EU GUN CONTROL STRENGTHENED
April 24, 2008 10:25 AM
EU Member States have agreed to improve and tighten gun control legislation, in order to reinforce the fight against organised crime and firearms trafficking. Among the measures agreed are improved traceability and stronger rules for the acquisition, sale and possession of firearms, in particular for convertible weapons.
The news comes at a time many metropolitan areas in the West Midlands are struggling with gun problems, as one of the UK government's four gun crime hotspots. Gun crime in the West Midlands accounts for some nine percent of all firearms offences in England and Wales at 37 firearms offences per 100,000 people.
Local Euro-MP Liz Lynne, Vice President of the European Parliament's Employments and Social Affairs Committee, said:
"These new controls can't come soon enough and is an example of how European Member States can work together for the common good; locally during the week we have seen two armed robberies on the same vet's clinic and two high profile court cases for what could only be described as horrific shootings.
"The increasing gun crime problem in the UK is mirrored in other EU countries and many guns disappear off the radar as they are taken to other Member States. To tackle this we need to work together to eradicate this menace from our streets by better marking and traceability of guns, and better, coordinated databases of serial numbers."
ENDS
Notes:
The directive, having been previously approved by European Parliament and now the European Council of Ministers (Justice/Home Affairs ministers from EU Member State governments) will now be published in the Official Journal of the European Union and come into force twenty days later.
Further measures to control the illegal gun trade remain the responsibility of EU Member States.
The new directive has the support of Keith Bristow, Chief Constable of Warwickshire Police, who is the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) portfolio holder for Criminal Use of Firearms and as such has been following the proposals for a review of the EU legislation on the control of the acquisition and possession of weapons.
In 2006 almost half the weapons seized by Greater Manchester Police had been converted after being imported from countries such as Germany or Lithuania as alarm guns, gas guns or blank-firing guns.
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