A million weapons: Arms and the Czech Republic

There are one million registered firearms in the Czech Republic. This means that this small Central European country with a population of 10 million has one of the highest rates of private gun ownership in post-communist Europe.

Only Croatia, where one of the deadliest of the Yugoslav wars took place in the 1990s, has a higher number of privately owned guns per capita.

Over 300,000 people in the Czech Republic hold a gun license. Very few of them are hunters. Most hold a firearm for their own personal protection. The number of civilians who own guns is almost six times higher than the number of Czech soldiers and police officers.

Until recently, very few people were bothered by all this. Any opposition to the country's high rate of gun ownership could be swept aside with the argument that the Czech Republic was one of the ten safest countries in the world in terms of violent crime.

Lone gunman killed 17

But this has changed in recent weeks. Just before Christmas, the Czech Republic was rocked by a mass shooting in Prague — the worst in the country's modern history and one of the deadliest in Europe in recent years.

The shooting took place at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, the oldest university in the Czech Republic and one of the oldest in the world.

On December 21, a student opened fire inside the university, killing 14 and seriously injuring 25. The images of terrified students balancing precariously on a ledge beneath the roof of the faculty while hiding from the gunman went around the world.

Killer owned eight firearms

As the police later discovered, the perpetrator had shot dead two other people just a few days previously and his father shortly before going on the rampage at the university.

Just before the police could apprehend him, he turned the gun on himself.

During the investigation that followed, the police discovered that although the killer had obviously been treated for mental illness in the past, he legally owned eight firearms. These included a US-manufactured AR-15 semi-automatic rifle and a Czech military 61 Skorpion submachine gun. The killer had borrowed the equivalent of about €40,000 ($43,500) from a bank to buy the weapons.

Constitutional right to bear arms

Weapons are easy to come by in the Czech Republic. The country has long been one of Europe's largest producers and exporters of small-caliber weapons. The Czech Republic exported weapons to the tune of roughly €1.2 billion in 2022.

In 2021, the administration of former Prime Minister Andrej Babis enshrined the right to own and bear arms in Czech law with a constitutional amendment to the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Freedoms. The amendment was supported by the liberal-conservative Democratic Citizens' Party (ODS), then in opposition and now in government.

The right to defend one's own life

The amendment legally guarantees "the right to defend one's own life or the life of another person with a weapon."

About 100,000 citizens had signed a petition supporting the amendment, which was in response to attempts by the European Union to restrict ownership of certain offensive weapons.

Although some lawmakers opposed the amendment at the time, they were in the minority.

Government has not proposed changes

After the shock of the massacre just days before Christmas, it initially looked as if support for the country's gun ownership laws would change.

"End the Czech trend of easily accessible weapon licenses," wrote Jan Kubita, columnist with the daily newspaper Hospodarske Noviny, calling for much stricter regulation. "In this respect, the Czech Republic is still one of the most tolerant countries in the EU. This has to stop."

But the government of PM Petr Fiala has not yet agreed on a tightening of the country's firearms legislation.

Defense Minister supports status quo

The greatest resistance comes from Fiala's party, the ODS. Defense Minister Jana Cernochova, for example, is one of the most vocal supporters of the right to own and bear arms.

"I legally own several weapons and make no secret of the fact that my hobbies include diving, history and shooting sports," said Cernochova on X, previously known as Twitter. In the same post she wrote "but, unfortunately, you can't avoid mentally disturbed lunatics, neither among marksmen and women, nor among drivers or pilots."

A divided cabinet

The coalition government remains divided on the issue.

Deputy Prime Minister Ivan Bartos, leader of the Czech Pirate Party, is calling for a debate about "systematic measures to prevent such acts of violence and all manifestations of violence and hate."

Speaking to DW, he said that his party wants a debate about the frequency and form of background checks for gun ownership and on limited ownership of weapons with large magazines and repeating firearms.

"Based on the experience of other countries, we have to regulate the carrying of weapons in public, limit the number of licensed weapons per owner, or link the system to the register of offences and debtors," he said.

Weapons stores should report suspicious purchases

Interior Minister Vit Rakusan of the Mayors and Independents (STAN) party is also calling for a debate about gun ownership.

"This tragic event has raised many legitimate questions in the societal debate and shattered our feeling of security," he told journalists on January 12. "We are trying to find a balance and not get the debate off to an hysterical start. We don't want this to happen at the expense of responsible gun owners."

Rakusan proposed that weapon stores could be obliged to report suspicious purchases of weapons and ammunition to the police and that the psychological checks on weapons license holders be tightened.

"The pressure from the majority of the population that doesn't own weapons is legitimate," he added.

Since the opposition, which is led by the Action of Dissatisfied Citizens (ANO) party of former PM Andrej Babis, is opposed to a tightening of existing legislation, however, gun ownership in the Czech Republic is unlikely to be restricted soon.

This article was originally written in German.