Meeting of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection on the Control of the acquisition and possession of weapons, a report by Vicky FORD (ECR, UK), in the EP in Brussels. Statements by Vicky FORD (ECR, UK), Anna Maria CORAZZA BILDT (EPP, SE), Sergio Gaetano COFFERATI (S&amp;D, IT), Dita CHARANZOV&Aacute; (ALDE, CZ) and Pascal DURAND (Greens/EFA, FR)&nbsp;

Brussels

Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection

debate

meeting

CHARANZOVÁ, Dita (Renew, CZ)

FORD, Vicky (ECR, UK)

CORAZZA BILDT, Anna Maria (EPP, SE)

DURAND, Pascal (S&D, FR)

firearms directive (T)

COFFERATI, Sergio Gaetano (S&D, IT)

Control of the acquisition and possession of weapons: extracts from the debate on the report by Vicky FORD (ECR, UK)

SOUNDBITE (English), Vicky FORD (ECR, UK), In my own country right now there is Court case going on of a case of 30 different firearms which were found and which in theory deactivated and turned into blanc firearms, but in practise were easy to re-activate, were smuggled across the channel and if they have got into the hands of the terrorist who were wanting to use them, there we would have been very easily been a Paris style attack in London.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vicky FORD (ECR, UK), On de-activated weapons a firearm should only be considered de-activated if the process is truly irreversible.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vicky FORD (ECR, UK), My suggestion is that alarm instruments, alarm items which were only constructed for the purpose raising alarm or sending signals are not firearms, unless they can be converted into firearm or shared in an essential component; I'm proposing an implemented act to work into the details of this.

SOUNDBITE (English), Vicky FORD (ECR, UK), Online sales would be permitted but the final transfer needs to be face to face with authorities, so you could advertise online but you need to make sure that the final transfer is properly verified face to face and you are checking that the person that you transferring to really does have authority and the correct certification.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anna Maria CORAZZA BILDT (EPP, SE), On the issue of essential components and marking it is extremely important to have traceability and to have common mandatory marking system in the EU; but I do not agree with those that we should mark all the parts, we should as much as possible follow and harmonise the UN existing protocol, they are talking about marking the receiver only, but I could very much go with you on the issue of marking the essential components when it is reasonable and with a pragmatic approach.

SOUNDBITE (English), Anna Maria CORAZZA BILDT (EPP, SE), In a country like Sweden you have more or less 700.000 legally gun owners and you have about 2 Million weapons more or less, that would create an enormous burden of bureaucracy.

SOUNDBITE (Italian), Sergio Gaetano COFFERATI (S&amp;D, IT), My feeling is that it is extremely important to have marking on all essential components of a firearm, so that we can be able to break every element down and put it back together, that we would be able to fight illegal use of the weapon.

SOUNDBITE (English), Dita CHARANZOV&#193; (ALDE, CZ), Concerning the possibility for Member States to grant exemptions for special cases when it comes to possession of some categories of weapons: we were missing this in the Commission's proposal and I'm glad that your draft report brings its back; it is not only important for public institutions, for museums or universities, but also for some private companies having their core business in security or in the defence sector.

SOUNDBITE (French), Pascal DURAND (Greens/EFA, FR), We have listened to the police who were saying that the situation has become much worse and there is huge trafficking of arms so we have to balance defending our freedoms and to defend the public security in a general approach.

SOUNDBITE (French), Pascal DURAND (Greens/EFA, FR), They told us that they have a problem with certain types of manufacturing like Kalashnikovs which can be transformed, you can find that on the internet you can find that on the internet in the United States and you can turn that into automatic weapons and there the danger is much higher.