I'm slightly amazed at the number of gun enthusiasts on here. I've never really seriously considered owning a gun, particularly for home defense, even though I used to have a shotgun for pheasant hunting back when I lived in the midwest. It's just sort of strange to learn that so many people do something that never really occurred to you before, you know?
Well, Finland has the largest number of guns per capita along with the U.S...but it's not very apparent, most often you'd never guess somebody had a gun.
But, that home defence thing...that's something that is NOT allowed here by any standards...I mean, if you pulled a gun on a home invader, the chances are you'd end up in way more trouble than the attacker. Exaggeration of force in defence is something that is really looked hard on. If somebody punches you, you take him to courts; if you punch him back you're already guilty of more than the attacker basically, not just being in a fight but aggravating an existing one...and if you use MORE force than the attacker, i.e.pull a knife, no matter if it's home defence or what, it's still automatically an assault charge / intent to kill or something.
I keep my house doors open usually all day and night, but my guns locked in basement...if there was a burglary or such, I'd first try to talk them out, then at worst get a baseball bat or something...there are cases where just scaring a would-be burglar with an UNLOADED gun, just showing it to them, has brought charges against the homeowner. And you'd lose your gun licence in a jiffy too.
So yeah, guns are DEFINITELY not for home defence here. The only possible grounds to get a licence for gun is sports, and it usually takes a year or more to get one, and entails a great amount of applications, mandatory courses in gun handling, a shooting diary for a year with a borrowed/club gun, and even a doctor/psychiatric assesment usually at least for handguns.