FACE: Commissioner Bieńkowska’s 100.000 deaths unfounded

Commissioner Bieńkowska’s Scandalous Speech

Mrs Elżbieta Bieńkowska ( European Commission ) claimed 100.000 deaths in ten years by legally-held firearms.

FACE’s Press Release

„FACE President Michl Ebner commented: “Commissioner Bieńkowska’s unfounded statement that 100,000 citizens were “murdered” by legal firearms does not contribute to the democratic debate on the revision of the Firearms Directive. The European Commission is adopting an incomprehensibly rigid attitude towards a serious piece of legislation, which is now risking to disproportionately affect legal firearm owners with no predictable outcome on terrorism and criminality”.

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What now follows is a Facebook Note by the free online magazine Hunter at Heart which we are allowed to share:


EU gun ban is based on lies

HUNTER AT HEART·MITTWOCH, 25. MAI 2016

Yesterday the Polish commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska, who wants to impose a ban on certain hunting weapons for security reasons, claimed that 100,000 EU citizens have been murdered in their homes with legal semi-automatic firearms during the last decade. That is 10,000 murders a year committed with these firearms! Can this be true?

Allow me to present some facts:

In the EU the average homicide rate in 2011 was 1.11 homicides pr. 100,000 people with a downward trend. As of 2015 the total EU population is roughly 508 million people. This equates to approximately 5,600 homicides in total – a little more than half the number claimed by Bieńkowska.

The total number of homicides includes every murder with every conceivable weapon… hands, knives, blunt instruments, illegal firearms and legal firearms etc. It is very rare that homicides are carried out with legal registered firearms. Actually, a lot less than 10% of all murders are committed with legal firearms or even legal firearms stolen from private owners. A country with very good statistics on this matter is Sweden where roughly 7% of all murders are committed with legal or ex-legal firearms – the vast majority of these being simple shotguns which will not be affected by the proposed ban.

Assuming that 10% of all homicides in the EU are committed with legal or ex-legal firearms brings us to an estimate of a maximum of 560 homicides committed with these private firearms in the EU every year. The actual number is most probably MUCH lower than that.

Furthermore, semi-automatic firearms are not that usual so the number of murders committed with these weapons can only be a fraction of the maximum 560 murders committed with all legal firearms. My gut feeling is that less than 50 homicides a year are committed with the legally or ex-legally owned semi-automatic firearms that Bieńkowska blames for 10,000 murders a year. But that is just an educated guess so let’s stick to the estimated maximum of 560 homicides committed with legal or stolen ex-legal firearms of all types a year.

560 homicides is a VERY far cry from 10,000 homicides.

Here is the million-dollar-question:

Is Elżbieta Bieńkowska completely ignorant of the facts of the matter or is she lying deliberately?

Neither ignorance nor lies are worthy of a high ranking EU politician driving what is clearly a very personal and emotional motion to harass the more than 7 million law abiding hunters of the EU.

It is time to apologize and to find out EXACTLY how many homicides are committed with legal or ex-legal private firearms in the EU every year. Is this a problem at all???? Clearly the EU politicians are incapable of simply guessing the numbers and big decisions affecting millions of citizens need to be based on facts.

Jens Ulrik Høgh Editor – www.hunter-at-heart.com

P.S Here is the contact details for personal assistant to the Commissioner Bartosz Lasota: bartosz.lasota@ec.europa.eu

Feel free to drop him a POLITE email sharing your thoughts on the commissioners behavior.

Documentation:
VIDEO: The commissioner presenting her “evidence” for the IMCO comitee:
EU homicide rate: http://www.indexmundi.com/facts/european-union/homicide-rate
Swedish homicide statistics (in Swedish): https://www.bra.se/bra/brott-och-statistik/mord-och-drap.html
Swedish statistics of guns used in crime (in Swedish): https://vapenfakta.se/forskning-och-statistik/vapen-och-brott/


Read also our report: Homicide and Suicide with Firearms in Europe

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One Comment on “FACE: Commissioner Bieńkowska’s 100.000 deaths unfounded”

  1. Monsieur le Président,

    Je me permets d’attirer expressément votre attention sur les actuelles propositions législatives de la Commission Européenne concernant le contrôle des armes en Europe. Ces propositions découlent d’une méconnaissance évidente de ce que moi, tireur sportif et détenteur légal d’armes, je vis quotidiennement dans mon pays.

    En effet, je suis déjà tout à fait respectueux de la réglementation officielle dans le cadre d’une part, des autorisations et des contrôles pour l’acquisition et la détention d’armes de loisirs et de sport, et d’autre part des mesures de sécurité concernant le stockage, le transport et la mise en œuvre des armes dans le club de tir que je fréquente régulièrement. A ce titre et en tant qu’honnête citoyen, je supporte assez difficilement le fait d’une comparaison du tireur sportif que je suis, avec les terroristes qui ont durement frappé mon pays et dans lesquels je ne me reconnais nullement.

    Officiellement licencié auprès de la Fédération Française de Tir, je pratique ce sport depuis plus de trente années comme un loisir, en toute connaissance de cause et parfaitement lucide de mes propres responsabilités. Pratiquant ce sport à un rythme hebdomadaire, j’estime avoir des connaissances de manipulations, d’entretien et d’entraînement suffisantes, sinon au même niveau que les forces de l’ordre et les forces armées dont je suis issu après 40 années de service. Ainsi, restreindre aujourd’hui mes droits en tant qu’utilisateur sportif légitime, affilié à une fédération sportive reconnue dont les disciplines sont olympiques, sous prétexte de lutter contre le trafic d’armes, n’aura aucune incidence sur l’effet de contrôle escompté afin de lutter contre les filières illégales d’approvisionnement en arme des terroristes.

    J’insiste, en tant que pratiquant plusieurs disciplines de tir sportif m’ouvrant le droit à la compétition, que j’y trouve du plaisir, de la sérénité et un apaisement du quotidien. Cette pratique me fait également faire des exercices de concentration, de coordination de mouvements, de mise en situation de compétition, d’organisation matérielle juste nécessaire dans le cadre ce simple loisir.

    De grâce, je vous demande de reconnaître, ou de faire reconnaître ma situation d’honnête citoyen respectueux des lois et des conventions, pour ne pas m’assimiler, ou me faire assimiler en tant qu’individu propre à devoir faire l’objet de contrôles dans l’adoption de propositions législatives qui n’ont rien à voir ce que je suis.

    Veuillez agréer, Monsieur le Président, l’expression de ma haute considération.

    Mister President,

    Allow me to specifically draw your attention to the legislative proposals of the European Commission concerning arms control in Europe. These proposals arise from an obvious lack of knowledge of what I, marksman and legal holder of weapons, I live daily in my country.

    In fact, I’m already quite respectful of Government Regulation in the context of a share, permissions and controls for the acquisition and possession of firearms for recreation and sport, and the other measures security on storage, transport and the implementation of weapons in the shooting club that I frequent regularly. As such and as an honest citizen, I support quite difficult due to the comparison sport shooter that I am, with the terrorists that hit my country and in which I do not recognize myself.

    Officially licensed with the French Archery Federation, I practice this sport for over thirty years as a hobby, in knowingly perfectly lucid and my own responsibilities. Practicing the sport on a weekly basis, I believe I have knowledge of handling, maintenance and adequate training, if not at the same level as the police and armed forces which I come after 40 years of service . So now restrict my rights as a legitimate sporting a user affiliated with a recognized sports federation of which are Olympic disciplines, under the pretext of the fight against arms trafficking, will not affect the control effect expected to fight against illegal supply chains in terrorist weapon.

    I insist, as a practicing several disciplines of sport shooting opening me the right to compete, that I find pleasure, serenity and a daily appeasement. This practice also makes me do concentration exercises, coordination of movements, put in competition, with just enough material organization within this simple pleasure.

    Please, I ask you to recognize, or to recognize my status honest law-abiding citizen and conventions, not to assimilate, assimilate or me as an individual to own duty to be controls in the adoption of legislative proposals that have nothing to do with what I am.

    Please accept, Mister President, the expression of my highest consideration.

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