AlexanderA
Member
Today's edition of the Kathimerini newspaper, the largest and most respected paper in Greece, has a long article about the gun situation in the country. The upshot is that attempts at gun control have failed miserably.
https://www.kathimerini.gr/investigations/562793545/poleitai-metacheirismeno-pistoli-300-eyro-stin-ellada-kykloforoyn-1-000-000-adilota-opla/
The salient facts from the article are these:
There are nearly 1 million shotguns, and 4,500 target and protection weapons, that are legally registered. However, there are more than a million other weapons that are illegal and unregistered. All together, these amount to 17.63 weapons per 100 residents.
People buy and sell guns -- some of them clearly illegal -- openly on the Internet. (Samples of the ads are in the referenced article.) They use a variety of techniques to avoid the attention of the authorities. And the prices are relatively cheap, because in many cases the sellers are trying to get rid of weapons that have been used in crimes.
Weapons continue to be smuggled in, mainly from Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo. These are large-volume operations.
In recent years, the police have been investigating an increasing number of weapons violations: 4,342 in 2019, 6,599 in 2020, and 6,733 in 2021. These are just the tip of the iceberg.
Among the countries of Europe, Greece is in 5th place in the number of murders with guns.
In the period 2016-2020, more than a million rounds of illegal ammunition were confiscated by the authorities.
https://www.kathimerini.gr/investigations/562793545/poleitai-metacheirismeno-pistoli-300-eyro-stin-ellada-kykloforoyn-1-000-000-adilota-opla/
The salient facts from the article are these:
There are nearly 1 million shotguns, and 4,500 target and protection weapons, that are legally registered. However, there are more than a million other weapons that are illegal and unregistered. All together, these amount to 17.63 weapons per 100 residents.
People buy and sell guns -- some of them clearly illegal -- openly on the Internet. (Samples of the ads are in the referenced article.) They use a variety of techniques to avoid the attention of the authorities. And the prices are relatively cheap, because in many cases the sellers are trying to get rid of weapons that have been used in crimes.
Weapons continue to be smuggled in, mainly from Albania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Serbia, and Kosovo. These are large-volume operations.
In recent years, the police have been investigating an increasing number of weapons violations: 4,342 in 2019, 6,599 in 2020, and 6,733 in 2021. These are just the tip of the iceberg.
Among the countries of Europe, Greece is in 5th place in the number of murders with guns.
In the period 2016-2020, more than a million rounds of illegal ammunition were confiscated by the authorities.
