Petition against EU restricting legal gun ownership

[rmca]

To all European shooters, please sign the petition.

https://www.change.org/p/council-of-the ... -ownership

On the morning of 7th January 2015 Terrorists attacked Charlie Hebdo, with fully automatic, unregistered and illegal firearms.
Since then the EU has been preparing new legislation to ban semi-automatic firearms in the hands of law abiding EU citizens. Despite the fact that these weapons were not used by terrorists and are not even typically used by criminals.
They use unregistred, untraceble black market full auto Kalashnikovs.
The new legislation has been on the back burner since April 2015, only to surface now on 18th of November, barely 5 days after a second attack in Paris.
The victims of this tragedy have not been buried yet, the criminals are still on the loose and the police has not even finished the investigation and yet the EU is announcing measures to prevent something like that from happening again.
Unfortunately nothing in the draft would have prevented these 2 attacks since neither were done with weapons that are now legal and would be banned with this new law. Nothing.
It is not logical and above all it is extremely unfair.
It is unfair to the victims, it is unfair to the law abiding citizens whose hobby and property will be taken away.

Say NO to the draft proposal announced on 18 November 2015
Do not restrict semi-automatic firearms 'because they look like an automatic firearm'

We the Citizens demand that the EU brings focus on the real problems:
- That the external borders of the EU are not protected.
- Our population has groups in it that refuse to allign with our democratic core values and our culture.
- Illegal arms trade is rampant within the EU.
- Criminals and terrorists have easier access to illegal weapons than legal gun owners have access to legal arms.

That is the current situation and this new legislation does NOTHING to adress those problems.
The 18 November IP-15-6110 draft to amend 91/477/EEC is not only populistic in nature, it is also an insult to our civil liberties and to the intelligence of the EU citizens as a whole.

http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-15-6110_en.htm

[Wynne G Oldman]

Signed.

[shaky hands]

I am surprised to learn that there is still ownership of semi-auto guns in Europe. Reminds me to take my AR-15 with a few 30-round mags to the range tomorrow.

[BigAl]

I am surprised to learn that there is still ownership of semi-auto guns in Europe. Reminds me to take my AR-15 with a few 30-round mags to the range tomorrow.

The individual laws by country regarding firearms are actually still very diverse. Here in the UK we have some of the most draconian laws within the EU. Even so if they were to actually insist on harmonising the laws, using the strictest regulations in each case, we would still end up with even more restrictions than we have now. The problem is that we are effctively looking at about 130 years of haphazard restrictions applied in each county. The issues that laws were introduced to "combat" were again driven by the differing culture in each state. So in the UK for example where virtually all firearms require some level of licensing, we can shoot 7.62×51, 308 Win or .303 British. However in France they restrict heavily any round that has been issued to military forces, world wide. So 7.62×51 or even 308 Win are not common, they use slightly changed rounds like 307 Win instead, or for handguns 9×21 instead of the normal 9×19. We can shoot small game with an air rifle, and under 16 Joules of energy they do not require certification (although that is soon to change in Scotland). In most of mainland Europe hunting with an air rifle is banned completely.

Harmonisation of national firearms laws would actually be devastating for shooting in the EU, as it would have to be lowest common denominator stuff. No national government in the EU would allow the easing of restrictions in any way to allow for a harmonisation. Even where there are things put in place to supposedly allow things to run better there are problems. For example there is the European Firearms Pass, supposedly a way of allowing an "international licence" for firearms within the EU. Although the UK recognises them, and will issue them to UK Subjects, anyone travelling from another EU country must have the firearms permit, but they must still go through the process of obtaining a British Visitors permit before coming to the UK. In some other EU countries you need a licence for any type of air gun. Here in the UK we do not need a licence for rifles under 16 Joules (12 fpe). Since they do not need a licence in the UK the british police categorically refuse to issue an EFP for one, making travelling to europe difficult. Although it is possible to have a rifle put on a certificate in the UK, and thus get an EFP, also they are normally supposed to be higher power. Simply by the fact of licensing them you are then no longer legally allowed to shoot them on a normal 10m club range here in the UK, so you can't even work round the issue that way, if you already have other licensed firearms.

Firearms legislation is a very difficult situation here in the EU, and is not likely to improve with 20 some different national governments involved. It's certainly a lot worse than tha differences between Federal and State legislatures in the USA.

Alan

[Hemmers]

I am surprised to learn that there is still ownership of semi-auto guns in Europe.

Rules across the EU are extremely diverse. In the Czech Republic they not only have fully-automatic firearms, but also concealed carry.

There's a shall-issue license, and then for certain classes of firearm you need to do a theory and practical test covering law, safe practice, safely stripping and using the firearm, etc. And they don't even have a second amendment. Ownership of firearms is not a constitutional right, just something that is widely accepted in light of their turbulent past.