Italian gun laws

[Sergio Natali]

The Administrators/Owners of another gun forum where I'm an old member, have recently asked me to write an article regardings "Gun Laws in Italy".
Although I realize this is not on top of your interests, maybe it could be interesting at least for a comparison with the US Gun Laws.

Unlike in the States the Italian Constitution. issued at the end of WWII, does not recognize any right to the Italian citizens to keep and bear arms. All the rules regarding guns and about who can own them are fairly simple but extremely strict.
Guns are limited to have a maximum of 15 rounds in handguns, and there are also restrictions on the total amount of ammunition which can be owned and how and where guns must be stored, namely in a locked cabinet or in a safe, private ownership of military weapons is forbidden as well as military ammunition.
There are several different kind of Gun Licence, and to obtain one of them an applicant must be at least 18 years old, prove he or she can use a firearm safely and for this a new gun-owner is first compelled to attend a firearms course at a National Shooting Range and get a certificate of completion, then certify that he has an absolutely clean criminal record which is always verified by the Police, and must have a Medical certificate prooving that he is not mentally ill or be a known abuser of alcohol, and drugs.
People in Italy MUST to register their firearms at the local Police station within 72 hours" (preferably IMMEDIATELY) after purchase.
Citizens are only allowed to own up to:
THREE common firearms,
NINE “sportive” guns that have been manufactured for shooting sports (and there is a precise list about them). An unlimited number of hunting guns,
EIGHT “rare” or really antique guns made before 1890.
Single shot muzzle loader replicas, are allowed without any registration.
Airguns under 7,5 Joules of muzzle energy, approved by the Ministry of Interior are also allowed without any registration.
Collection Licence: people that wish to “collect” firearms must have a special “Licence” and are allowed to keep only one of a kind sort of gun, but they cannot be shot nor taken out of your home without a permit, and ammo for those guns is not allowed either. All the guns belonging to a Collection must be kept locked in a safe.
In Italy it is always illegal to carry any type of gun especially in a public place with the few following exceptions:
Hunting license, along with a special “hunting permit” issued by the Region of residence, allows citizens to carry hunting guns but only during the hunting season (about a couple of months in Autumn) and only in the open countryside, away from roads, houses and farms. When transporting those rifles (pistols are not allowed for hunting) must be kept unloaded and locked in their case.
Sportive Licence: allows only to “transport” and NOT to carry on you, one or more guns with their ammo from home to the shooting range, the gun/s must be trasported unloded, locked in their case, and the case carried in a closed bag, so surely not at your easy reach.
Concealed Carry Licence: Allows very few citizens to carry a handgun for personal defense; this license is usually awfully difficult to obtain, must be renewed every year (while hunting and shooting sports licenses are valid for 6 years), and the applicant has to provide a valid reason to carry a concealed gun (e.g. a salesperson of valuable goods such as jewelry, owner of a gunshop ect).
Ammunition: Italian citizens are supposed to register at the local Police station when they buy ammo. In any case are not allowed more than 200 rounds , 1500 cartridges for hunting rifles (only if one has got a hunting rifle), 5 kgs of gun powder for reloading.
As you can see things regarding the use and ownership of firearms are very different from the States.
As stated the Italian citizens are compelled to register all their firearms, as soon as they get them, or imediately after they have sold them.
Accidents with guns happen of course but are very rare, and in most cases are involved guns not registered and used by outlaws.



Kind regards

[John Sabato]

Sergio, Thanks for the information on Italian Gun Laws ... it was very interesting. I am sure that just like in the USA, there are those that ignore the gun laws fully knowing the risks of being caught and punished. I guess some consider that risk greater than the risk of being unarmed.

In January of 1977, I was accompanied by the representative of the Army housing office to meet with a landlord regarding my leasing a condominium during my assignment to Campo Darby near Pisa. When we arrived at the landlord's office, we were greeted by his administrative assistant who told us he would be about five minutes late due to an earlier meeting.

When he arrived, he greeted us and then promptly lifted his sweater vest to reveal that he was carrying a 9mm Beretta Brigadier handgun in his waistband. As I was carrying enough currency to make a security deposit and the first month's rent, you can imagine that I was a little nervous. but I was very relieved when he took the gun and handed it to his assistance and she promptly put the gun in his desk drawer.

Naturally my curiosity got the best of me, and as the only Italian language that I knew was how to say hello, goodbye, and count money (skills taught to me by my grandfather as a small child), I asked the housing office representative to inquire why he carried the gun. His response was that he owned more than a dozen large condominium buildings, and he feared being kidnapped. Kidnapping in Italy seemed to be either a career choice, or at least controlled by organized crime (remember...there is no Mafia )... It was rampant and it seemed like there was a news story every week about someone who had been kidnapped. In fact, U.S. Army General Dozier, Commandere of the NATO Southern European Task Force (SETAF) was kidnapped by the terrorist group Red Brigades, from his apartment during my time there. He was recovered alive by Italian Special Forces... He was very lucky to be alive.

The landlord also told us that he was personal friend of the commandant of the local Carabinieri office, as if that made it okay.

I did rent that condominium, and lived there for four and half years, and visited the landlord's office every month to pay my rent, but never saw him again. He must have been a very busy man.

[flydive]

Sergio, what could be of interest to all here is Italian law take on war ammunition, should they travel there.

If nothing changed lately.

9mm Para(Luger) is considered war ammunition and is forbidden to have. Even an empty shell is considered ammunition and could land you in trouble should you have it on you/your bag.

I once had a lengthy discussion at a police check at Rome airport and almost ended up in trouble because I had a 357 magnum keyring! Luckily at the end a superior officer introduced a bit of common sense and I was on my way(with the keyring).

Luckily the guns laws are a lot more open here(Switzerland)

[Edward Tinker]

actually I find it interesting - sad sometimes, but interesting

Ed

[Sergio Natali]

Originally Posted by John Sabato

Sergio, Thanks for the information on Italian Gun Laws ... it was very interesting. I am sure that just like in the USA, there are those that ignore the gun laws fully knowing the risks of being caught and punished. I guess some consider that risk greater than the risk of being unarmed.

In January of 1977, I was accompanied by the representative of the Army housing office to meet with a landlord regarding my leasing a condominium during my assignment to Campo Darby near Pisa. When we arrived at the landlord's office, we were greeted by his administrative assistant who told us he would be about five minutes late due to an earlier meeting.

When he arrived, he greeted us and then promptly lifted his sweater vest to reveal that he was carrying a 9mm Beretta Brigadier handgun in his waistband. As I was carrying enough currency to make a security deposit and the first month's rent, you can imagine that I was a little nervous. but I was very relieved when he took the gun and handed it to his assistance and she promptly put the gun in his desk drawer.

Naturally my curiosity got the best of me, and as the only Italian language that I knew was how to say hello, goodbye, and count money (skills taught to me by my grandfather as a small child), I asked the housing office representative to inquire why he carried the gun. His response was that he owned more than a dozen large condominium buildings, and he feared being kidnapped. Kidnapping in Italy seemed to be either a career choice, or at least controlled by organized crime (remember...there is no Mafia )... It was rampant and it seemed like there was a news story every week about someone who had been kidnapped. In fact, U.S. Army General Dozier, Commandere of the NATO Southern European Task Force (SETAF) was kidnapped by the terrorist group Red Brigades, from his apartment during my time there. He was recovered alive by Italian Special Forces... He was very lucky to be alive.

The landlord also told us that he was personal friend of the commandant of the local Carabinieri office, as if that made it okay.

I did rent that condominium, and lived there for four and half years, and visited the landlord's office every month to pay my rent, but never saw him again. He must have been a very busy man.

John

Here the law about guns is simple but strict.
I'm a very good friend of the old commandant of my local CARABINIERI station office, as well as of the present one, I've got many friends among the State Police, still, I'm sure all this friends would be of no importance should I infringe the Law, and in all honesty I'm glad it's like this, because rules must always be followed to the letter and rightly so.
I remember very well about Gen. DOZIER kidnapping, in fact in the Seventies we had big problems with extremists: Communist and Neo-Fascist, I remember that the so called Red Brigades gave a pretty hard time to the Police Forces, but sometimes not all evil comes to harm or as they say "Every cloud has a silver lining" , in fact if so far we seem to have (touch wood) a pretty good "Intelligence" against terrorism it's also because of those years.

Kind regards.

[Sergio Natali]

Originally Posted by flydive

Sergio, what could be of interest to all here is Italian law take on war ammunition, should they travel there.

If nothing changed lately.

9mm Para(Luger) is considered war ammunition and is forbidden to have. Even an empty shell is considered ammunition and could land you in trouble should you have it on you/your bag.

I once had a lengthy discussion at a police check at Rome airport and almost ended up in trouble because I had a 357 magnum keyring! Luckily at the end a superior officer introduced a bit of common sense and I was on my way(with the keyring).

Luckily the guns laws are a lot more open here(Switzerland)

Gabriele

Luckily for you gun laws are more open in Switzerland it's true, still that's the way the cookie crumble here, 9mm Luger is still considered "war ammo" (absolutely crazy).
Normally an empty case is not considered ammunition, but I know that exist key rings in the shape of a full ammo, as well as lighters in the shape of hand-grenades, that probably is not a good idea to carry on you, especially on a plane, or through a metal detector device of an airport.

[conehammer]

I was curious about that specific reference to military or 'war' ammunition. I thought I read
that France had or still does have a similar restriction. In Italy is it a blanket restriction on all military calibers past and present or only for current military calibers? And does anyone know the basis for that restriction? Is it a result of the second world war? I remember reading newspaper articles in the 1970s describing how much wartime munitions and weapons was still being uncovered and confiscated each year; it was truly remarkable how much there was that long after the war.

Jerry

[Sergio Natali]

Jerry

Military calibers (or War calibers) refers to calibes of the present, as for instance the 8x57 JS that I used several years ago on my K98Ks is considered legal, and I know that is used for hunting wild boars. You can't go wrong as simly you can't buy the so called "war calibers" anywhere.
I don't think that many old (WWII) firearms are being found anymore, the only things that from time to time are WWII unexploded airplain bombs, that are being found sometimes when they dig somewhere for new buildings or new bridges.

Kind regards.

[Eugen]

Sergio, your summary of Italian gun ownership and laws was very interesting. Those of us in the USA feel we have overly restrictive gun laws, until we hear about the laws in other nations. Thanks for sharing.

[Sergio Natali]

Eugen

In all honesty I still consider myself lucky as gun laws here are strict but fairly simple, while more or less all over Europe, apart from Switzerland, gun laws are generally stricter.

Kind regards.

[ChannelIsles]

I hope this remain on topic for the thread.

Living in Jersey within the Channel Islands, we can possess most firearms with the exception of full auto. This moderate approach enables me to acquire those firearms left behind by the German occupying forces.

A brief overview of the differing approach taken within the UK, Ireland & others is here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/guns/commen...ble_in_the_uk/