One gun for every 75 inhabitants. Almost a short weapon every condominium. This is the figure that emerges from the latest statistics of the State Police relating to the carrying of weapons. The share of permits issued in the Capital it has increased by a thousand units and exceeded 40 thousand, which divided by the approximately 3 million inhabitants makes Rome a city with armed forces. The numbers speak for themselves and reveal a significant increase in the arms race, especially to home detention. Applications for skeet shooting licenses are increasing, which would be the sporting use of the weapon, obtainable with a simplified release procedure and allows you to regularly have two pistols and an unlimited number of rifles in your home. In the Lazio the same trend is recorded in Latina and Rieti.
Instead, tenure applications for personal defence which allow you to take your firearm with you everywhere, but are more difficult to obtain and have some restrictions. The firearms license for sporting use is therefore the shortest way to feel safe at home. And so here is that the temptation of the gun is making its way not only between fans of polygons or among those who grew up in the front row of westerns with the legend of the Colt. The public of buyers is among the most heterogeneous and transversal: freelancers and workers, but also housewives, heads of families or singles. "There amendment of the law on legitimate defense of 2019 - explains an investigative source - who introduced more mitigating circumstances for those who protect their own safety at home could have been one of the pushes to increase these data ".
The differences between the permits are substantial. If you just want to keep a gun at home, you just need to obtain an authorization to purchase and detain it by submitting an application to the Police Headquarters and attaching two documents: a certificate of psychophysical fitness generally issued by the Local Health Authorities and a certificate of suitability for gun handling obtained by the Italian Shooting Union. The weapon will never leave the house. The real gun license is divided into: skeet shooting or sporting use and hunting, and personal defense. In the first two cases the weapon can be transported disassembled and without bullets to shooting ranges or hunting areas. You must also be enrolled in an authorized shooting gallery. With this type of license you can keep three common firearms, twelve for sporting use while for hunting rifles there are no limits. The cost is low: 300 euros for the practice and the certificate lasts 5 years. Self-defense is a different story: the license is much more difficult to obtain and must be renewed every year.
The process is this: it is issued by the Prefect and in addition to the documents of the nulla osta it is necessary to justify the reasons for which it is believed to be at risk and therefore to have need to defend themselves. Among the categories that have the requirements emerge those that handle a lot of money such as gas stations, but also jewelers. As for robberies and violence in general, according to the Crime Analysis Service of the State Police, in the last year, sidearms have far surpassed firearms in assaults and murders. The knife or any other cutting object is therefore preferred by criminals as tools of pure offense. Who are the 40 Romans passionate about weapons? Who buys used or new pistols, parts worth a few hundred euros up to thousands? The shooting ranges have the real pulse of the situation. With a representation of short weapons ranging from a glock 17 costing about 800 euros, to a 44 Magnum of 1.500 euros. That's where you go to shoot, that's where you follow the gun handling course necessary to obtain the license and that you practice in front of the targets under the watchful eye of the instructors.
“Here people from all cultures, professions and social backgrounds come to shoot”, says Guido Matteini del Future Shooting Club, on the Cassia. Until a few years ago there were very few women, now this is no longer the case: some common housewives frequent the shooting range and know how to handle a weapon. Other women armed themselves for fear of being alone in the house and to defend themselves from aggression. Perhaps also for all the femicides that have been registered in recent years. I always remember that handling a weapon is a risky thing for oneself and for others and above all a gun is also difficult to handle. In short, it is necessary to take specific courses to use them with skill and criterion ". Women, therefore. But also many professionals: the platforms of the polygon offer a very heterogeneous social cross-section.
“They are mainly criminal lawyers who have to do with crime, but also accountants and in general people who move money or valuables like jewelers. Or gas station attendants or even workers with a passion for shooting. They come here to practice shooting and get familiar with guns. But those who really want to learn how to use a gun, without taking unnecessary risks, should take a specific course of what it is called "Dynamic shooting". Because usually when you really shoot you do it by moving, sometimes running and with your heart beating fast "(La Repubblica).