Cyprus-Forum.com

[Nikitas]

Novus,

I trained as a lawyer but soon turned to other professional avenues. Firearms laws are a wonderful way to examine the collective psyches and national cultures and I love to study them. A good example is the variety of actual application at national level of the EU firearms directive which was enacted back in the early 90s. Each nation being free to be more strict but not more lax than the direcive, the result was hilarious.

The Belgians being a gunmaking nation with many qualified gunsmiths were eager to forbid firearms masquerading as other objects (pens, canes, cameras etc)

The Italians as avid art collectors have the most detailed laws regarding gun collections

The Greeks being technophobes forbid everything except what is expressly allowed in the law. So you can have a muzzle loader, but since black powder is not expressly mentioned, you cannot use it.

Cyprus suffering from British colonial times still clings on to the law passed by the British, so all handguns, even air pistols are verbotten. This in a nation where you can have a gas bottle in your kitchen!

Law being enacted by politicians, who tend to be people who failed at all other jobs and pursuits, tend to overlook the simple fact, that firearms are a product of very old technology. The physics needed to make a firearm is taught in 5th and 6th grade of primary school and the priniciples are found in encyclopedias in any library. You do not even have to look in the Internet to make a very decent single barrel shotgun.

A bet was made between a gun hobbyist and an anti that a person could walk into a hardware store and a car breakers to get the tools and materials to make a single barrel 16 gauge shotgun in less than a day. The gun enthusiast won the bet. After the one and only test firing the device was cut up and junked right afterwards. It was an academic exercise that should be published along every gun debate in the media.

[Novus]

Yup, when debating with the antis or the uniformed who are sympathetic to the antis, I always bring up Luty of Thehomegunsmith fame and the paliuntod shotguns of the Phillipines (two pipes, a 2x4 piece of wood, wire and a nail).
The gun cannot be uninvented.

I agree, firearms laws of various regions are an interesting study. For instance, in France a pump action shotgun and pump action rifle have a stigma attacked to them making them seem evil and therefore prohibbitted, but lever actions and semi auto are normal. Heck, the rifles they can have in France such as AR15 platforms (in .222, not .223) with a short barrel are highly illegal in a few American states.
In the US a short barreled shotgun or rifle is strictly regulated and illegal in some states. In the US short barreled shotguns are conflated with mobsters and gangsters so they were strictly controlled, but in Canada they are every day guns no different from any other shotgun or rifle, no stigma at all.

Even in the US there seems to be a contradiction in views or culture. In the least restrictive state of the union one can carry a handgun in public at the age of sixteen concealed or openly without a permit and people can own almost any gun under the sun....but "zip guns" and silencers are illegal.
In my state, supposedly one of the most gun rights restrictive, I can legally make my own handgun (zip gun) without telling the state and not only own a silencer, but hunt with it.

[Novus]

Hey Purdey, where can you hunt and shoot in Cyprus? I know about the salt flats from your posts, but what about private property or up in the mountains? Can you also target shoot on private property (shooting at clays)?

[lyso]

There is a shooting range here
in the mountains of Lyso
9 k from Polis
Its run by a guy called John.
Every sunday
Well organised and cheap.
Dont have his number
but i can get it if you want.

Regards
Michael

[Novus]

But can you shoot on private property so that you do not have to pay range fees?

Thanks for the info. It is good to know the next time I vist there is a range in the mountains. When I looked online a few years ago I only found the one near Limassol and one on the occupied side.

[purdey]

Another is at Monagri, great site and not overly busy. We also have a little clay shoot in the village but only once or twice a year. Other than that it's doves and the odd partridge.
The marsh shooting I do is in the UK and Russia, I have never seen a duck or goose in Cyprus, has anyone seen one ?

[Novus]

I've a read news article from a few years ago about suspected bird flu in Cyprus effecting some migratory ducks, but not much detail though.

[CBBB]

Another is at Monagri, great site and not overly busy. We also have a little clay shoot in the village but only once or twice a year. Other than that it's doves and the odd partridge.
The marsh shooting I do is in the UK and Russia, I have never seen a duck or goose in Cyprus, has anyone seen one ?

There are ducks in the lake at Athalassa park on the edge of Nicosia. I have also managed to obtain fresh goose at Christmas a couple of times, but they must have been livestock, not migratory.

[kafenes]

Shot a few ducks in the early 80's at the lake behind Larnaca airport.
It used to be popular many years ago and licences were issued for some dams as well. It was a night shoot.

[Trustme]

What a dissgrace, is there something wrong with you people? shooting birds? shooting ducks etc?. you are SICK.