Norway
On 22 July 2011, Anders Behring Breivik bombed the government buildings in Oslo, Norway, which resulted in eight deaths and carried out a mass shooting at a camp on the island of Utoya where he killed 69 people, mostly teenagers.
- There is a total ban on automatic weapons in Norway. Modification of semi-automatic guns into fully automatic without the consent of the police is a felony crime.
- You cannot buy any kind of firearms in Norway prior to obtaining an ownership license.
Finland
On Dec. 31, 2009, a gunman went on a shooting rampage in southern Finland, killing five people at a suburban shopping center before fatally shooting himself.
On November 7, 2007, at Jokela High School in Jokela, a town in the municipality of Tuusula, Finland. 18-year-old student Pekka-Eric Auvinen entered the school armed with a semi-automatic pistol. He killed eight people and wounded one person in the toe before shooting himself in the head. He died later that evening in a Helsinki hospital.
Less than one year after the Jokela school massacre, another school shooting occurred in Kauhajoki, Finland, in 2008 where a gunman shot and killed 10 people before killing himself.
Another incident occurred in 1989 at the Raumanmeri school in Rauma, Finnland, when a 14-year-old fatally shot two fellow students.
- Please note that in Finland firearms can only be obtained with an acquisition license. A separate license is required for each individual firearm. The applicants (for an acquisition license) are also subjected to an extensive background check from police accessible databases and even citations for speeding or drink driving can be grounds of not granting the license.
- Possession of destructive devices such as automatic weapons, Explosive Ordnance, breech loading cannons, artillery or missile systems is generally not permitted.
- Possessing a firearm without a license is a punishable offence in Finland.
England
The Cumbria shootings that occurred on June 2, 2010 was a killing spree when a lone gunman, Derrick Bird, killed 12 people and injured 11 others before killing himself in Cumbria, England.
- Fully automatic or burst-fire weapons, including air guns, are prohibited for civilian use.
- With a few specialized exceptions, all firearms in the United Kingdom must be licensed on either a 5-year firearm certificate or a shotgun certificate from the police. UK is a “shall issue” country.
- The penalty for possession of a prohibited firearm without a certificate in the United Kingdom is a maximum of ten years in prison and an unlimited fine.
- Please note that the crime rate has been skyrocketing in the UK since stricter gun control laws were enacted in 1996-1997.
Slovakia, European Union
On Aug. 30, 2010, seven people were killed and 13 were seriously injured in a shooting incident in the Slovak capital Bratislava. The gunman committed suicide after the shooting.
- Fully automatic guns, silencers and (hollow-point bullet for self-defense purposes) are forbidden.
- You cannot buy a gun in Slovakia w/o prior obtaining a valid license.
Germany
On March 2, 2011, a gunman attacked a bus carrying U.S. soldiers at Germany's Frankfurt airport, killing two people and injuring two others.
- Germany has one of the most strict gun control laws prohibiting both self defense and carrying of any firearm, concealed or unconcealed.
And now my personal favorite - Switzerland
- Switzerland practices universal conscription, which requires that all able-bodied male citizens keep fully automatic firearms at home in case of a call-up.
- Have you ever heard of any serious shootings in Switzerland for the last 10 years?
- In a word, Switzerland, which is awash in guns, has substantially lower murder and robbery rates than England and Germany where most guns are banned.
Let's make a law Sen. Lautenberg, no carrying guns, I'm sure the criminals will obey it...
