Its nice to know that there's someone with some sense somewhere in today's world.
While in 1993 61,595 individuals owned gun licenses, eight years later the number had grown to 121,280 people, who jointly own 194,318 guns, say statistics provided by the Police Presidium headquarters in Bratislava.
Uh, oh. They are quite fully registered. Unless you add a zero to these numbers, these gun owners better watch out when the next authoritarian government comes to power.
Police officials see the growth as an expression of the freedom that society gained after the fall of communism in 1989.
Well, good for them that they've gained some freedom (i.e. more than residents of New York City, but less than Afghan tribesmen).
Until then the number of hand gun permits was strictly limited by the state, and reserved largely for top state officials.
As it will be in the USA if Sarah Brady, Feinstein, Hillary, Schumer, Kennedy, McCain, etc. get their way. The former situation in (Czecho)slovakia and the rest of the Soviet Empire represents the ideal state of affairs for the liberal intelligencia.
Hey, here are some curious and interesting facts: there are 80+ million freedom-loving people in this country armed with at least a quarter of a billion firearms. Also, many of them have combat experience and training in small unit tactics. Finally, many millions who hunt have accurate, scoped rifles with effective ranges of roughly 500 yards. I don't know why I typed these facts here, just a stream-of-consciousness thing, I guess.
Slovakia was not part of the Soviet Union, but I get your meaning.