firearms and citizens: striking the right balance in gun ... · firearms in four categories :...
TRANSCRIPT
Firearms and citizens: Striking the right balance in gun ownership
Federation of Associations for Hunting &
Conservation of the EU
Filippo Segato
Secretary General
FACE
• Federation of Associations for Hunting & Conservation
of the EU
• Established in 1977 in Brussels
• Originally 9 countries, today 28 EU Member States
• Representing hunters’ interests
• FACE represents 7.000.000 hunters
• 36 Members, including all EU 28
• Proactively engaging in conservation (member of IUCN
and WWT)
Hunters are:
• Responsible
• Compliant
• Cooperative
The missing link The Communication puts forward a number of arguments to justify its claim that legally owned firearms in the EU feed the illegal market, the main being:
• access to firearms by criminals in Member States with “flexible” rules;
• theft or loss of legal firearms due to the absence of EU common standards on their storage;
• reactivation of firearms previously deactivated in Member States with low deactivation standards and, similarly, conversion of certain weapons into firearms.
Focus should be on: • Safeguarding the licit market
• Ensuring that Member States correctly implement and enforce current provisions
• Objective impact assessment based on facts and comparable data
• Respecting the competences of EU Member States
Hunters are law abiding citizens. Any ambiguous link to illegal activities is prejudiced AND it will have no impact whatsoever on existing problems originating from criminal activity.
Licensing
Member States can only permit the acquisition and possession of firearms to persons who :
o “have good cause”;
o “are at least 18 years of age”, except, under some conditions, for hunting and target shooting;
o and “are not likely to be a danger to themselves, to public order or to public safety. Having been convicted of a violent intentional crime shall be considered as indicative of such danger”.
Categories of firearms under the Directive One of the cornerstones of the Directive is the classification of firearms in four categories :
• Firearms in category A, which mainly covers fully-automatic arms, are prohibited.
• Firearms in category B, which includes most handguns and most semiautomatic rifles and shotguns, are subject to authorisation.
• Firearms in categories C and D, which include most non-semiautomatic rifles and shotguns, are subject to declaration.
Pursuant to Article 4 all firearms are registered and linked to their owner at any moment. Furthermore, the requirements under Article 5 (good cause, pose no danger to themselves or public safety) also apply to firearms in category D.
Firearms registration
• Firearms registered and “linked to their owner at
any moment”
• 31.12.2014 all MS to set up computerized data-
filing system
• All firearms owners must comply
• Benefits to public safety? To be assessed from
1.1.2015
• Improvement to “security perception”
• Impact on illegally held firearms?
Issuance of firearms licences for hunting The claim of the proximity of licit and illicit market has a negative impact on legal users.
• In terms of consumer protection there is a need for clear guidelines for authorities as regards firearms licenses for hunting thus limiting arbitrary and inconsistent practices.
Areas for improvement
License issuance (Sweden)
• Delays in issuing Firearms licences. Applications for firearms permits take too long to process – sometimes several months up to a year.
• On June 18, 2014, the police authorities in the major police districts were found in breach of their general obligation to process matters as soon as possible by the Ombudsman.
This finding only leads to criticism of the authority in question, not to a simplification of the process.
Areas for improvement/2
License issuance (Ireland)
• Since 2009 when a new firearms law was passed, the Garda have consistently and purposely administered the licensing system in a highly prejudicial way which has so far resulted in more than 650 court challenges (both District court and the Irish High Court) where more than 95% of judgements have gone against the Garda resulting in huge inconvenience to citizens who shoot/hunt and at massive cost to the Irish taxpayer.
Need for guidelines and refocus of crime prevention measures
Areas for improvement/3 England and Wales
• Campaign asking citizens to report signs of radicalization, extremism and vulnerability to terrorism amongst firearms license holders.
• Number of lost and stolen guns is a "tiny fraction" of legally held guns.
• Lost and stolen firearms in the UK account to 0.18% compared to the total number of licensed firearms in private hands.
Campaign relying on ill-conceived assumption that firearms license holders are statistically more prone to crime, extremism, terrorism (?)
Need for risk assessment: does 0.18% of lost/stolen firearms justify this measure?
European Firearms Passport
A few Member States do not recognise the European firearms pass, thus restricting the cross-border movement rights of hunters and sport-shooters.
This is an internal market problem that could simply be solved with better implementation by the few Member States and/or better enforcement by the Commission.
Article 17 Reporting
“The Commission shall, by 28 July 2015, submit a report to the European Parliament and the Council on the situation resulting from the application of this Directive, accompanied, if appropriate, by proposals.”
FACE will openly cooperate with the
European Commission in all firearms
related matters.
Conclusions
While all the figures indicate that the shooting community is security conscious and law abiding, one firearm in the wrong hands through carelessness could have tragic effects.
•FACE is generally satisfied with the Directive.
•Need for methodological focus, impact assessments based on facts and comparable data.
• Implementation related problems.
•Re-opening of the directive would lead to renewed legislative uncertainty and implementation challenges.
Regulation focusing on illicit trafficking NOT legal users.
