A mortar, which would arguably be more at home in war-torn Libya than residential San Ġwann is among a long list of bizarre weapons registered in Malta, according to figures presented in Parliament this week.
The mortar, which fires explosive projectiles, including grenades, was registered, along with a sub-machine gun, a tactical shotgun normally used in close combat and even a rocket launcher.
The list, tabled by Home Affairs Minister Carmelo Abela, shows there are some 36,000 registered hunting rifles in Malta, the equivalent of uncollected voting documents for next Saturday’s spring hunting referendum.
A closer look at the 2014 list of registered guns includes a rifle concealed in a walking stick, a fully functional 200-year-old musket and a working canon. There was also a harpoon gun and a weapon simply described as “mega”.
There is a rifle concealed in a walking stick,a 200-year-old musket and a working canon
The list also includes a vast number of airguns, ranging from simple compressed gas pistols to fully automated air machine guns. Although they are normally used recreationally in a game using spherical non-metallic pellets, they can be harmful and are covered by the same laws governing conventional firearms.
Not all the weapons featured on the list last year were new registrations as the weapons included those that required a licence renewal.
A request for further details on the weapons listed by the minister was still pending at the time of writing.
Figures released in 2010 showed there were about 20 registered guns, including pistols and machine guns, for every 100 people in Malta.
A wide-ranging overview presented in Parliament the following year also found that about 90,000 weapons were registered, including some 12,400 pistols, excluding those owned by the police force. Among the registered firearms were 52,224 shotguns, used either for hunting, target shooting or as collector’s items.
The number had also included about 8,400 airguns. The number of registered pistols, revolvers, rifles, machine guns and sub-machine guns had at the time reached a staggering 17,036.