Posted on MAP as well
Approach from a country that also has the constitutional right to bear arms
I suspect the American failure rate would be much higher
=======================
PRAGUE — When eight people had taken their seats in the classroom, the proctor put on his glasses and said it was time to begin. He took attendance. He glowered as one person walked in late.
He described how the test would work — 30 multiple-choice questions, 40 minutes — and how to properly mark an X on the answer sheet. Then he ordered phones away; only a pen and paper, he said, were permitted on the table.
“If anybody needs to go to the toilet, now is the time,” he said.
The test had all the tedious markings of a high school exam, down to the motivational poster on the wall saying “I will.”
But in the Czech Republic, this is part of how you obtain a gun.
And 40 minutes later, three of the nine had already failed, ushered out the door as the others went on to the later stages of the exam, in which they had to prove the ability to handle a weapon safely and shoot accurately.
In an America riven by gun violence, with recent mass killings at a Walmart in Virginia and an LGBTQ club in Colorado, weapons can often be purchased without even a background check.
With the country divided about even the smallest changes to gun laws, the question is only hypothetical: What if anybody who wanted a gun had to first prove their competence?
The Czech Republic embodies an answer.
By European standards, its gun laws are permissive. It allows people to carry concealed weapons for the purpose of self-defense, and it is one of the few countries in the world — and the only one in Europe — that provide the constitutional right to bear arms.
But exercising that right is contingent on the test.
Czech lawmakers and gun owners say their national system dramatically increases the odds of responsible ownership. The rules also require a health clearance and a background check, and demand safe storage of weapons once they are purchased.
In a country more populous than New York City, there were seven homicides using guns during all of last year.
“We really have bad politics in many ways here — corruption. But something I am proud of is this law,” said Martin Fiser, 35, a weapons instructor. “It can be a model for the rest of the world.”
The test is obligatory for anybody who wants a weapon, including hunters, collectors, even someone inheriting a shotgun from a grandfather.
The standards are high: The test consists of questions randomly drawn from a pool of 501 possible.
Those trying to obtain the hardest-to-get license — for concealed carry — can miss no more than one question. The failure rate is around 40 percent…….
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2022/11/25/gun-rights-test-czech-republic/