Pistols & Co. are booming

This is how much the arsenals in cellars and boxes are growing

A pistol in women's hands - the proportion of female firearm owners in Upper Austria is also rising steadily

(Bild: stock.adobe.com/tsuguliev)

Austria is arming itself - and not just in the military. The number of private gun owners is rising steadily, in some cases by leaps and bounds. And the number of pistols and rifles stored in boxes or cellars - hopefully safely in safes - is also increasing. In recent years, the reason for private armament has changed.

The number of privately owned firearms has never decreased. On the contrary. There are currently 264,822 pistols and rifles registered in Upper Austria, after the quarter of a million mark was exceeded for the first time last year. Within a decade, the private arsenal of Upper Austrians has grown by 66 percent, and the number of legal firearms in our state has even increased by 160 percent since 2013.