They are covered by two separate laws which have nothing to do with each other.

Licence procedures are completely different from those required for collectors and target-shooters.

Only shotguns are permitted for hunting in Malta. The mentioning of any other type of firearm is irrelevant and misleading.

Firearm target shooting and collector clubs are totally different and separate entities to hunting clubs.

Please don’t mislead people with nonsense.

Wrong – a prospective licencee by inheritance will still be evaluated and in terms of Art 24, if the individual is a known drug abuser, has a criminal record or suffers mental illness, the licence will not be issued.

The mentioned clubs can only control sport shooting licences. Hunters only have to deal with the police for their licence.

Also, inheriting non-hunting firearms does not automatically give you the licence – you have a 2-year period in which YOU have to obtain the licence to keep it, otherwise you are forced to get rid of it.

When you want to comment on the legislation of such matters leave it to the people that actually had to study it for obtaining licences and who know what they are talking about.

And please STOP confusing hunting licences with sport-shooting licences. They are two totally different worlds.

Ergo, if one licensed hunter breaks the law, I cannot be blamed for generalizing when stating that all hunters are bad apples, and that there is no such thing as a ‘decent, law-abiding hunter’. But the clubs can’t be bothered, l-aqwa li jigbru l-mizata.

And if a minor child is part heir then you are not allowed to sell the gun to anyone until the child is eighteen. You are obliged to have a licence.

When I said this was crazy, because what if the person inheriting it was mad or unstable, the policeman shrugged and agreed it could be a problem.