German gun club lobbyists were recently invited to the German Interior Ministry to discuss the European Commission’s proposed plans to tighten Europe’s gun laws in the wake of the Paris terrorist attacks. Measures included expanding the gun registry, banning certain semi-automatic firearms and tightening rules for buying guns online.
The lobbyists didn’t have to argue much, as the German government, along with counterparts in Austria, Czechoslovakia and Finland, all desire to stop these proposals. After the meeting, Joachim Streitberger, head of Germany’s association of shooting ranges, said, “I do not expect the draft to come into force in the present form.”
That’s good news for European gun owners. An online petition opposing the gun-control reforms has collected nearly 280,000 signatures to date. It includes a statement that reads, in part, that it is “an insult to our civil liberties and to the intelligence of the EU citizens as a whole.”
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