Belgium makes some first-class firearms. The City of Liege has been at it since 1350ish. Thanks to Europe’s pervasive anti-gun culture (just sayin’), the country’s firearms industry is a shadow of its former self. But there’s still some action. In addition to its most excellent name-brand American exports and its military guns and ammo, Belgium’s Fabrique Nationale (FN Herstal) also manufactures and distributes Browning and Winchester-branded firearms and accessories. And now the country almost famous for french fries with mayonnaise has access to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives’ eTrace gun monitoring system. In this, Belgium’s flic join more than 2,800 U.S. law enforcement agencies and 29 foreign countries (the ATF processed more than 340,000 crime-gun trace requests in 2009). The official ATF press release lauds the system after the jump. Another surprise: not everyone thinks eTrace is such a good idea . . .
