Reader John Dingell III writes:
Well, Jean-Claude Juncker still rules Europe. The EU’s Commission, Parliament, and Council have now reached an agreement to strangle gun owners across the continent in new tangles of red tape and regulations:
After a year of discussions, the European Parliament and Council have reached a provisional political agreement on the Firearms Directive.
The Commission proposed a revision of the current EU rules on firearms on 18 November 2015 to make it harder to legally acquire high capacity weapons in the European Union, allow better tracking of legally held firearms thus reducing the risk of diversion into illegal markets, and strengthen cooperation between Member States.
President Jean-Claude Juncker said: “We have fought hard for an ambitious deal that reduces the risk of shootings in schools, summer camps or terrorist attacks with legally held firearms. Of course we would have liked to go further, but I am confident that the current agreement represents a milestone in gun control in the EU.”
The provisional political agreement retains a majority of what the Commission originally proposed, such as the ban of automatic firearms transformed into semi-automatic firearms, the inclusion of collectors and museums in the scope of the directive, the regulation of alarm and acoustic weapons, the regulation of Internet sales, the regulation of deactivated weapons and more exchange of information between Member States.
At the same time, the Commission regrets that some parts of the original proposal were not supported by the Parliament and the Council. The Commission had proposed a greater level of ambition with a complete ban of the most dangerous semi-automatic firearms, including all semi-automatic firearms of the AK47 or AR15 families and a ban of assault weapons for private collectors. The Commission also regrets that the magazine size was not limited to 10 rounds for all semi-automatic firearms.
However, considering that the overall package is an improvement compared to the current situation, the Commission can accept the compromise found.
Together with the technical rules introducing strict harmonised standards for the deactivation of firearms, which are directly applicable since April 2016, the Firearms Directive will reduce the probability of dangerous but legally held weapons falling into the hands of criminals and terrorists.
More at the link, above.
This won’t affect the Swiss, but our Italian and Czech brethren are in real trouble. There are countries in Europe where shooting and gun collecting are reasonably popular. Note that none of these regulations would have stopped any of Europe’s recent terrorist attacks. The weapons used by terrorists have all flowed into the EU, along with the terrorists themselves, as Mutti Merkel destroyed their borders.
The prime mover in this outrage: Jean-Claude Juncker, the unelected éminence grise of the EU and its master manipulator. His blatant contempt for the European public resounds in some of his best public quotes:
“When it becomes serious, you have to lie.” — Jean-Claude Juncker.
“We decide on something, leave it lying around, and wait and see what happens. If no one kicks up a fuss, because most people don’t understand what has been decided, we continue step by step until there is no turning back.” — Jean-Claude Juncker.
“Of course there will be transfers of sovereignty. But would I be intelligent to draw the attention of public opinion to this fact?” — Jean-Claude Juncker.
“I am for secret, dark debates.” — Jean-Claude Juncker
This is exactly the kind of infringement we dodged here on November 8th.