Gun politics in Norway

While having a large amount of civilian owned guns, Norway has a low gun crime rate.

Regulation

The control of firearms are regulated in a separate law, the Firearm Weapons act ( [http://www.lovdata.no/all/nl-19610609-001.html] ). This includes all firearms, air pressure weapons, some exotic arms as stated in the first paragraph of the weapons act. All regulated weapons have two things in common: they must be able to eject a projectile mechanically and use some form of propellant to perform the ejection. The second litra of the first paragraph makes room for inclusion of military type weapons, flare guns while the third litra includes easily manufactured replicas that can be converted.

The guns owned and operated under the responsibility of the armed forces is excepted from the civilian weapons act (Paragraph 4).

Types of civilian owned guns

Norway is a nature loving country, and has a large population of hunters. Shotguns and semi-automatic and bolt action rifles make up the better part of the guns in civilian homes.

There is a total ban on automatic weapons for civilians, unless they fall under the collector category. Modification of semi-automatic guns into fully automatic without the consent of the police is a felony crime.

Handguns, however, are allowed in all calibers as they are used in sports shooting. Norway has long traditions of high-end sports shooting competitions, specially with rifle shooting. Each caliber must be used in a type of competition to be allowed. Also, there is a restriction on the number of weapons an owner can have for each caliber. For recreational shooters, only one gun is allowed in each caliber. For professional and semi-professional shooters, a spare gun is allowed. A recreational shooter is only allowed to own four different handguns. To obtain more, documentation on extensive sports shooting activities is needed.

Ownership

To own a weapon in Norway, one must document a use for the weapon. By far, the most common grounds for letting a civilian purchase and own a weapon is hunting and sports shooting, in that order. Other needs can include special guard duties or self defense, but the first is rare and the second reason is practically never accepted as a reason for gun ownership.

There are special rules for collectors of weapons, they are exempt from many parts of the regulation. In turn, they must fit an even more narrow qualification to be accepted as a gun collector. Collectors may purchase, but not fire without permission, all kinds of weapons.

Ownership is regulated in paragraph 7, and responsibility for issuing a gun ownership license is given to the police authority in the applicant's district.

Rifle- and shotgun ownership permission can be given to «sober and responsible» persons 18 years or older. The applicant for the permission must document a need for the weapon. Two exemptions exist for the age qualification: persons under the age of 18, but over 16 may apply for rifle or shotgun ownership license with the consent of parents or guardian. For handguns the lowest ownership age is 21, no exceptions are allowed. For inherited weapons, it is up to the local police chief to make a decision based on the individual case facts.

The applicant must have a clean police record and no history of mental illness.

Obtaining a firearm

There are two ways of obtaining an ownership license in Norway. The most common is through the process of obtaining a hunting license, the other is through sports shooting.

For hunting

To obtain a hunting license, the applicant must complete a 30 hour, 9 session course and pass a written multiple choice exam with 80% fail rate. [http://sjfl.net/jegerkurs.htm] The course includes firearm theory, firearm training, wildlife theory and environment protection training.

Once the exam is passed, the applicant may enroll in the hunter registry and gets a hunting license. The membership must be renewed each year, through license payment. The hunting license is brought to the police station, where the applicant fills out an application for obtaining the proper firearm for his or her hunt. After evaluation, part of the application is sent back to the applicant if it was approved. Upon approval, the applicant can take the returned form to the store and purchase the proper firearm stated in the application. The store keeps part of the application and sends it to the police with the serial number and make of the weapon, and a receipt is kept by the customer. The receipt is the actual weapons license, to be kept with the weapon under transportation and away from the weapon during storage. After some time, a laminated license arrives and replaces the paper license which can be archived. The same rules apply for the laminated license.

For sports shooters

The qualification process is theoretically easier, but takes a lot of time and practice. The applicant must enroll in a firearm safety course, lasting at least 9 hours. The course includes a written test, but much shorter than the hunting exam as it only deals with firearm safety. The test must be passed with no less than 9 correct out of 10 questions. Two thirds of the course is completed on the shooting range as practice. The passing of the test results in acceptance to the approved gun club, and a competition start license. However, while the hunters can obtain their firearm almost at once, the sports shooters must prove their intentions to compete with active training or competition in the gun club. This means regular attendance to the gun club training over the course of six months. The applicant must use the firearms owned by the club or borrow at the range for this. After six months, the applicant may apply for a weapon for competition and training. The start license and a written recommendation from the gun club president is brought to the police station, and the competition class is filled out on the application. If approved, it will be returned to the applicant as with the hunter example.

In both cases, if the application is rejected, the applicant is allowed an explanation of the reason and an appeal.

Guns in civilian ownership

The ownership of a firearm is considered an enormous responsibility in Norway. Thus, the norms for storage of firearms are strict.

For shotguns and rifles, the qualification given in the weapons act is to have the firearm, or a vital part of the firearm, securely locked away. For handguns, this means an approved gun safe, securely bolted to a non-removable part of the house. A vital part is considered to be any part with a serial number, since these require police approval to be purchased.

The police are allowed to make a home inspection of the safe, since the ownership is a privilege, not a right. An inspection must be announced more than 48 hours in advance and the police are only allowed to see the safe and make sure it is legally installed.

Ammunition, only sold to persons able to show a valid firearm license, must be locked away but can be stored with the firearms. Older rules stated that the ammunition must me locked away separately, but these rules are abandoned in the latest revision of the weapons act.

Transportation

The owner must have a good reason to bring the weapon to a public place. Such reasons include transportation to the range or hunting, transportation to repairs or perhaps another gun enthusiast for maintenance and discussion.

During transportation, the weapon must be empty, stored on a concealer, not worn on the body and under constant supervision of the owner. This equally applies to replicas, air guns and decommissioned firearms.

General gun politics

Gun ownership is a non-controversial subject in Norwegian politics, even when gun crime is at an all time high. This is due to the fact that most illegally used guns are stolen from larger, often military, storage facilities. Break-ins in private homes seldom leads to the theft of weapons, unless the owner does not follow the regulations. Thus, the private ownership is not under scrutiny. By far, the most crimes are committed with stolen weapons, not legally obtained ones.

There is no publicly shown wish to introduce a concealed carry permit at this point in time, and there is no such license to hand out for civilians.