Croatia ranks first in Europe in terms of the number of privately owned guns per capita.
In second place is the Czech Republic, a country with ten million inhabitants, in which there are about one million guns in legal possession.
The number of civilians who own weapons is almost six times higher than the number of Czech soldiers and policemen.
More than 300.000 people in the Czech Republic have a license to own weapons, and only a small part are hunters. Most people own weapons for personal protection.
After the recent massacre in Prague in which 17 people died, the Czech Republic is discussing the Gun Ownership Law.
The right to a firearm for personal security in the Czech Republic is guaranteed by the Constitution, so it is not easy to change it.
The voices of opponents of mass armaments are silenced by the argument that the Czech Republic is one of the ten safest countries in the world in terms of violence.
Investigating the massacre at the Faculty of Philosophy in Prague, where a student killed 14 and injured 25 people, police discovered that the mass murderer legally owned eight firearms, despite having received treatment for mental illness in the past.
Among other things, he owned an American AR-15 automatic rifle and a Czech military machine gun, and he took a bank loan of 40.000 euros to buy the weapons.
The Czech Republic is one of the largest European producers and exporters of small arms around the world. Two years ago, it exported arms with a total value of around 1.2 billion euros.
Czech Interior Minister Vit Rakusan called for a discussion on gun ownership, but the government is divided on the issue.
