna get a pistol at best. It’s easier to hire security agencies with AK47s than to get even say a shotgun. Very happy with this.

Netherlands here. You can get a permit for sport shooting or hunting. Guns for self defense are not allowed.

Any violence used to catch a burglary or somebody breaking in has to be a reasonable response. So if they have no weapon and you hit them with a baseball bat you are actually in trouble. This can be very frustrating but there is a point to it. Minimal violence is the name of the game here.

Even the police are trained to talk first and only resort to violence when absolutely necessary. Drawing a weapon as a cop means filling out paperwork and there will be a review to make sure it was the right move.

However, for sport shooting you have to join a shooting club and shoot competition. The first year you can only shoot with air guns.

If you get a gun for sport shooting, you have to have a safe for the weapon, grounded to the wall and the floor. It will be inspected and police can check on you at random times.

Ammo and weapon should be separated at all times, transport can only be done in cases.

You are not allowed to load the gun until you are basically ready to shoot. If you have to shoot five times, you are not allowed to load six shots. You can have a maximum of 5 guns. Assault rifles are not legal I think. There are no competitions with them, so you have no reason to buy them.

The rules are strict. We only had one big “recent” shooting and I think it is at least 10 years ago. I like it.

Of course criminals stil have guns, but for a random guy who lost his job and want to take revenge it is neigh impossible to just buy an AK47 and shoot all his colleagues. Quite a safe feeling actually.

Austria: relativly strict: you have to have a reason (hunting, self defense or sport). depending on the category of weapon a mental assessment could be necessary (not in case of hunting rifles only). automatic weapons, explosives and some other weapons are not legal to own privately. you have to securely store the weapon and need an extra permission for carrying - which is nigh unobtainable, even for active police. Transportation in a locked container and unloaded.

India. Very strict gun laws. This law is enforced in the part of India that I live in. The only gunshots that I’ve heard in my life are from movies and video games. However, I did hold a gun in my hand once hehe. One of my friends’ dads had a gun license for some reason (I think he was a top level policeman or something). It was an unloaded black revolver that he was showing off to us kids lol. I remember being surprised at how much heavier it was than I thought it to be.

HOWEVER, in northern India (especially Uttar Pradesh), illegal guns are a very real thing. The law is very poorly enforced there. So yeah… There’s that.

I’m from Australia, and we have strict gun controls. US gun culture is a complete and utter mystery to me. I have no desire to live like that…

German here, I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen a gun irl, except when used by the police or military. They are just not really a thing here. Nobody I’ve ever met owns one, nobody wants or needs one, nobody even talks about them.

There are legal ways to get a gun, but I never had to care about the details. That’s pretty amazing imo, if you consider how big of a topic and problem they are in the US.

Where I live (Slovakia) you need a license to own firearms. Getting that license is a lengthy and rigid procedure and needs to be repeated every 5 years. Fully automatic rifles are forbidden for civilians. The most commonly owned firearm is a hunting rifle. If you happen to own a firearm, but don’t have a license, you are required to have it stored at a police station, for example when you inherit your grandfather’s hunting rifle. For that you pay a relatively low storage fee, but you still own it.

I think these laws are fine. I don’t own a firearm myself, but I do know one guy who carries a 9mm on him at all times for defensive purposes (his daughter had a very bad experience, after which he decided to carry a gun). I like the fact that a license is always only valid for 5 years.

In Brazil guns are expensive (multiple monthly minimum wage), there are no gun shops easily available and the Policia Federal (kinda like FBI) needs to check your background and approve you before you buy (and they usually don’t).

Last presidential term, Bolsonaro tried to make easier to buy and have guns available, and as result a lot of guns got in the hands of organized crime. Now most of these changes were revoked.

I don’t like guns around, you guys have a huge problem with school shootings and this trend is spreading to Brazil (and we have problems enough already). A peaceful society with guns can be peaceful; a violent society without guns easily available will be violent; but a violent society with guns will be far more deadly.

Vietnam. I’ve never seen someone with a gun that wasn’t army, police, or at an Olympic event. Civilians can only own shotguns, and even then under a lot of restrictions. It’s quite uncommon but I’ve heard of companies with rubber plantations out in the middle of nowhere having one gun on site. I’ve only heard of it being used to kill the odd wild boar that accidentally wanders into the office building.

There are some illegal guns from time to time, but not that many. It’s something I’ve only seen on the news.

The current situation suits me just fine – at our population density, I’m not comfortable with gun ownership being widespread. When you put enough people in a small space, there’s always someone angry nearby, always someone celebrating, being born, dying. With everything happening everywhere all at once, adding guns to the mix would not be great, I think.

Also as one of very few immigrants to Vietnam, I am already seen as a target for thieves. People imagine I must be magically very wealthy or something – I’m not. I came here with nothing and built a company, to progress to maybe middle-class. I live in the slums quietly like a normal person.

I would be OK with the police or army running shooting ranges where you could rent a gun to practice target shooting. Maybe that already exists, for all I know. I haven’t really checked. There are archery ranges though, this is good enough for me :D

On the other hand – more or less all citizens are trained to service an assault rifle. The means disassembly, cleaning, maintenance. My wife was fastest in her university class. We just don’t own guns.

USA here, more depressed about our gun nonsense than before.

I’ve lived in the UK, Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany.

Europe has gun laws which are of varying severity. AFAIK some places it’s relatively easy to buy a gun, some ban handguns (because they’re concealable), some ban larger stuff, some you’ll need to store your gun at the ammo range, some you’re not allowed to have ammo in the home, varying levels of background and mental health checks too. Some places you’d have a hard time finding a gun, visit Budapest and you’ll come across ads for a day out in a tank + shooting stuff with an AK.

The main thing is that self-defense isn’t really a thing and gun culture is often very low key. Outside (perhaps but not always) the police, mainly hunting and shooting at a club. Most people don’t even care enough about guns, to know what the laws are where they live. Eg. plenty of guns in the UK countryside, but most British people don’t know that because they’re not hunters/farmers/clay pigeon shooters, and often assume they’d be harder to get a hold of than they actually are. Netherlands, Belgium and Germany also have plenty of gun shops, but most people are oblivious, because they don’t really care. Might as well be a fishing shop.

IME gun control isn’t really a political issue most places. Unless there’s been a (exceptionally rare) mass shooting, I honestly don’t think most people even have a fully formed opinion on gun control, so they’ll likely just answer they’re happy with the status quo.

Croatia

You can get a hunting licence and buy a gun/rifle/shotgun. It takes a test, and i think you cant have violent crimes. You also need a gun “safe” (basically a shitty locker like in US highschool movies), and the cops can come whenever they want to inspect it (usually regular, i forget if once per yearor 6 months or something).

That said theres still guns from the war. One grampa died and the cops found a bunch of rifles and granades in the attic, and a minefield infront of his house. Everybody knew about it, but knew he was a harmless nut.

New Zealand

• only ever had ONE school shooting in history and it was 100 years ago

• average level of gun ownership by OECD standards

• owning guns requires a firearms licence, licence system administered by Police, who visit your house

• guns not allowed for self defence/use on people

• guns can only be transported to place of use, sale, or repair and must be secured

• restrictions on semiautomatic weapons

• police only use guns if dermed necessary

Norway - Similar to many European countries, owning a gun requires a certifiable reason to do so, which basically means hunting or target shooting. Loads of guns here, as there’s a lot of moose and deer. Obtaining and owning a hunting rifle requires skill tests and a theoretical exam, and you need to be part of a hunting group.

ARs are banned for obvious reasons. The only exception is for people who are army reservists who are (were?) allowed to store their service weapon at home, if they have proper secure storage options available. This may have changed since I was a reservist myself, but those were the rules in 2007 at least.

Pistols are legal for target shooting, but with strict background checks and so forth. Plus you have to be part of a target shooting club. Getting a pistol is generally harder than a rifle, as a means of preventing pistols from ending up on the streets. Gun voilence happens, but it is extremely rare, and mostly tied to gangs and/or organized crime. Except from this asshole in 2011.

Carrying permit for guns is pretty much none existent. To/from hunting or shooting range.

Self defense is not a valid reason for obtaining and carrying a gun. You don’t really need it either. The only exception is Svalbard where is is possible due to polar bears. And even then, you can’t be an idiot about it; a few years ago this dumbass got permanently banned from the Svalbard territory after intentionally provoking a polar bear, then shooting it, claiming self defense.

If you don’t want a debate, just the data, you want:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overview_of_gun_laws_by_nation