Six years ago, residents of Malta kept 52,224 registered shotguns and 370 machine-guns and sub machine-guns
Six years ago, the then minister of the interior, Carm Mifsud Bonnici, said in parliament, in reply to a question by the Opposition, that there were 90,000 registered weapons in Malta, excluding those owned by the army and the police.
They included 52,224 shotguns, 12,400 pistols, 8,373 air-guns and 370 machine-guns and sub machine-guns.
Many of those licensed to own and keep weapons have several, with some private armouries including hundreds of them.
People in the gun trade say that beyond these registered weapons, the number of unregistered guns in Malta is anybody’s guess.
Automatic firearms are banned in Malta, except for those made before 1946, which may be kept only by licensed collectors and never used.
Many of the registered pistols, revolvers and rifles are used for target shooting sports on licensed ranges by licensed shooters, as are all air-guns.
Anyone over 18 can apply for a shotgun by filling out a form at the dealer or the police headquarters. If the person has a clean police conduct he will be asked to sit for a bird-identification examination, receiving his licence within a month if he passes. He must also belong to a hunting club that provides insurance against a fee.
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http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090305/local/20-guns-for-every-100-people.247420
An odd exception to these rules is when you inherit a gun. You automatically have a licence to keep it.
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.
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.
There you go. If the hunting clubs are responsible to insure their members, then why the “mal-hazin jehel it-tajjeb” rhetoric? Surely if clubs are responsible for insuring their members they are also responsible to weed out the misfits on society’s behalf.
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.
Hunters do not need to be part of any club. Again, hunting licences are totally different from sport shooting licences.
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.
There is no such thing for having a target shooting licence or firearm collector licence, to be a member to a hunting club!
Firearm target shooting and collector clubs are totally different and separate entities to hunting clubs.
Please don’t mislead people with nonsense.
Collector and target shooting licences have nothing to do with hunting licences.
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.