The famous quote that ‘guns don’t kill people, people do’ may be the opening line to the ongoing dispute of whether using weapons for self-defense should be legal or not. Essentially, it is a subjective matter to each person, culture, time, and country. And while some countries forbid any use of weapons, others allow civilians holding a gun as part of the nation’s constitution.
Ultimately, gun ownership is illegal in most countries around the world but laws of some countries may afford civilians the right to keep and bear arms, and maintain a more liberal gun law regulation. Yet, for some reason, investigating this topic is quite difficult and there’s a lack of information regarding gun ownership in different countries.
According to Business Insider, only 3 countries have a constitutional right to legally hold a weapon. Those are the United States, Guatemala, and Mexico. Yemen and the majority of U.S. states, according to Wikipedia, are the only countries that do not require any permit for the acquisition of the majority of types of firearms.
Other countries that move in the same direction to allowing citizens to possess guns but still require a permit include the Czech Republic, Italy, Switzerland, Canad, and Malta.
Yet, it is important to note that acquiring a gun is not a big hassle in the majority of the countries in the world. Carrying a gun, on the other hand, is a big issue. That makes the United States the only country in the world where the public can easily be armed with self-defense weapons, and remarkably, it accounts for 46% of the World’s civilian held firearms.
| Country | Firearms Rate | The estimate of Total Firearms | Population 2020 |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 120.5 | 393,347,000 | 331,002,651 |
| Falkland Islands | 62.1 | 2,000 | 3,480 |
| Yemen | 52.8 | 14,859,000 | 29,825,964 |
| New Caledonia | 42.5 | 115,000 | 285,498 |
| Montenegro | 39.1 | 245,000 | 628,066 |
| Serbia | 39.1 | 2,719,000 | 8,737,371 |
| Uruguay | 34.7 | 1,198,000 | 3,473,730 |
| Canada | 34.7 | 12,708,000 | 37,742,154 |
| Cyprus | 34 | 285,000 | 1,207,359 |
| Finland | 32.4 | 1,793,000 | 5,540,720 |
| Lebanon | 31.9 | 1,927,000 | 6,825,445 |
| Iceland | 31.7 | 106,000 | 341,243 |
| Bosnia And Herzegovina | 31.2 | 1,185,000 | 3,280,819 |
| Austria | 30 | 2,577,000 | 9,006,398 |
| Liechtenstein | 28.8 | 11,000 | 38,128 |
| Norway | 28.8 | 1,537,000 | 5,421,241 |
| Malta | 28.3 | 119,000 | 441,543 |
| Switzerland | 27.6 | 2,332,000 | 8,654,622 |
| New Zealand | 26.3 | 1,212,000 | 4,822,233 |
| Sweden | 23.1 | 2,296,000 | 10,099,265 |
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