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EU Gun initiatives - WARNING, take action!
There are currently several international and EU initiatives in relation to guns that are likely to have a direct impact on all shooters and collectors, be they firearms or airguns.
Why should you care? These initiatives, potentially result in laws that will HAVE TO BE APPLIED BY EACH EU MEMBER COUNTRY, i.e. written into local law. In simple terms, today you could be free to do "x" in the UK, and this has been legal for ever, but EU law overrides this, and doing "x" could become illegal in the UK because of a new EU law. It's called harmonisation, and since the lowest common denominator generally becomes the "standard" these sort of initiatives could, say, (purely for example's sake) result in something like Germany's airgun power levels (5.5 ftllbs) being adopted across the EU.
Those initiatives include:
1. public announcements made by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Malmström and officials under her authority about the link between legal ownership of guns and illicit trafficking in firearms;
2. the adoption of an Arms Trade Treaty by the United Nations; the recent tabling of a proposal by the European Commission to ratify the United Nations Firearms Protocol;
3. the setting up of a EU firearms experts group;
4. the launch by the Commission of a public consultation on firearms, which is the subject of this Notification.
The results of which point towards a possible amendment of the Firearms Directive by 2015. Every EU country would then have to amend its legislation accordingly, overriding any country-level laws. Naturally only those laws which are "not tight enough" would be affected, those already which go beyond, remain in force. In short, things can only get worse, not better.
It seems that the Commission’s main objective with this public consultation “on a common approach to reducing the harm caused by criminal use of firearms in the EU” is to obtain some legitimacy from public opinion in order to make the existing EU rules on legal acquisition and possession of civilian firearms (including airguns) more restrictive.
Organisations and individuals ideologically opposed to guns and/or hunting are expected to reply to the consultation. Therefore, it is essential that ALL shooters reply to the consultation and encourage others to do likewise. If the majority of responses to the consultation show no support for further restrictions or EU action on gun rules, it will be difficult for the Commission to use public opinion as an excuse for re-opening the Firearms Directive.
Most of the 25 questions in the consultation are biased and have a formulation that seeks to predetermine the answer. All the questions have at least some relevance for the legal ownership of guns.
Question C.2 insinuates that the list of prohibited guns should be extended (we believe that the Commission is referring to semi-automatic rifles of all types, and maybe also to semi-automatic shotguns and handguns, where legal).
Question C.4 pursues the mandatory use of locking devices in firearms.
Question C.7 would provide a justification to introduce compulsory mental health tests and supress the current derogation that allows people under the age of 18 to hunt and sport-shoot if they have parental permission or guidance.
Question C.8 aims at requiring that all guns (and ammunition/pellets) be subject to authorisation, which would have negative implications not only in countries where there is a formal distinction between authorisation and declaration of firearms but also in countries where there are flexible arrangements for certain hunting firearms.
Question D.2 could result in a general requirement to store all guns in an approved safe, obviously at disproportionate cost for the single airgun owner.
Please follow these instructions if you wish to stand up for your interests:
1. Go to
http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/fo...ceFirearmsRisk2. Choose your language in the icon that is in the upper right part of the screen.
3. Indicate your country, whether you are an individual or an organisation and your name or the name of your organisation.
4. Answer the questions by clicking on option “1” for each one of them. For some questions, it may seem that answering option 1 is a bit extreme but it should be borne in mind that virtually all questions are biased and have been formulated precisely to compel the reader to agree that some EU action is needed. Furthermore, national legislation on all issues addressed in the questions already exists. You do not need to answer the optional questions that request additional comments (questions B.4, C.11, D.5 and E.6).
5. After having answered the questions, as a security measure to avoid computer-generated replies, you will have to type in the numbers and/or letters that will be displayed in your screen and validate them.
6. Your answers will have been submitted by then. You can view them and/or save them as a PDF.
The deadline to reply to the consultation is 17th June 2013.
PLEASE TAKE IMMEDIATE ACTION AND SPREAD THE WORD!
Nuorodos
Varžybos
