Other countries with gun laws similar to the US?

[BigBlock]

I read so much about the mostly ridiculous gun laws in what seems like most foreign countries. I'm just curious, what, if any, other countries have similar gun laws to the US?

 

[General Geoff]

None that I know of, at least on paper.

 

[ServiceSoon]

It isn't too bad in Norway. AFAIK the USA is the best refuge of gun ownership.

 

[Zoogster]

There is however many third world nations where it is a given that many members of the population are well armed and while illegal there is generaly no enforcement.
Obviously such places are ripe for corruption and having laws people are not expected to normaly obey allows police/government to hold an axe over everyone's freedom to be used at thier discretion.

Many such locations in the world do not actualy have reasonable laws they expect everyone to follow. It is selective enforcement and the reach of the locals and government is minimal.
So what is legal on paper often times conflicts with what is allowed in society.
Yet other places enforce them harshly. It depends.

For example in some nations that do not allow easy legaly sanctioned ownership, what is actualy allowed and excercised exceeds what is legal in the US.

In the US we actualy try to make the laws reflect what we want to be legal. Many places outlaw everything under the sun, but allow people to freely do many of those outlawed things. That gives discretion to the rulers and agents of government to arrest anyone at any time as most do and are expected to break the law on a daily basis.
To understand what is allowed and what is not allowed you have to actualy visit or live in such a place. Reading the law online would not suffice.
Some "crimes" the government turns a blind eye to, contrasted with crimes they do enforce that someone just gets away with. To know the difference you must know the local culture and society.

For example jaywalking in the US is often not enforced, yet many people do it even in front of LEOs, on camera, and well documented with little concern over getting into trouble unless they cause a problem with traffic. It may have a minor punishment, but many places laws with more extreme punishments are treated similar.

In CA some counties give out medical marijauna, and some localized law enforcement can have a policy to not enforce federal law which makes it illegal. I think some even passed propositions to that effect.
However federal agents do enforce it. Local leo can also dislike someone or a situation and tip feds off, creating discretionary enforcement.
So it is illegal, yet usualy unenforced.
Reading statutes would be really confusing to a foriegner trying to understand if it is legal or not. Not legal, yet it is
However if just reading the law, other drugs have the same illegal status yet would be heavily enforced by all. So an outsider would see no legal difference between the two casualy reading common statutes. Yet in practice there is a big difference.

There is many similar situations involving firearms around the world. What is allowed differs from what is legal. Some places have firearms outlawed yet have big swap meet/flea market areas in the center of town selling firearms to anyone in a way that would put our gun shows to shame. Where you could purchase tons of military hardware in broad daylight no differently than fruit at another stand.

Any such place is not a free society as the discretion involved in punishing people for what is considered acceptable removes freedom in law. Any nation that practices discretionary enforcement allows many civil rights abuses because the law does not reflect the society's moral code. Rather than laws on permitted activities being reduced or eliminated, and important enforced laws being strictly enforced, you have this grey area of limbo where the government does what it wants at it's discretion without recourse.

For that reason the US is usualy a more free society legaly when it comes to firearms even if not in practice.

 

[Str8Shooter]

I've always thought it rather ironic that, while you as a U.S. citizen can go to jail for transporting a single cartridge into Mexico, gangs of submachinegun-toting criminals seem to roam the countryside with impunity.

 

[Prince Yamato]

France is pretty good. In theory, so is Mexico, however their system their is rather corrupt. Canada used to be pretty sweet, then the Liberals ruined it.

 

[cbsbyte]

None that I can think of that are permissive as the USA. Even in countries that once where permissive such as Switzerland are now tightening there gun laws due to international pressure. Overall the best countries outside the US to own a firearm, are in no particular order: Finland, Sweden, Norway, South Africa, Switzerland, Lithuania, Estonia, Austria, Czech Republic, Brazil, and Philippines. People like to say Israel is a great gun nation but I will tell you why it is not on my list. First owning a firearm there is linked to the defense of the country so active duty military, police and reserves personnel are given the privilege to own a restricted number of personal firearms. Usually the restriction is one handgun and a couple of long arms. Now giving the military and police the RKBA excludes women, who are able to get out of military duty or Christians who do not have to serve in the military. Since Israel is a socialist country Government actively issues state owned firearms at the request of a citizen who otherwise can not own one, if they live or work in a dangerous area. For example a bus driver, tour guide, school teacher or person who carries large sums of money might be issued one handgun for defense. Otherwise gun ownership is severely restricted in Israel.


BTW gun laws in Mexico are some of the strictest in the world. Read and weep.
http://www.davekopel.com/Espanol/Mexican-Gun-Laws.htm