13 May 2025 | Matteo Millan – From Right to Privilege.

In the aftermath of the First World War, Europe experienced a silent but crucial revolution. For decades, the possession and use of pistols and rifles had been a right for millions of European citizens, and only a few countries had introduced preventive control measures for access to weapons. During the Great War, while millions of heavily armed soldiers fought in the trenches, civilians were disarmed to ensure the security of the home front. The disarmament of civilians in wartime was certainly not new, but the First World War represented a point of no return in this regard, transforming the possession of weapons from a right to a privilege that only the state could grant. Preventive control through the granting of licences and firearms permits became the norm in Europe for decades to come.

Focusing on a number of case studies (Germany, Great Britain, Spain and Italy), the paper analyses the legislative and institutional changes surrounding this crucial issue, using the study of civilian possession and use of firearms as a lens through which to examine deeper social and cultural transformations. It was in the aftermath of the World War that control over civilian gun ownership emerged as a widely accepted social necessity and one of the pillars of state sovereignty, influencing forms of citizenship, cultures of security and the powers of the state.