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Article of EUobserver by NIKOLAJ NIELSEN of 14/11/16:
EU lawmakers are meeting on Tuesday (15 November) for another round of backroom talks to curb gun violence and prevent terrorists from acquiring weapons on the black market.
Debates around the European Commission’s EU firearms directive reform, proposed in the aftermath the Paris November terrorist attacks, appears to be advancing as positions converge between the two co-legislatures at the European Parliament and the Council, representing member states.
The latest reform tabled by the EU commission’s internal affairs branch, DG Home, intends to, among other things, restrict the online purchase of weapons, ban certain semi-automatic firearms as well as so-called deactivated guns that can no longer fire bullets.
Michael Benstein, a weapons expert in German Federal Police Office said: Manufacturers design semi-automatic weapons to look less like their military grade counterparts.
Benstein also noted that some hunting rifles use the same technology as the Kalashnikovs that killed dozens of people in Paris this time last year.*
“We would end up banning a whole category of weapons without any real effect,” he said.
FIREARMS UNITED: * Guns don’t kill, terrorists kill!
And they use tracks, bombs, knives and fire – if they get no guns. We assume that the expert Benstein did not use these words as he knows that people kill, not tools.
Nils Duquet from the Flemish Peace Institute, who writes the biased reports for DG Home Firearms Taskforce Head Fabio Marini. It is very interesting that the author links the proposal – as we do – to DG Home and not to DG Grow which published it.
Michael Benstein, a weapons expert in German Federal Police Office, who made an excellent speech at LIBE meeting in European Parliament in February and also gave the right answers.
You can watch the whole Mini Hearing with translations here: Link
A summary in German you can find here: Link