Brussels, 05/07/2016 (Agence Europe) - In a press release on Monday 4 July, the European Federation of Associations for Hunting & Conservation (FACE) welcomed the response by Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska stating that automatic firearms converted to semi-automatic firearms were highly dangerous as they can easily be turned into military weapons, unlike firearms manufactured as semi-automatic.
The commissioner was responding to a question put in March by MEP Jiri Mastalka (GUE/NGL, Czech Republic) who wondered what was to be made of the new category specifically for converted semi-automatic firearms (category A6) proposed by the European Commission (see EUROPE 11433) and what the difference was between a semi-automatic firearm produced as such and an automatic firearm converted to semi-automatic.
For FACE, this is a welcome clarification. It notes that semi-automatic firearms are used by hunters and also by sport shooters. It would be wrong, therefore, to criminalise these people and, moreover, would not have any effect on security since terrorists buy their weapons almost exclusively on parallel markets. Many people, including a number of MEPs, fear that the firearms directive will make hitherto legally held arms illegal (see EUROPE 11451) and could result in these arms making their way onto the black market.
The problem can be avoided by stopping preventing improperly converted firearms finding their way onto the market and not by targeting semi-automatic firearms designed and produced for hunting and sport shooting, said FACE Secretary General Filippo Segato. The European Parliament would appear, however, to be moving towards a more balanced stance (see EUROPE 11572) that, paradoxically, offers greater flexibility than the position adopted by the Council (see EUROPE 11570). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)