IMCO Vote on 26/01/2017

Tomorrow between 10:00 and 12:30 the comittee IMCO will vote on the compromise of the trilogue. We assume there will be a short debate before the vote  – as usual.

You can download the paper (only in English) here: Click

Again – as in summer 2016 – the Member of IMCO have only an English text to vote on. Again – as in summer 2016 – the paper has been published only some days (20/01/17) before the vote. And we assume – as in summer2016 – the majority will agree to the compromise.

You can see more here: Link to IMCO

You may follow the vote on webstream: LINK

FIREARMS UNITED worked on the compromise the last weeks, visited MEPs in Brussels and our staff is in contacts with several MEPs by email and telephone.

We concentrate our work on these six points:

  1. Collectors, museum & firearms of interest
  2. Loading devices & re-categorization of semi-automatic rifles
  3. Long firearms with folding or removable stocks
  4. Automatic firearms converted to semi-automatic
  5. The Sport Shooters’ exemption & Firearms Pass
  6. Retaining category “D” for 3 groups of firearms

Of course there is no evidence at all to amend the directive. Of course the only rational decision should be rejection of the proposal as well as of the compromise. But as Vicky Ford and Jussi Halla-Aho stated on our conference in November: there is no majority for rejection, most politicians are not interested in this subject and want “to do something against terrorism”. As most politicians do not own guns and don’t know gun owners it is easy for them to ban things they do not “need”.

FIREARMS UNITED will do its very best to change the point of view of the uninterested politicians with facts. “To do something” against legal gun owners is not the best solution in the combat against illicit trafficking of firearms and against terrorism and crime.

You may support our fight by calling the local offices of your MEPs by phone. You can use our impact assessment for arguments. We sent the short version by letter to all MEPs in November.

Be polite! We are not the “aggressive gunlobby” but law abiding citizens who will vote.

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