Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library
Strazzari, Francesco and Francesca Zampagni. 2018 ‘Registration - Italy.’ Between Organised Crime and Terrorism: Illicit Firearms Actors and Market Dynamics in Italy, p. 252. Brussels: Flemish Peace Institute. 1 January
Relevant contents
Italian law prescribes that any rifled firearm imported or manufactured in Italy after 1976 should bear a serial number assigned by a commission composed of government officials and representatives from the Italian arms industries.
(…) the Banco Nazionale di Prova (National Proof House, or BNP) in Gardone Val Trompia, which is institutionally the technical supervisor of the conformity of firearms and ammunition to technical and legal standards, and can therefore be considered the 'registry office' of all weapons produced in Italy and most that are imported.
(…) The BNP does not classify arms according to their civil or military use (as the catalogue was meant to), with this having been clarified by Annex 1 to Directive 91/477/ EEC. Although Italian law requires marking only for common firearms, Italian firms already voluntarily mark military weapons during the manufacturing process. Moreover, the Ministry of Defence must test all military weapons manufactured by private industry.
Each firearm is marked with a unique serial number, the year of import, the country of origin and the marking of the Italian Republic (or some other marking for firearms imported from a country outside the EU). A firearm is considered illegal if it does not have one of these marks (L.110/1975, art. 11).