{"id":220,"date":"2008-01-07T12:00:24","date_gmt":"2008-01-07T12:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.cybershooters.org\/?p=220"},"modified":"2015-04-16T23:20:09","modified_gmt":"2015-04-16T22:20:09","slug":"obscure-things-you-should-know-about","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cybershooters.org\/?p=220","title":{"rendered":"Obscure things you should know about"},"content":{"rendered":"

January 7th, 2008<\/span> – In this case the rather obscure but very important (if you’re a gun owner) European Firearms Directive.\u00a0 Although the Directive has been on the books since 1991, most gun owners still only seem to have a passing familiarity with it, usually when they think about going shooting abroad somewhere else in the EU and their local licensing dept. tells them that they need a European Firearms Pass.\u00a0 The Directive was made part of the legislation of the UK via the Firearms Acts (Amendment) Regulations 1992<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Directive itself was a hodgepodge of various legislation that the then European Community members thought the other members should have, one example being a ban on firearms disguised as other objects (thank you Belgium) or a ban on expanding pistol ammunition (thank you Germany).\u00a0 The main parts of it that people are aware of in the UK and Ireland (due to the fact the gun laws there are so restrictive that it made little difference to domestic licensing) are the European Firearm Pass, which is required for travel to another EU State (in addition to any permits that State may require) and also the Article 7 authority, which is required for acquisition of a Category B firearm in another EU State (i.e. most handguns and semi-automatic long guns), in addition to any other paperwork that country may require.<\/span><\/p>\n

Basically, it was a bureaucratic nightmare foisted on the EU, with lots of illogical bits in it and a passport system for guns that has never worked because it is not pre-emptive, and countries such as Ireland and the UK still require separate import permits.\u00a0 One of the most glaring problems was the total lack of information sharing between States.\u00a0 For example if you used an Article 7 authority to buy a gun in another State, the dealer was supposed to give it to the local authorities, who reported that to the national authorities, who then reported that to your national authorities, who then reported that to your local authorities, so they knew that you had bought a firearm.\u00a0 Which, oddly enough, given the complexity of it, never actually happened…<\/span><\/p>\n

The Directive has been under review now for some time, and all this led to was a recent amendment to make the EFP and Article 7 authorities published in the 25 official languages of the expanded EU.\u00a0 However, the Directive itself came to public attention because of a recent school shooting in Finland.\u00a0 Finland itself had opposed a fairly obscure amendment to the Directive that would prohibit minors (under 18) from possessing firearms for sporting purposes without adult supervision.\u00a0 After the shooting, the Finnish Govt. made the momentous decision to change their mind.\u00a0 Or rather some bureaucrat somewhere took some heat and shrugged his shoulders and crossed off a minor agenda item for Finnish MEPs, most likely.\u00a0 Somewhere in the media furore, the fact that the shooter at the school had in fact been 18 years old, and only qualified for a Finnish gun licence under current Finnish domestic law because of his age, was lost.<\/span><\/p>\n

Regardless, the amendments to the European Firearms Directive moved up the agenda of the European Parliament slightly and the amendments were recently passed as follows<\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n