Brussels, 21/10/2013 (Agence Europe) - On Monday morning, Commissioner for Home Affairs Cecilia Malmström presented a communication on how to improve controls on the legal circulation of firearms, in an effort to prevent massacres, such as those perpetrated by Anders Breivik in Norway in 2011 and Mohamed Merah in France last year. This text examines ways of improving control of the production, sale, possession, trade, storage and deactivating of arms, while respecting strong traditions of lawful gun use, like sports shooting and hunting for example.
The Commission explains that common European rules on the modalities for deactivating firearms could guarantee that once these firearms have been deactivated they will never be able to be used again. It is also seeking a “common approach on how to mark firearms with serial numbers when they are manufactured in order to help trace those used by criminals”. According to available figures, every year more than 1,000 people are the victims of homicide with the use of a firearm and more than half a million firearms that have been registered as lost or stolen in the EU have still not been located.
Some of the suggestions put forward by the Commission include the possibility of examining the introduction of legislation with minimum common rules for applying criminal sanctions. “Such rules could prescribe which firearm offences should be subject to criminal sanctions (illicit manufacture, trafficking, tampering with markings, illegal possession of a firearm and intent to supply firearm), as well as specifying the level of sanctions that should be imposed by member states”.
Reducing gun violence could also be done by tightening the EU internal market directive on the possession of weapons in the member states, by for example, reducing access to particularly dangerous weapons models for civilian use. The Commission will also look at procedures for the licensing of weapons as part of its search for concrete solutions. The Commission will also look for more information on new technological challenges, such as online sales of weapons or 3D printing of weapons parts, but also on how to reduce the risk of illegal delivery of firearms by postal services.
According to a Eurobarometer survey also published on Monday, shows that six in ten Europeans (58%) actually believe that the level of crime involving firearms is likely to increase over the next five years; it also shows that overall 55% of Europeans want stricter regulation on who is allowed to own, buy or sell firearms. (SP/transl.fl)