EU MEPs from IMCO discuss the gun ban

20 April 2016 – Members of the EU Parliament’s Internal Market and Consumer Protection committee are discussing British rapporteur Vicky Ford MEP’s proposed amendments to the EU gun ban plan, which would take the ban off the table.

The EU press release about today’s meeting can be read here. The live stream is available here, having started at 1120 BST.

From the EU press release, Ford’s proposal to end the gun ban is to “reword the Commission’s proposal to ban semi-automatic firearms that resemble automatic firearms since this has been tried by many member states and has been found to be legally impractical”.

However, Ford also proposes that a medical monitoring system similar to the freshly-introduced UK system should be introduced as well, which – if the UK stayed in the EU after the referendum – would prevent any meaningful reforms being carried out to the system over here.

Dan Dalton, Conservative MEP for the West Midlands said, during the meeting, that the EU should target illegal firearms and not punish legal owners.

The deadline for amendments by MEPs to the proposed gun ban has been extended to 28th April. It originally closed today.

The last vote on proposed amendments by the IMCO committee will be on the 27th June. The timescale for the whole gun ban seems to be slipping further and further into the future, as back in November EU sources were briefing that they wanted it passed and in force by April.

UK Shooting News’ author trusts that blogging about an EU press release and an EU livestream of legislators deciding the future of the shooting sports isn’t too much of a “dangerous game” for certain faint-hearted users of the Pigeon Watch forum.

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Certain selected updates from the meeting have been blogged below. These are not authoritative; if you want the full picture including detailed comments by other MEPs, you’ll need to find a recording of the livestream. (remember, this is a blog, done in the author’s spare time)

Ford’s speech

Ford stood up to strongly call for a UK-style system where certificates must be inspected on final handover of firearms and ammunition.

She also spoke in favour of her proposal to maintain the current sensible system where museums and collectors can own firearms subject to certification, rather than banning collections of automatic firearms and forcing them to be partially destroyed through deactivation.

She also said that, for example, “Czech authorities should be able to log into the database in France” with reference to the EU’s planned database of every single lawful firearms owner and trader.

Markings for new manufactured products came under the spotlight. “I would be concerned if we were leaving reasonably modern firearms owned by many people in an unmarked state,” said Ford.

On replicas, Ford said: “Anything capable of being converted into a firearm is a firearm under article 1.1”. UKSN’s author did not catch which EU diktat she was referring to.