Posted: 1/20/2011 7:44:39 PM EDT
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I have a friend who says he found a gun in a shared parking garage where he lives in Belgium. He's a bit paranoid and was afraid to call the police. He picked the gun up and secured it, but doesn't know what to do next. I suggested he call the cops and tell them that he found the gun, secured it and wants to turn it in. Any idea of the fallout from that?
I suppose he could always chunk it in one of the canals. |
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Europe is aweful funny about guns. If Belgium is only a little like Germany they might be pressing charges against him for illegal possession of a firearm.
I suggest he wipes off his fingerprints, get a brand new plastic bag from a store, put the gun in there and drop it in the mailbox of a police station (that has no camera outside, so preferably a substation outside the city). Then call the cops anonymously from a public phone (not the cell!!) and let them know there is a gun in the mailbox. Just my .02 cents. |
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The correct way to have done things was to have left it on the floor, remained on the scene and called the cops, on your mobile, await their arrival and give a statement to the responding officers.
Mistake # 1 he picked the gun up, (taking possession). Mistake # 2 he removed it from the place where he had found it. And the biggest mistake was posting it in an internet forum for weapons instead of doing any of the above.... Just my 0.02€cts on the subject. Tony. |
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Until a couple of years (think about 5) ago you could buy hunting rifels over the counter (I believe no background check even).
There seem to be a metric shit ton of guns there (wel they do have FN). But the registration period is now over and he needs a licence to posses I believe. |
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Until a couple of years (think about 5) ago you could buy hunting rifels over the counter (I believe no background check even). There seem to be a metric shit ton of guns there (wel they do have FN). But the registration period is now over and he needs a licence to posses I believe. That's a good point iggy, just what are the laws and regulations in Belgium??? Can anyone enlighten us? Tony |
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Until a couple of years (think about 5) ago you could buy hunting rifels over the counter (I believe no background check even). There seem to be a metric shit ton of guns there (wel they do have FN). But the registration period is now over and he needs a licence to posses I believe. That's a good point iggy, just what are the laws and regulations in Belgium??? Can anyone enlighten us? Tony Now it seems to be much like NL and DE as you have to be a hunter or sports shooter (Member of a gun club and shoot X times a year here in NL). Apparantly about 10% of the 2.000.000 guns in Belgium (pop. 10.000.000) were turned in, here is a English read on the subject (written by a very pissed of gun owner by the looks of it (he also discusses Germany quite a bit) Link The Belgium law was rushed through after some suicidal idiot (he atemped to create a suicide by cop situation and was shot but lived) shot and killed a african au pair and the Belgium child she was watching. The guy was braned a racist killer (even though the child was white) because he had some far right propaganda on him. In my opinion he was just plant crazy just like the recent AZ shooter (he made have been left wing but in essance he was plain crazy). |
Thanks iggy. 
From what I have read the laws prior to that incident were really easy, all you had to do was prove that you were of consenting age and you could have bought any weapon that you wanted. The new laws that came into effect on the first of January 2007 were more in-line with the rest of €urope. with fines of up to €25,000 and up to 5 years jail time for breaking them laws. Belgium Is there any one from Belgium on this forum that would like to add to this thread  What would really interest me to hear is just how the lack of a functioning "government" is affecting their day to day lives It would be really educational as it has now been 9 months without any leadership and there seems to be nothing in the news about any major demonstrations or any other protests
Tony |
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Just looked up some details on Belgium gun laws and it might be the case that OP's friend just got a free gun.
Disclaimer I am no expert in Belgium law so anything and only quickly read the law texts so anything I write need to be checked with a Belgium official/lawyer. Anyway the Begium laws that are now in place seem to contain a exemption for guns with a cultural/historical importance. These guns are free to own for 18+ and there arnt any storage rules so they can be displayed, but you are not given the right to buy ammo for them. Anyway the list with free to own guns is here: Link and scroll down to a table that lists the free guns There is some pretty cool stuf there but not really suprising as you could by guns over the counter until recently. It includes guns such as the broomhandle Mauser and 98K as well as lever action guns. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: I'd keep it and tell nobody. but that's just me. Dunno.... If the gun is hot I don't want it close to me.  +1 on that bro, imagine being charged with something you didn't do  .Tony Keeping it doesnt mean that you must have it in your posession.. Laws can change, things can happend. History is a bitch and comes back. A hidden "3rd party" gun, somewhere, can become handy.. but again, that is just me. |
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I'd keep it and tell nobody. but that's just me.
Dunno.... If the gun is hot I don't want it close to me.
+1 on that bro, imagine being charged with something you didn't do .
Tony Keeping it doesnt mean that you must have it in your posession.. Laws can change, things can happend. History is a bitch and comes back. A hidden "3rd party" gun, somewhere, can become handy.. but again, that is just me. Amen to that ! I asked a Belgium shooter and if the gun is not on the 'free list' the deadline for turning it in has passed and you are in trouble regardless. The law as is stands was quickly passed following a shooting and seems to be completly inefective, might get changed in the future to allow registration again who knows |
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Guess in the real world you don't have to provide proof of purchase and from whom you got it and when. You'd hate Germany  .
Tony I can only speak for the Netherlands that possesion of a good presumes ownership (exept some goods like cars/planes/houses where the paperwork means ownership) unless ownership is disputed in some otherway. Like here airguns are free to own/buy (18+) with no power limit, some politicians (not a majority at the moment) want some licencing/registration system for ones above a certain power. Now I have pleny of aiguns (we have a limit of 5 fire arms on our licence) but only ever kept any documentation on the expensive ones ( mostly the German ones ) the others were just to cheap to worry about. If they ever make a airgun licence system here I should have no problem registering them as I physicly own them.
For the rest mistake #1 and #2 from Tony's post kind of leve the guy who found the gun in a difficult place as he will face a fine if he turns them in 
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Air guns below 7.5joules are free to own for 18+, those that exceed that limit are required to be licensed :-(
Even the German paperwork's name ie. "Waffenbesitzkarte" (Weapons possession card) implies that you don't own the weapons, but are allowed to posses them at the states pleasure. Although you do have to go and buy them once you have jumped through all of the hoops and done the hurdles to qualify for ownership. Tony |
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Air guns below 7.5joules are free to own for 18+, those that exceed that limit are required to be licensed :-( A bit of topic but: Yes I know, and thats one of the lowest power limits in the world I think  . Germany makes some great Airguns but not so many good ones with a power above 7,5J, so I think such a low limit also harms German airgun makers, as we do a 100m Airgun competition here and German guns are very unreprisented link to 100m Airgun
Any away the no limit airguns stuf is about the only thing that is cool about Dutch weapon laws as we have another law that says airguns can be copys of real guns thus making it perfectly ok to buy a 300J airgun over the counter but illegal to buy some cheap airsoft gun
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Quoted: Some laws are stupid, but alas they are laws  Imagine the world if all the stupid laws were to be removed overnight... While we are off topic, which laws would you all like to see the back of??? I'll start with all the laws introduced by the €U .Tony problem is not the EU laws.. problem is the whole EU...
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Some laws are stupid, but alas they are laws
Imagine the world if all the stupid laws were to be removed overnight... While we are off topic, which laws would you all like to see the back of??? I'll start with all the laws introduced by the €U .
Tony problem is not the EU laws.. problem is the whole EU... This has given me an idea |
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