20 guns for every 100 people (Malta)

[davepc]

There are about 20 registered guns, including pistols and machineguns, for every 100 people in Malta, according to statistics released in Parliament.

In all, there are about 90,000 weapons registered, including some 12,400 pistols, excluding those owned by the police force.

Among the registered firearms are 52,224 shotguns and 8,373 airguns. The number of registered pistols, revolvers, rifles, machineguns and sub-machineguns reaches a staggering 17,036.

The statistics were given by Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Mifsud Bonnici in reply to a parliamentary question by Labour MP Gino Cauchi, in the wake of a spate of publicised gun crime.

There was a series of armed hold-ups but the more recent prominent cases involved a murder in which Neville Baldacchino, 28, was shot dead in Qormi and the incident when Carmel Saliba, 31, allegedly shot at the Mqabba Nationalist Party club in full view of police. He was charged with the attempted murder of 20 people.

Still, gun activist and expert Stephen Petroni was adamant that the number of available firearms was not a safety hazard.

http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20090305/local/20-guns-for-every-100-people

[CreekDog]

1. Our rate of gun ownership is much higher

with more than 1 gun per person in the USA.

[Hoopla Phil]

3. Yeah but those kind of stats are not very realistic IMO.

Any gun "sportsman" owns multiple firearms because they are tools. You need different "tools" for different jobs. Deer hunting typically means a scoped rifle - unless you are in East Texas then you use a shotgun with rifle sites on it. Dove hunting calls for one kind of shotgun while duck hunting calls for another, and of course there is quail hunting also. (dove guns will work but you really need a different kind of choke for it) There is also the need for a "varmite" rifle to take care of the pests that will hunt and kill the deer/game population. Oh, speaking of pests, don't forget the hogs!

I'm sure I've missed something in the above but don't we forget the different sports of target shooting also. AND, most that go into a wilderness for the sake of hunting will also carry along a sidearm for the occasional problem such as snakes or varmits that surprise us by being very up close and personal.

I write this simply for the sake of those that are not part of the "gun culture" that do not understand that a firearm enthusiast has several firearms for a variety of uses.

[enfield collector]

4. that was a good start, I'd also add

a single stack 9mm/40S&W/45ACP for summer CCW, a double stack 9mm/40S&W/45ACP for winter ccw, and an AR15 for home defense. then there are all the cool old guns that no collector should be without, M1 Garand, a couple of K98s or SMLEs. Maybe a FAL and a couple or AK variants for modern collectors as well.

[slackmaster]

2. Pikers

That's nothing compared to the USA, or even California.