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Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy PDF

243 Pages·2013·1.54 MB·English
by  LevushRuth
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FIREARMS-CONTROL LEGISLATION AND POLICY Australia • Brazil • Canada • China • Egypt • Germany • Great Britain • Israel • Japan • Lebanon • Mexico • New Zealand • Norway • Russia • Singapore • South Africa • Spain • Switzerland • European Union February 2013 Contents Comparative Summary....................................................................................................................1 Australia.........................................................................................................................................16 Brazil..............................................................................................................................................37 Canada............................................................................................................................................52 China..............................................................................................................................................61 Egypt..............................................................................................................................................72 Germany.........................................................................................................................................80 Great Britain...................................................................................................................................89 Israel.............................................................................................................................................108 Japan............................................................................................................................................116 Lebanon........................................................................................................................................131 Mexico.........................................................................................................................................138 New Zealand................................................................................................................................148 Norway.........................................................................................................................................168 Russia ..........................................................................................................................................181 Singapore.....................................................................................................................................190 South Africa.................................................................................................................................196 Spain............................................................................................................................................213 Switzerland..................................................................................................................................221 European Union...........................................................................................................................228 Bibliography................................................................................................................................238 COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS FIREARMS-CONTROL LEGISLATION AND POLICY I. Introduction This survey describes the different legal approaches taken by eighteen countries and the European Union (EU) with regard to ownership, possession, and other activities involving firearms.* The individual reports cover laws, regulations, and directives, in addition to statistical and other relevant information on gun control. The reports also address the availability or lack thereof of a constitutional right to bear arms under foreign law; the scope of firearms-related activities that are subject to licensing; conditions for the issuance of licenses, including background checks of the applicant’s mental and criminal history; training, testing, and storage requirements; weapons bans; and registration procedures, including the use of a central register in some of the countries surveyed. Many reports describe legislative history and trends, which in some cases were influenced by rising crime levels or incidents of mass shootings. A bibliography of selected recent English language materials is included. II. Mass Shootings in Foreign Countries Incidents of mass shooting in schools and other public venues by so-called “lone wolves” are not unique to the United States. Shortly prior to the completion of this report, on January 3, 2013, a thirty-four-year-old militiaman in Daillon, Switzerland went on a shooting spree, killing three women and wounding two men with his militia weapon. In 1987 in Hungerford, England, a gunman equipped with two lawfully owned semiautomatic rifles shot and killed sixteen people and wounded fourteen more before killing himself. In 2010 in Cumbria, northwest England, a gunman killed twelve people and wounded twenty-five using firearms he lawfully possessed. Port Arthur, Australia, was the scene of a mass shooting in 1996, when a twenty-eight- year-old gunman armed with a semiautomatic rifle shot and killed thirty-five people and wounded eighteen others. That same year a gunman armed with two lawfully held rifles and four handguns walked into an elementary school in Dunblane, Scotland, and shot and killed sixteen four- to five-year-old children and their teacher before killing himself. *The countries surveyed include Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, Egypt, Germany, Great Britain, Israel, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, New Zealand, Norway, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, and Switzerland. These countries and the EU were selected based on interest in their firearms-control laws and the way these laws are implemented, the desire to cover a wide selection of continents and cultures, and the current availability of staff expertise at the Law Library of Congress. The Law Library of Congress 1 Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy In Germany, teenage shooters armed with semiautomatic pistols or a sawed-off percussion rifle shot schoolchildren and teachers on three different occasions in 2002, 2006, and in 2009, all ending with multiple deaths and casualties. Norway similarly witnessed a gruesome mass killing in 2011 by a man who had first bombed the government district of Oslo and then, using weapons he had lawfully acquired for hunting, shot and killed seventy-seven and wounded 242 mostly young people at a youth camp. Incidents of mass killings are not unknown to Russians, who experienced terrorist attacks on a hospital, theater, and school in 2002 and 2004, as well as a number of more recent mass shootings in public places committed by criminals or mentally unstable people. Mass shootings in China, where the private possession of firearms is generally banned, are rare, and the Chinese media correlates the country’s strict firearms-control laws to the generally fewer crimes committed with guns and explosives in China as compared with other countries. This report explores the different legal approaches taken by the surveyed countries regarding licensing of firearms, including requirements for proper training, safe storage, criminal and mental-health background checks, mental health, and enforcement. III. Constitutional Right to Bear Arms Among the countries surveyed only Mexico was found to have an express provision in its Constitution that recognizes the right of inhabitants to bear arms. This right extends to possession of arms at one’s home for security and legitimate defense, with the exception of weapons that are prohibited by federal law and those reserved for the exclusive use of the Army, Navy, Air Force, and National Guard. The Mexican Constitution expressly provides that the conditions under which inhabitants may be authorized to bear arms are to be determined by federal law. IV. Possession of Firearms by Military Personnel Compulsory military service, which exists in several of the countries surveyed, often gives rise to special laws governing conscripts’ use and possession of military weapons and ammunition. Israel and Switzerland illustrate two varied approaches to this issue. Conscription begins at age eighteen in Israel and nineteen in Switzerland, and generally ends at age forty-five in Israel and between the ages of thirty-four and fifty in Switzerland, depending on the military or militia rank of conscripts in these countries. In Switzerland militiamen are issued personal equipment, including a personal weapon and ammunition, that they are authorized to keep in their homes even after retirement. Israel maintains a much more restrictive policy on soldiers taking military firearms on home leave and reserve service. As a general rule, Israeli soldiers do not take their guns on home leave. Exceptions to this rule apply to soldiers who serve in combat units; serve in the West Bank or other specified The Law Library of Congress 2 Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy areas; or obtain special authorization from high-ranking military officers, because of their officer rank or for reasons of personal safety associated with their home or service location. Other countries surveyed similarly do not generally permit military personnel to take firearms out of their assigned duty area. In Russia, for example, military weapons are not legally permitted to leave the military compound. Military personnel cannot take weapons outside of their unit’s location unless they are on a special, duty-related assignment. Others who have service weapons, including police officers, investigators, and some judges, however, may have their service firearms with them when not on duty. V. Civilian Activities Requiring Licensing All of the countries surveyed require licensing for various activities involving firearms and ammunition. Such activities may include selling firearms and ammunition by or through licensed dealers, as well as acquiring, possessing, owning, using, carrying, handling, trading, repairing, manufacturing, distributing, transporting, importing and exporting, training, storing, collecting, and disposing of such firearms and ammunition. The following table lists general requirements for civilian licenses in the countries surveyed, including age limits, reasons for which firearms are allowed, the role of an applicant’s criminal record and health status, mandated training or testing, and other miscellaneous requirements: The Law Library of Congress 3 Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy Table 1: General Requirements for Civilian Licenses Country Minimum Age Recognized Criminal History Health Training/Testing Other Reasons Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements Australia 18 “Genuine reason” “Fit and proper Mental/physical Safety course. 28-day waiting period; (e.g., sports, person” test; no fitness. storage requirements recreational convictions for and inspections. shooting/hunting, violent offenses in collecting, or past 5 years. occupational requirements). Ammunition only provided to license-holders. Self-defense excluded. Brazil 25 Actual need for Submission of Evidence of Evidence of Evidence of lawful acquiring firearm; records indicating psychological technical ability. occupancy and place of ammunition must no prior criminal ability. residence. correspond to activities, police caliber of investigation, or registered gun and criminal quantity prosecution. requirements. Canada 18 generally. For restricted Criminal and Mental-health Safety tests Transport, storage, and firearms or domestic-violence background check, depending on type display requirements. 12–17 for prohibited background including of weapon. minor’s license handguns, must checks. addiction. (limited to non- show need for use restricted rifle in connection with or shotgun, and lawful profession The Law Library of Congress 4 Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy Country Minimum Age Recognized Criminal History Health Training/Testing Other Reasons Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements licensed adult or occupation; no must be such requirements responsible for for ordinary firearm). shotguns and rifles, such as those used for hunting. China No age Firearms for Not specified by Not specified by Special training in Safe storage. specified by civilian use national law; national law; safe storage of national law; permitted for Dalian Rule Dalian Rule firearms. local rules may specified “work requires having no requires having no apply (e.g., 18 units” in areas of criminal record history of mental according to a sports; hunting; and no record of illness. firearms-control and wildlife having been rule issued by protection, “reeducated Dalian City, breeding, and through labor.” Shenyang research. Province, hereafter the Individual hunters Dalian Rule). and herdsmen may possess hunting rifles. Egypt 21 [no information Licensing No mental or available] prohibited for psychological persons convicted, impairment; must sentenced, or on be physically parole. capable of owning and using firearms. The Law Library of Congress 5 Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy Country Minimum Age Recognized Criminal History Health Training/Testing Other Reasons Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements Germany 18 generally. Licenses issued to No criminal No substance Knowledge of Five years’ residency; hunters, record, addiction, mental weapons liability insurance 14–18 for marksmen, membership in illness, or technology and coverage of up to 1 supervised shooting- criminal or feeblemindedness. law; expertise in million Euros. training or association terrorist use of firearms. employment. members, organization, or Psychiatric Specified storage endangered justified suspicion evaluation if under requirements, 21 for persons, of potential 25. depending on potency marksmen, collectors, experts, violation. of weapon. subject to producers and exceptions. dealers, and private security firms. Great 18 “Good reason” to No sentence of References Conditionsmay Britain possess requested more than three regarding mental include specification firearm (e.g. years’ state, home life, of storage cabinets that profession, sport imprisonment or and attitude meet British safety or recreation, or preventive toward guns; standards. shooting vermin). detention; those medical release receiving form; access to Self-defense not a sentences of three firearms by unfit good reason. months to three family members or years cannot associates may possess firearms or disqualify ammunition for a applicant. period of five years after date of release. The Law Library of Congress 6 Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy Country Minimum Age Recognized Criminal History Health Training/Testing Other Reasons Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements Israel 21 for citizens Proof of need Conviction for Mental health care Certified Proof of permanent who served in based on place of violent offense providers report to appropriate residency and Israel Defense residence or (including Ministry of Health training for each uninterrupted stay for Force (IDF). employment, domestic violence) those patients licensed firearm at period of at least three occupation, or may result in capable of licensed shooting years, basic knowledge 27 for other service in elite license endangering ranges. of the Hebrew citizens. IDF reserve units. cancellation/ themselves or language, safe storage. ineligibility for others; report may 45 for period defined by be forwarded to permanent court. permitting residents with 3 authorities. years of uninterrupted stay. Japan 18 generally. “Specific need” Passage of 5 years No mental illness Classes on firearms Fixed abode; proof of (e.g., hunters; since completing or other specified laws and accident insurance; not 14 for athletes. target shooters; sentence of health problems, regulations; skill under bankruptcy athletes; dealers; imprisonment; no dementia, test or completion restrictions. 20 for hunters. manufacturers; previous warnings alcohol/drug of shooting classes. exporters; or restraining addiction, or collectors; and orders for feeblemindedness. specific businesses, domestic violence. including lifesaving, slaughterhouses, fisheries, testing or research, and construction). The Law Library of Congress 7 Firearms-Control Legislation and Policy Country Minimum Age Recognized Criminal History Health Training/Testing Other Reasons Requirements Requirements Requirements Requirements Lebanon 18 generally. Recognized No prior sentence No history of reasons (e.g., or conviction for mental illness. 16 for hunting hunting) tied to heinous felonies, under specific classes of carrying weapons, guardian’s weapons. or offenses against supervision. state security or Weapons and Ammunition Law. Foreigners cannot have been subject to revocation of residence or deportation. Mexico 18 For employment/ For a carrying For a carrying For a carrying license, occupation, target license, no license, no must earn living by shooting, or conviction for any physical or mental honest means and hunting; or based crime committed impediment or complete any military on living with the use of drug addiction service duty (if circumstances or firearms. applicable). other credible factors, including self-defense in the home. New 16 for standard None required for Applicant must be Two references Safety course and Storage requirements Zealand license. standard license. “fit and proper (family and written test. and inspections. For licenses for person”; no history nonfamily); 18 for military- certain firearms, of violence. license may be style must be member denied where there semiautomatic of recognized is a history of The Law Library of Congress 8

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43 See Simon Chapman & Philip Alpers, Tight Gun Controls the Most resolutions, an amendment to the federal Criminal Code Act 1995 was
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