Firearm licences by country

The paper that let a person own or carry a firearm, as each country's police or prefect granted it: the weapons allowed, the term, and what a seller wrote on it.

Bearer prints it for 6 offices: British India, Colony and Protectorate of Kenya, Germany, Shanghai Municipal Council (International Settlement), State of Western Australia, United Kingdom. Each is read off a document of the time or reconstructed on the country's law, and says which.

Bearer makes an investigator's papers for Call of Cthulhu and any 1920s or 1930s tabletop campaign: the passport a consul would have filled in, with the visas and frontier stamps a campaign leaves in it, and the permits, certificates and tickets of the period, to print or to share.

An example

Open this example in the office

Every office Bearer prints it for

Each version in full

• The Indian traveller's arms licence
• The Kenya registration of firearms
• The Weimar Waffenschein
• The Shanghai firearms license
• The Western Australian firearm licence
• The firearm certificate

Sources

• Government of India, The Indian Arms Act Manual, seventh edition, September 1928: the Indian Arms Act, 1878, and the Indian Arms Rules, 1924, rule 34 and Schedule VIII, Form XVII, Form XVII (See Rule 34.) Fee for each weapon, ONE RUPEE. Licence for the possession of arms and going armed during the period occupied in journeying from the port or other place of arrival in British India to place of destination; columns: name and description of licensee, brief description of each weapon, quantity and description of each kind of ammunition, place of destination, period for which the licence is valid; date on which copy is sent to the District Magistrate or the Political Officer; signed by the Commissioner of Police or the District Magistrate, with the seal; conditions 1 to 4. Rule 34: granted to a bona fide traveller by the Commissioner of Police where the port of arrival is a Presidency-town or Rangoon, elsewhere by the District Magistrate; passengers without a permanent licence produce it on board to land with their arms (read directly)
• Oversea Settlement Office; H.M. Stationery Office, London, General information as to Kenya Colony and Protectorate, revised edition, February 1924, pp. 22-23: Arms and Ammunition (registration on introduction, 6s. a firearm, 1s. a consignment of ammunition, the warehouse and the permit, the declaration for personal use or sale, no firearm or ammunition to a native without an officer's written permission); Game (licences from the Game Warden, Nairobi, or Administrative Officers under the Game Ordinance, 1921; the eight licences and the special licences with their fees; private land; trophies and ivory); Immigration Regulations (the law of 1906 amended 1910 and 1919, the Immigration Officer boarding every ship, the prohibited classes, the deposit of £37 10s.) (read directly)
• Reichsgesetzblatt; ALEX, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Ausführungsverordnung zu dem Gesetz über Schußwaffen und Munition, 13 July 1928 (RGBl. 1928 I S. 198-204), with Anlage III, the model of the Waffenschein, § 17: the Waffenschein issued by the police office of the applicant’s residence, in urgent cases by that of his stay or place of entry, then for three months at most; § 18: issued on the model of Anlage III; § 14: a seller writes on it the weapons he sold; Anlage III, front: Waffenschein Nr. …, Gültig auf 1 Jahr, Zum Führen von Schußwaffen in öffentlichen Versammlungen und Umzügen berechtigt dieser Waffenschein nicht, [name], wohnhaft in, geboren am … in, Reichsangehöriger / Nichtreichsangehöriger (Nichtzutreffendes ist zu durchstreichen), wird hierdurch die Erlaubnis zum Führen … innerhalb des Deutschen Reichs … erteilt. Gleichzeitig wird der Erwerb von … genehmigt, (Ort), den, (Dienststelle), (Stempel); back: Es wurde überlassen (Lfd. Nr., Datum, Zahl, Art, Aufgedruckte Firma oder Warenzeichen, Herstellungsnummer, Name, Wohnort und Wohnung des Überlassers), Platz für Lichtbild, Eigenhändige Unterschrift des Inhabers (read directly)
• Shanghai Municipal Police, Shanghai Municipal Police Guide and Regulations, 1938 (Widdowson): Arms Licensing Section; Firearms Licenses, no person … shall under any pretext carry or convey within such limits any firearms other than those used solely for sporting purposes … without a license or permit first obtained from the Municipal Council; fine not exceeding $300 or three months (Bye-law 37); licenses issued by the Deputy Commissioner (Crime Branch) through the Arms Licensing Section; three kinds: to carry the weapon (a red coloured identification card), to keep it in the residence but not carry it (a white paper certificate), bodyguards and escorts (blue coloured identification cards); application in person with the weapon and proof of its origin, two photographs and four rounds for testing; registered weapons stamped with an S.M.P. number prefixed by the letter Y near the trigger guard; a test in handling the weapon at the Training Depot (read directly)
• Parliament of Western Australia; Government Printer, Perth (reprint under the Amendments Incorporation Act, 1938), Firearms and Guns Act, 1931 (Western Australia), No. 8 of 1931, reprinted as amended by No. 25 of 1931, assented 21 August 1931, proclaimed to commence 1 January 1932; s. 4 (pistols and air guns throughout the State; Asiatic and African aliens throughout; other firearms in and within a mile of municipalities); s. 5 (licences from the Commissioner of Police or a member of the force with his authority; four kinds, the first to possess a specific firearm named and identified in the licence); s. 6 (in force to 31 December of the year granted); s. 7 (personal, not transferable); s. 8 (none for a pistol under 21, none under 16; none to an Asiatic or African alien or person of Asiatic or African race claiming to be a British subject without the Commissioner's express approval, the proviso not applying to persons of the Jewish and Lebanese races); s. 11 (production on demand); s. 18(h) (fee for a licence to possess not above five shillings); Schedule (repeal of the Gun License Act, 1885-1925) (read directly)
• Ministry of Home Affairs for Northern Ireland; Statutory Rules and Orders issued in 1922, pp. 2-6, on the Internet Archive, Rules of the Minister for Home Affairs, dated 12th February, 1922, for carrying into effect the Firearms Act, 1920 (S.R. & O. of Northern Ireland, 1922, No. 19), rule 1: the form of a firearm certificate ("This Certificate is granted to … of … and relates to the firearms and ammunition specified hereunder: 1. In possession at date of grant. (a) Firearms. (b) Ammunition. 2. To be acquired. (a) Firearms. (b) Ammunition. 3. The amount of ammunition authorised to be held at any one time is … This Certificate will continue in force for one year from the date hereof. Signature. Rank. Police Force. Date."), the maker's name and numbers to be stated, the three instructions to a seller, the forms attached at the back for every transfer, a notice of sections 1(6), (8), (9), 2(3), (5), (7), 10, 12(2) and 13(3), and spaces for variations and renewals. (read directly)

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