EU:S NEW FIREARMS DIRECTIVE WILL BE A DISASTER
European Commission is proposing a new firearms directive to replace the 91/477/EEC. The new directive would make most semiautomatic rifles prohibited from civilians. The directive would also ban all automatic firearms and impose significant restrictions on online sales of weapons. Finally all firearms permits would be issued only for five years.
This proposed new directive would effectively end several shooting sports, most prominently practical shooting (IPSC). It would also effect hunters, weapons collectors and reservists. Legally owned semiautomatic and automatic firearms are very rarely used in any kind of criminal activity. In fact owners of legal firearms are significantly more law abiding than the average population. Legally owned semiautomatic and automatic firearms pose no threat to the public safety and banning them would not reduce violent crime or terrorism in Europe.
In order to illustrate the gravest consequences of this new directive, i will have to go back in time. 76 years ago today the newspapers around Europe showed headlines like “Finn capital ablaze” as USSR unleashed an unprovoked invasion of neutral and peaceful democracy of Finland on the 30th of November 1939. That invasion was stopped by the valiant fighting of the Finnish army. That army was not professional, it was a reservists force. At the core of the miracle of Winter War were Finnish reservists that had honed their skills with privately owned firearms. The importance of the well trained reserve has not vanished over the decades. Recent event in Crimea have shown that every democratic nation must maintain a strong defense and Finland’s main line of defense are its trained reservists.
By allowing this directive to pass, European Commission and Parliament are severely hurting Finland’s defense, thousands of law abiding shooters, collectors and businesses. This kind of decisions should not be made by EU.
Even if you do not care about guns, defense and shooting sports, you should still oppose this directive. The preparation process of this directive has been appalling. Commission bureaucrats directly lied to several MEP:s and organisations that no new directive proposal was being prepared. Yet the Commission released the new directive only days after the Paris terrorist attack (that was conducted with illegal firearms). There have been no impact assessments made on this proposal and most of the background work behind this proposal has been done by an expert group that only represents anti-gun organisations.
Please show support to reservists, sport shooters, hunters and collector of Europe. Help stop this directive that will do more harm than good!
Here is a petition against this directive proposal, please sign!
Petri Mäkelä
IPSC-Shooter
Reservist
