Most of Europe allows sports shooting, for example (from the top of my hear what I know for sure): Finland Sweden Norway Estonia Czech Republic Poland Germany France Italy Switzerland Austria Spain

And I haven't even put research into the rest of the countries

These are the types of licences we have: http://armas.mai-gov.info/obtencao-de-licencas/

Now you can buy weapons of the same caliber, for hunting (but you need hunting licensing).

Edit: Ok I need to clarify this. Because we have a different name for specific weapons.

Here we can sell semiautomatic rifles (we call them "carabinas", I didn't label them as rifles so my bad), for hunting (a specific class, for boars, deer, etc). The thing is every weapon that's imported in Portugal gets and inspection and a classification if it's a military weapon or not. An AR15 is considered a military grade weapon by our government standards.

So yes, you can buy some specific models of semiautomatic rifles (for hunting), but you can't buy military grade semiautomatic rifles.

You can't buy an AR15.

> So yes, you can buy some specific models of semiautomatic rifles (for hunting), but you can't buy military grade semiautomatic rifles

The semi-automatic rifles that you can buy in Portugal include the Remington 700 and the Thompson Performance Center T/C. Both can come chambered in .308 Win or 6.5 Creedmoor. Those cartridges have an immense stopping power and are significantly more powerful than the usual .223/5.56 you see in the AR-15 platform. Looking at hunting stores from Portugal, you can easily see those two rifles with 5 or 10 round magazines, same limits as the AR-15 in California.

The Remington 700 has been widely used by the military all over the world, including the US. The M24 sniper rifle is the Remington 700, but with a heavier barrel (in order to use .300 Win which the US Marine Corps preferred).

So, why is in your opinion the AR-15 platform "military grade", and the hunting rifles available in Portugal not? Knowing that both platforms have been used by the military in combat situations, and knowing the hunting platforms usually have much more powerful cartridges?

This is a question you'd need to ask to the portuguese authority that manages weapons importation at the customs, which curiously, it's a procedure that must be done in the presence of a customs oficial, an expert of the Police (PSP), and the General Management of Weaponry and Defense Equipment (Direcção-Geral de Armamento e Equipamento de Defesa).

So I think it's their opinion and expertise that dictates such decisions? No idea! But I don't see it written anywhere that such specific weapon/platform is banned/forbidden.

Curious fact, just came across this information, apparently not so long ago civilians could buy fully automatic rifles in Portugal , you just had to belong to a "club"! It was one of the few countries that allowed that, like Pakistan an Yemen - I had no ideia just found this out. Law changed from pressure of EU and UN.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contr%C3%B4le_des_armes_%C3%A0...

In Switzerland, on the other hand, you can have full auto. Europe is not a gun-free zone like Americans seem to think, from both sides of the aisle.

And they're not objects for public display.

But on the "objects for public display", I sense some hostility towards guns and gun culture in general. Maybe that's your personal perspective being projected onto the whole? My brother in law is from France and he is a huge gun nerd. His weapons were "objects for public display" just like any other weapon in a gun store in America, but I really miss the point here.

Do you feel comfortable around guns? Have you ever experienced a shooting sport? You should definitely try, it is super fun, specially when you have knowledgeable people around. And gun clubs in Europe are super welcoming to new members.

I've grown around hunting weapons, mainly shotguns and rifles since my grandfather was an hunter. But all my education revolving weapons is that they are tools - dangerous tools - to hunt. Everyone of my friends I grew up with had family members that hunted, and some of them became hunters themselves. For sport some shoot plates, but a lot of those places closed own over the years due to polution.

The weapons body are made of wood and usually have some sort of carving in the metal accents. Hell, some of them were literally works of art - with duck/foxes/boars/deer/flower motives. I dont' recall seeing anyone who had weapons that were "military" style, neither in shape or even color/pattern.

Now that I think of it, there was some sort of snob attitude around all of that (like usually only people with a lot of money could buy access to big game properties).

At least this is from my life, in my country living on the countryside. Weapons and the subject revolving weapons are limited to specific contexts, so for me it's just odd a lot of what happens in the USA.

As a kid I found weapons fun, had air pressured rifles to hunt birds and shoot at targets, airsoft guns, etc.

Seems to be selling AR15s just fine.

And "military grade ar15" is not a thing.

Some licenses are strictly for law enforcement for example.

I didn't say military grade ar15 is thing, i said our authorities can consider that a weapon is for military use. It's their call, not mine, or yours.

If you don't mean what you say then don't say it.

I didn't say i didn't meant to say, I'm saying what's in our law.