MEP Vicky Ford is confident Parliament's redrafted firearms directive will protect law-abiding hunters and museums while preventing terrorists access to guns.

Parliament closes loopholes in gun control law

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The aim of the reboot  of the Firearms Directive:

that had allowed terrorists involved  in the attacks in the Charlie Hebdo offices

to buy a gun legally  and convert it to a prohibited live firearm.

But can the European Parliament steer  the legislation in the right direction?

We spoke to the author of the report,  UK MEP from the European Conservatives,

Can you tell us,  what is the aim of this legislation?

In my view, in the Parliament  the goal of this legislation 

was to close the loophole  that was exploited during the Paris attack.

So we have had common European gun  law since the 1990s.

There was a particular issue  on what we call acoustic weapons,

which were these live firearms supposedly  converted to only be able to fire blanks,

but then re-converted and used  in those Charlie Hebdo attacks.

Once they became a blank firearm they fell  outside EU law, you didn't need a permit.

We have reinstated that so you will not be  able to turn it into a blank firearm

and allow it to be outside the law,  it will still be regulated.

However, the purpose of the amendments  here was to clarify a lot of bad drafting

and thus unintended consequences  that had been brought through 

So the...  -You've been quite critical of the proposals.

They drafted significant changes in their  proposal that came through in November

which caused huge concern  for how museums work, 

how traditional hunters and sport shooters

and even those doing military  re-enactments could work.

They came up with a new common  standard on deactivated firearms 

which is in many places technically  just not feasible to do.

But let's talk through the actual types  of guns that this will catch.

The Commission will want to catch  two types of semi-automatic weapons,

the Kalashnikovs and these  deactivated guns, is that the case?

The issue is not the deactivated guns,  the issue was specifically 

On the semi-automatic firearms, again the  Commission's text was terribly worded:

it said 'anything that resembles  or looks like',

so it could have even caught  replicas or toy guns,

it was very, very poorly drafted  legal language.

We have tightened that up  so that there will be specific controls

on a semi-automatic that can fire  over a certain number of rounds,

and you will only be able to use those  if you are a registered target shooter

who has taken part in competitions  in a club or contest.

So the target shooters can use those  but not the average individual.

So the legislation the EP has redrafted will  now protect the rights of legal gun owners? 

We have spoken to them and they said that  they are put through very stringent tests,

so why should this legislation catch them?  -Tests may differ between countries,

the tests will be there, as well as  the restrictions as they have at the moment,

but they will not make it impossible for them  to carry on with their sporting activities.

The Commission's text in many places  would have done that,

that's why I've been working with hunters,  the people running museums,

those running the shooting competitions,

to try and make sure   that their activities can still carry on

but under a stringent legal framework  that will bring into place 

and make sure that EU authorities can also  share information about what's going on.

The reboot of this legislation came about  because of a terrorist incident.

But is this legislation per se  going to be able to tackle terrorism full on?

Other work is needed  on tackling terrorism.

This is ensuring that legal firearms  can be legally owned across Europe.

We have closed the loophole that was  exploited by terrorists in the legal laws.

There needs to be separate work,  that is not part of this Committee's work,

looking at how tackle illegal use of firearms  and that is a different issue.

Lovely, thank you Ms Ford  for joining us on EuroparlTV.

Parliament closes loopholes in gun control law

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