Firearm Possession in UK and EU

[Thin Black Line]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/12/21/nguns121.xml

Police said that there was no minimum age requirement for a holding licence and that a certificate would be issued to anyone who was not banned under the Firearms Act or did not pose a risk to public safety.

Campiagners expressed shock last night that those so young were being given licences. However, police said that children were not allowed to own a gun unless they were over 16 and licences were not issued until they were satisfied that security measures were in place and that adults were supervising correctly.

I found this quote most interesting:

Last month the EU agreed a directive restricting gun possession to those aged 18 and over. It must become law in Britain by 2010.

Wow, kinda sucks when you join a larger "trading block" which later grows
into a larger beaurocracy with power above your national government
...good thing we don't have anything like that here approaching us from
the horizon....

 

[El Tejon]

Don't bet your last Amero on that last statement.

 

[joffe]

Yeah, you know, in many ways the U.S. Federal Government has absorbed more powers into itself than the EU bureaucrat behemoth has.. But then again, the USA is a federation, while the EU is.. 'something', they won't even admit to being a huge federation. At least the Feds are up-front about being tyrants.

And devolution doesn't help much when every country is a blue copy of Caliyorkjerseycago, and any local laws are as bad or stricter as the centralised Brüssel standard.. Select Eastern European countries being the sole exception. Now it seems they will be steamrolled by Brüssel too.

 

[Boris Barowski]

not owning a gun under 18 was inevitable to become european law (actually it's not a law, it's a directive)

what's worse, in Belgium for example, and many other countries for that matter, it is now illegal to handle firearm when under 16...

what was first on the table was much worse (proposed by Callenbach), but thanks to the european NRA equivalent, much harm has been avoided.

It is indeed sad, we started the EU to open up our markets, but they have become a dominant factor with a large bureaucracy where politicians go to "retire" etc. It cost Flanders (the northern part of Belgium) a net 700 million euros to be part of this "wonderful community". We have a population of 6 million...

 

[agricola]

That Telegraph article is a joy to behold. One would have thought a system sees - at its worst - seventy-eight injuries (one assumes these are accidents) involving firearms certificate holders, nationally, in a given year would be held up as a success (after all, its probably the only part of the Home Office that is working as intended).

We will probably opt-out of this, or phrase it in such a way that is consistent with current law (ie: an 18 year old has to buy it, and store it, but the 16 year old can possess it, and younger children have to be accompanied). As the article alludes to, the vast majority of these people are either people who shoot socially, or farmers.

 

[macFarlaine]

Watch this space..our new Prime Minister is not very friendly with his European counterparts.We might see some things change ?

 

[ServiceSoon]

Does this mean you guys think the North American Union is real? The reason I ask is because at this point the people who believe in the NAU are conspiracy theorist. And if you happen to own firearms that makes you a "gun nut." Those two (conspiracy theories and gun-nut) aren’t a good combination in the powers that be's opinion.

On a separate note, in this video, Thomas Barnett said China has given up some of their government powers to the EU. The threat of world government is real.

 

[Fosbery]

There was a newspaper article yesterday bemoaning how a British child has just received a gun certificate at 9 years of age. Made me smile to know that kids are still enjoying shooting, but made me sad to see it portrayed as a bad thing

 

[Thin Black Line]

So do all those under-18's in UK get grandfathered in when the EU "rule" goes
into effect in 2010 or do they become criminals and terrorists overnight?

 

[Mk VII]

No such thing as 'grandfathering' here

 

[Fosbery]

Not necessarily. There's nothing that says grandfathering can't be done and indeed a form if it is often used. For instance, when switchblades were banned they only banned their sale, import, manufacture, lending, hiring and giving - not ownership. In other words: if you owned it before the ban, you can keep it. Same goes for expansing batons, balisongs, RIFs etc.