What is legal as far as possession of firearms in international waters? Sailing/boating magazines never touch?

Question

I am an armchair sailor and want to know what firearms I can carry when I actually get out there: flying sting rays, sharks, pirates etc. This is never mentioned in any of the many boating magazines .

Answer 1

Flying sting rays are gentle & passive by nature.  The one which killed that lady was a very RARE, freak accident.  There's NO WAY she (nor anyone else) would have been quick enough on the draw, to shoot it down, out of the air.  That would be a VERY impractical way of attempting to defend yourself.  That would be like carrying a flyswatter around with you, in case you walk under a telephone wire which has a bird perched up on it, hoping that you'll be quick enough to swat down the bird p**p in mid-air, in order to avoid getting bird-pooped upon...  If you had either the reflexes to swat down bird p**p in mid air with a fly swatter, OR to shoot down a flying sting ray as it's coming at your face, then that would be AMAZING, and you should probably play professional baseball, or tennis.

Shooting at sharks, is ALSO impractical, and possibly even CRUEL.  The likelihood of a shark jumping onto your boat, then running up to you and attacking you, leaving you defenseless unless you had a gun, is highly unlikely.

If you actually encounter pirates in the sea, that would be so rare, and just flat-out AWESOME, that you should probably just surrender, and let the pirates plunder your boat.  Your reasons for wanting to carry a gun in the ocean seem a bit far-fetched, and are probably not worth the hassle of researching the fine details of all regional laws involving this.

There's a good REASON sailing / boating magazines don't cover the laws of firearms.  But there's NOT a good reason for you to want to carry one, unless you're planning to take an unsuspecting victim out to sea, shoot them, dump their body in the middle of the ocean, and get away with it, by using "flying sting rays" as your alibi, should any authorities later question why you were carrying a firearm on your boat, whenever your former friend or wife turns up missing, with blood &/or ballistic evidence found on your boat.

Stop plotting.

Good luck.

Answer 2

Out side the 20 mile limit you can carry and or use whatever you like, providing its not heavy armour or ordance. The problem is that the various ports of call you visit all have different restrictions. You would have to painstakingly contact each and every one to find out more information

Answer 3

As far as international waters go laws apply accordingly to what nation the boat's license is registered to.