Caroline Muscat
Getting a shotgun is easier than playing paintball
It is easier to acquire a shotgun for hunting than it is to get hold of a harmless plastic gun used for paintball games, since the procedure for the latter involves a complicated vetting system.
The first step towards licensing a paintball gun is acquiring membership of a firearms club. The more respectable clubs take as long as three months to vet the applicant, which includes training in weapons handling. Exams are then conducted by the Weapons Board.
While acknowledging that this is a necessary process for the issuing of firearms licences, the Association of Maltese Arms Collectors and Shooters (AMACS) is recommending a more lax application procedure for paintball guns that allows members of the public to enjoy the sport.
Paintball is a game where players try to mark opposing team members with paint expelled from an air powered paint marker.
"The current state of affairs, where only firearms licence holders can use a paintball range, is placing local paintball site operators at an unfair disadvantage.
"Amendments to the legislation would allow us to focus our efforts on developing the sport locally as it is in other European countries," said the owner of a company licensed to operate a paintball site in Kalkara.
The recommendation for less stringent controls on the sport were among a list of recommendations AMACS made yesterday to the Home Affairs Ministry aimed at fine-tuning the Arms Act.
AMACS also recommended that the process of licensing firearms be reviewed so as to limit access to real firearms to deserving individuals. It stressed the need to ensure that applicants from all clubs achieve a uniform level of qualification.
Obtaining a hunting shotgun involves an entirely separate process, since the Ornis Committee regulates the field. The rules that govern the ownership and licensing of shotguns are much less stringent for hunters than they are for owners of other weapons, including paintball enthusiasts.
In fact, no training on weapons handling is required. Applicants for licences only need to sit for an 'environment test' that focuses on the understanding of which birds can be shot and when. On completion of the test, a licence is issued by police if the applicant is of good conduct.
The majority of crimes involving weapons on the island over the past years involved hunting shotguns. Last year alone, four out of five killings involved hunting shotguns, according to police historian Eddie Attard.
The Justice and Home Affairs Ministry is in the process of analysing all existing legislation regulating firearms, and will be announcing amendments to the legislation regulating possession, access to and use of weapons this year.
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Edwin John Matthews
Feb 10th 2009, 16:14
@James Green
Thanks James. Had a copy of the act sent to me the minute it became law, still have a lot of shooting friends in Malta.. I was just having a sarcastic dig for someone to define WEAPONS.
James Green
Feb 9th 2009, 21:22
@ Edwin John Matthews
You can download the Maltese Arms Act 2005 and the relevant Legal Notices from this site:
http://www.amacs-malta.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=32&Itemid=46
BTW Harpoons freely available in the rest of Europe, have to be registered with the Police over here. Same problems with serial (ie lack of) numbers for local registration.
@ Those who open their mouths before engaging their brains:
I suggest downloading and understanding the ACT to all those with a propensity to post half-truths, untruths, and downright lies therby confirming their their total and absolute ignorance on the subject.
They should read the Act and contact their lawyer or legal eagle to clarify items not well understood, which thankfully are very very few.
Hopefully by then we'd start seeing more CONSTRUCTIVE suggestions, rather than hoplophobic outbursts.
It may be of interest to note that the ACT was one of the VERY few passed in our Parliament with a UNANIMOUS vote from both parties.
Edwin John Matthews
Feb 9th 2009, 17:39
I have lived in Malta for three years and return to visit my family for about one month every year. I do not profess to know the Maltese laws in regards to WEAPONS. I have, however seen lots of people, Maltese and tourists, walking near the beach/sea with harpoon guns. These people, in my opinion, are pursuing their sport and doing no harm to anyone. I have NEVER seen a person, Maltese or otherwise, walking along the road with an uncovered firearm, on the way/way back from pursuing their sport. For God's sake, let the reporter research their subject before putting pen to paper of which they appear to know nothing about. James Green makes a lot of sense.
James Green
Feb 9th 2009, 13:21
Lisa Schembri
Goodness me, where do I start?
Paintball guns kill? I suppose they would if you could manage to stuff a few dozen gelatin covered paintballs down someone's throat. Death however would be by suffocation, not injury.
Hunting is hunting and whether you use a rifle, shotgun, bow and arrow, spear, toothpick or whatever does not change its nature or meaning.
Registering poisons............hmmm, just imagine the queues at Police HQ getting a permit to purchase regular household items that fall under this classification. Same for medicines and medications and other chemicals that are beneficial to mankind IF used externally but lethal if taken orally!
In Malta firearms are freely available. We've heard this ad nauseam from persons who haven't the foggiest idea of what they're talking about.
Are you aware that except for Malta other countries DO NOT require registration of Paint Ball Guns, Airsoft guns and Air Rifles? This results in these items NOT always having a serial number. And because these items HAVE to be registered here, potential purchasers of those un-nunbered items are up the proverbial creek without a paddle when it comes to registration time.
Finally for the billionth time, people kill people, not guns.
Lisa Schembri
Feb 8th 2009, 23:39
A paint ball gun is definitely not *harmless* ,you can kill a person with one of those. And
Edwin John Matthews is right,a shotgun is not for hunting.I'm no expert but I believe you generally use a rifle for hunting. Before you write an article you should get your facts right.....I'm not defending anyone but i do agree that you should have valid license to purchase any sort of weapon be it a firearm, a paintball gun or even a katana .Anything potentially dangerous should be registered, even poisons.
I don't think that Miss/Mrs Muscat was talking about *hunting*...I think she's just saying that in Malta firearms are very easily accessible , guns don't always have to be used on animals..but it seems everyone on the times is to blinded to realize that. Guns kill people and its a very dangerous overseen exception in the law to purchase them so freely.
This not only happens in Malta....Remember the ''Open a bank account, get a gun. '' scenario in America?
Joseph Casha
Feb 8th 2009, 23:30
@ Mark Mifsud Bonnici
Could you also please show me comparable statistics of how many people have been killed by paintball guns and shotguns?
Could you also mention, one, just one type of 'FUN' sport where there is no risk of injury. Let's not forget that even a simple game of football in malta between kids has left it's victims, so stop talking rubbish.
Seems most of you are missing the point in the argument because you are blinded by hunting. It is easier to get a shotgun than a paintball gun, can you seriously sit there and say that nothing is wrong with this as long as the writer does not refer to hunting when mentioning shotguns. Pity that we are still so naive
MARK MIFSUD BONNICI
Feb 8th 2009, 19:53
What is this article suggesting?
That Paintball gun licenses be easily available to all.
These statistics taken from http://www.rospa.com/leisuresafety/information/info/PAINTBALL08.pdf show the dangers involved with paint ball "FUN"
Edwin John Matthews
Feb 8th 2009, 15:46
Further to my last. Please can somebody explain to me what is a "hunting shotgun"?. there is no such thing as a hunting shotgun. A shotgun is a shotgun is a shotgun. The purpose of a shotgun CAN be defined but it appears to me that the hunters are getting the blame for everything. Perhaps the title "weapons Board" should be changed to Firearms Department of the Police Force or similar, that way it would not give a false impression to Joe Public.
Edwin John Matthews
Feb 8th 2009, 15:09
It is obvious to me that the writer of this letter is "uinitiated" with regards to FIREARMS. A gun is NOT a weapon it is a FIREARM. As previously stated in my other comments, ANYTHING can become a WEAPON in the wrong hands. When are people going to realise this?
a mifsud
Feb 8th 2009, 14:17
Teh things I learn by reading this newspaper! I though this was a joke....you need a firearms license to play, yes PLAY, paintball. This is the same paintball that anywhere else in the world you just turn with a bunch of friends(maybe you need to book in advance) and off you go, shooting paint at each other. So it's easier to get a real gun,,,,which is definitely not used for play.
salvu abela
Feb 8th 2009, 13:35
When someone writes about something as hot as the subject of hunting please try to be more realistic and say the whole truth,not just say a SHOTGUN FOR HUNTING,
First of all say if the FIREARMS in the COMMITED CRIMES where or not REGISTERED WITH THE POLICE COMMISIONER .
Secondly a lot of UNREGISTERED FIREARMS enter our Islands from mainland Europe maybe by holiday makers going with their cars or boats or in containers,the same as whisky,cigarettes,fake brands of shoes and clothes and a dozen or more contrabands,not to mention DRUGS also.
And third, why is it so hard to buy an AIR-RIFLE in Malta,when in the EU if it is under a certain amount of power,you don`t need a licence for it .
lgalea
Feb 8th 2009, 13:00
The writer's agenda is as clear as it can be.
The banning of shotguns and hunting.
Do you know that crimes are committed by unlicensed weapons obtained on the black market?
And no, I am not a hunter or in favour of hunting, but I hate it when people try to pursue a hidden agenda and hide behind other issues.
By the way, paintball is a killing game, notwithstanding the fact that people are not killed, but you still instill the mentality that you can "kill" your human opponent.
So what is more dangerous?
Simply having a shotgun or subconsciously instilling the human killer mentality through paintball?
Charles Muscat
Feb 8th 2009, 12:00
If you want a law changed in Malta vote for a party who support neither.
Joe Camilleri
Feb 8th 2009, 10:41
You did not need to write this letter to show your anti hunting stance. It would have been more professional if instead of writing "involved hunting shotguns" it was more appropriate and correct to write "illegally owned guns".
But it seems that certain people never miss a chance to put a dose of anti hunting comments in their writings.