page_title: Gun law in the Czech Republic
section_title: Incidents and gun crimes
hierarchical_section_title: Gun law in the Czech Republic / Incidents and gun crimes
caption_attribution_description: English: Statistic / graph showing number of cases of selected crimes according to weapon type used during committment. Source of data: Ministry of Interior of Czech Republic =&gt; https://www.mvcr.cz/clanek/poskytnuti-informace-pocty-trestnych-cinu-spachanych-se-zbrani.aspx
context_page_description: Gun laws in the Czech Republic in many respects differ from those in other Member states of the European Union. A gun in the Czech Republic is available to anybody subject to acquiring a shall issue firearms license. Gun licenses may be obtained in a way similar to a driving license – by passing a gun proficiency exam, medical examination and having a clean criminal record. Unlike in most other European countries, the Czech gun legislation also permits a citizen to carry a concealed weapon for self-defense – 248,278 out of 305,452 legal gun owners have a concealed carry permit. The vast majority of Czech gun owners possess their firearms for protection, with hunting and sport shooting being less common.
  Historically, the country was at the forefront of spreading of civilian fireams ownership, as firearms became indispensable tools for the mostly peasant Hussite armies, whose amateur combatants, including women, fended off a series of invasions of professional crusader armies of well armored warriors with cold weapons in the 1420s and 1430s. The English term pistol originated in 15th-century Czech language.
context_section_description: It is generally not common for licensed gun owners to commit violent crimes with their guns, and most of the gun crimes are committed with illegal weapons that are beyond the control of the law. Annually, police investigate about 500 cases of illegal arming (with or without direct connection to committing other crime).
  Police recorded 45 violent crimes (most of them, 17, being "dangerous threats" and 6 homicides - including attempts, mostly intra-family) being committed with legal firearms (A,B,C category) in 2016, down from 71 in 2014 and 51 in 2015 respectively. Meanwhile, illegally possessed firearms (A,B,C category) were used in 71 violent crimes (9 murders) in 2016. When resorting to use of firearms, perpetrators mostly utilize non-lethal free-to-buy D category weapons (see above) that resemble real guns, with 906 such crimes taking place in 2016. Apart from simple threats, the most common crime committed with firearms is robbery. Out of 1.500 robberies recorded in 2016, 153 took place with use of D category free-to-buy non-lethal weapons, 24 with illegally possessed firearms and 3 with legally possessed firearms (out of over 800,000 legally owned firearms).
  It is important to note that Czech police records completed and attempted homicides in the same category. The total number of people shot dead (homicides, police action, self defense), without distinction of legal or illegal source of gun, is recorded by CZSO. CZSO recorded 7 gun related assault deaths in 2016, 9 in 2017 and 5 in 2018.
  In 2018, police recorded three homicides with legally held firearms including attempts of which one was subsequently ruled self defense and the other was ruled manslaughter with only a probation sentence, leaving a single criminal murder.
  Overall, legally held firearms are implicated in about 3.5% of murders including attempts while 7% of the adult male population owns one (adult males are responsible for about 90% of murders in the Czech Republic).
  Occasionally, crimes with legally owned guns do happen. The most notable examples include:
  2001 shooting of three policemen who were called by a woman claiming she was being attacked by her husband. On the scene, the policemen were negotiating with the husband who was threatening to commit suicide with his legally owned .38 revolver. When the situation seemed about to be peacefully solved, the hysteric wife ran into the room. The husband thereafter shot three policemen (two mortally) and committed suicide.
  2005 "Forest Killer", who was planning to go on a killing spree in Prague Metro. As part of his preparation, the former policeman randomly murdered two hikers in a forest and another person four days later in another forest about 200 km from the first killing with his legally owned Glock. Police captured Kalivoda a week later, thus preventing further murders. Kalivoda was sentenced to life imprisonment. While in prison, he committed suicide in 2010. Being a former policeman, Kalivoda had passed a difficult psychological evaluation as part of the police selection procedure.
  2013 Raškovice shooting, where a 31-year-old schoolteacher invaded house of one of his students, aged 17, with whom he had allegedly been previously intimately involved, and shot the student and her grandparents, using various legally owned firearms (with caliber .22, .38 and .45). The perpetrator had passed psychological evaluation ordered by his general practitioner before getting gun license. He was sentenced to 27 years imprisonment.
  2015 Uherský Brod shooting, the second mass murder committed with a firearm in the country's peacetime history, in which a deranged individual murdered 8 people (same death toll as Olga Hepnarová's 1973 vehicular murder). He was a holder of a gun license and legally owned both of the guns he used in the shooting. Previously, he and his wife committed misdemeanors against public order, which would have allowed police to revoke his license. The first mass murder with use of a firearm in modern (post 1993) Czech history happened in 2009 in Petřvald with four victims and the third happ
caption: Selected crimes and perpetrator's weapon of choice (2018)
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