We’ve been covering the Czech Republic’s consideration of adding an amendment to their constitution. It establishes a right for their citizens to keep and bear arms, much like we have here with the Second Amendment in the United States. Word comes today that the Czech parliament has just approved this expansion of fundamental civil rights for their citizens — by a margin of 139 to 9.

The new amendment states that citizens have a right to posses and carry firearms for the protection of their lives and property.

The measure has one important difference from the American version: there’s a specific line stating that the right is subject to restrictions passed by the legislature. So while everyone has a “right” to carry a gun, the legislature left themselves a loophole to lock that down as tightly as they may want with no constitutional entanglements.

The amendment now goes on to their senate where it needs to be ratified before being adopted. Stay tuned.

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65 COMMENTS

  2. Any step is a good first step, unfortunate that they gave themselves such an easy out for future fickle politicians touting the ‘public health and safety’ drum in an attempt to consolidate power

    Sometimes a taste of freedom is enough to demand more freedom

    • It’s still a good step, but I agree, there seems to be a lot of wiggle room. Then again, no matter how clear and binding the wording, politicians will still do whatever they want, unless the People hold them accountable for infringements.

  4. Congratulations Czech citizens! A major step forward for what I think is, now, the most advanced country of Europe. Not as good as our 2nd Amendment but a HUGE step for the Czechs, who see the dangers of the muslim invasion. They have to fight to defend what they have achieved and for more.

    • I wonder if there goverment will impose a “license” complete with shakedown fee like most of our states do? Good for them though.

    • A quarter of my family are 2nd/3rd gen Czechs from around Moravské Budějovice (approx. 130k from CZ); a lot of them talk to their mothercountry kin daily, with the whole clan gathering biannually.

      I don’t often talk to them much outside reunions & holidays; but when a bunch of the clan muži-lidové (menfolk) gather in one place, talk invariably turns to hunting, guns, děda’s slivovitz (grandpa’s bootleg plum race-fuel/de-icer/anesthetic), and politics…. in that order, not before starting over with a fresh round(s) of Czech booze.

      Increasingly over the past few years, talk has become louder than usual about Czech sovereignty vs. the EU (i.e. those effete metro French asslords & Merkel); aligning with Hungary against the haji invasion; stronger economic/military ties with Poland, Hungary, and the Baltics (everyone else is too soft with Russia); gun rights both here & the mother country, CZ vs. everyone else (esp. makaróny O/U scatterguns), etc.

      Incidentally, my maternal kin are Germans from Russia (i.e. Volga German farmers driven out by Stalin) and Poland (also driven out by the reds’ pre-nazi invasion).
      They talk to the few left in Poland & Belarus far less often than my Mormon-exile & Czech side does with their own, and AFAIK I’m the only American cousin to actually visit, during the 5yrs I was posted in Kaiserslautern & Mannheim.

      But on all sides of the tree, everyone old enough to know better unanimously despises all forms of gun-control, communists, fascists, Italian guns/cars, and illegal immigrants or “refugees”. They found out the hard way that any gun-control is on the one true path to oppression & death. My forebears & elders certainly didn’t leave Europe quietly; those that stayed did so only because they ran out of bullets, blood, or were captured/trapped by Nazis and the Soviets. And they definitely didn’t just land wherever was most comfortable and start begging/breeding/robbing/raping, all while passive-aggressively subverting a host country’s culture with militant Lutheranism, leather pants, drinking songs & games, or funky letter accents.

    • This isn’t about any Muslim invasion which non-existent in the country (although very real in neighboring Germany and Austria – both 2 hours drive from Prague), but about the EU Gun Ban.

      The aim is to claim that armed citizenry is part of national security domain in the country and thus outside of the scope of authority of European law, including the new European Firearms Directive. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Firearms_Directive#Amending_Directive_.28EU.29_2017.2F853

      It is all about keeping the current level of freedom/gun control that we have (i.e. shall issue concealed carry permit for SBR vz.58 that was made by conversion from military surplus and which has standard capacity magazine) inspite of creeping EU legislation.

  5. Thank G-d that our 2nd Amendment as revealed by Moses in the Bible has never been subject to any legislature whatsoever. The American Scripture wins again.

      • Maybe that’s a joke, and people like us who were raised behind the “curtain” can’t understand it because commies can’t smile.

        • Why censor the word “God,” particularly when not spoken in a negative manner, i.e. god damnit, especially on a site that allows the use of the word “fuck?”

          Just curious…

        • You’re right, but what in the world is the “American Scripture”?

          When I look at California, it doesn’t look like the 2A “has never been subject to any legislature whatsoever.”

        • Cueballer- some folks were raised to hyphenate the word so as not to take it in “vain”. Doing so is regardless of context, fwiw.

        • The Constitution starts out “We the People …”.

          We reserve the rights and governing authority to ourselves. God has no say in the matter. Nor do priests, rabbis, imams, atheists nor anyone else.

        • @ BLAMMO: First off, you’re right about self government, but since men are “Endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights,” it doesn’t make sense that God wants you to not have them.

          But then again, you probably don’t believe that Creator stuff anyways, which is cool with me and makes the post pointless.

          Happy (if that’s not inappropriate) Operation Red Wings day.

        • Yep. Gun design inspired by G-d direct to the fingers of his prophet, Moses. John Moses Browning, to be exact.

    • “…our 2nd Amendment…has never been subject to any legislature whatsoever.” You’re kidding, right?

  8. Interesting how a former communist slave state is moving to insure all of its citizens the right to guns.

    Interesting how former slave states in America are moving to insure all citizens have access to Arms. Mississippi the worst state with its numbers of lynchings. Now has constitutional carry!

    Interesting how non slave states like New York, New Jersey, California who sent a battalion of soldiers to fight on the union side, all of them free states, are now working to taken away the human right to armed self-defense.

    Western Europe, England, all threatened with Nazi rule forever. Now free by hundreds of thousands of dead American soldiers, are now working to disarm the citizens and at the same time import rapists and murderers.

    Interesting.

    • Don’t forget in the case of W. Europe and the UK, hundreds of thousands of their own grandfathers dead to resist the Nazis so their people could live free.

  9. The EU stuffed shirts will go completely ape if this passes.

    But it goes to show – the countries and cultures that have had to put up with Muslim invasion before seem to be taking their situation much more seriously than those countries that weren’t under Muslim domination in centuries past. Hungary, Poland, the Czechs – all remember what it was like the last time the Saracens came calling. And Brussels is having a cow at their actions.

    • Czechs weren’t really troubled by Turks too much (though men went south-east to fight the Ottomans).

      But all the countries you mentioned remember communists, and nazis (those real nazis from WW2) too. They were the biggest gun grabbers around for half a century here.

      The commies did us one good turn though – they kept our countries quite homogenous culturally til late 1980s and we don’t really have to fear big groups of people loyal to some non-nation concepts like the ummah.

    • That’s one thing I’ve come to admire about Russia and much of Eastern Europe…when it comes to this Islamist non-sense, they do not fcuk around.

  10. So the Czech saw what we did with the Second Amendment but wanted to clear the confusion that requires so many court rulings to show that Government can regulate firearms despite the armchair SCOTUS. Well done Czechs! You have a well written law and gained a right without all of the confusion

    • Yes, they were honest about their intended future infringements…and infringe they will. Too bad our statists can’t call it like it is instead of pretending to be so genuinely concerned about us.

    • As written, they didn’t gain a right at all. At best, they codified a privilege. Definitely better than the rest of Europe, but still pretty weak stuff.

  12. Wow, they fear real enemies more than they fear their own people. I wish I remembered a time like that.

    Signed,
    Kyle from California.

  13. This is a shot across the EU’s bow. Even with being able to regulate it as they see fit, it says nothing about the EU’s ability to regulate. I’ll give the nod to their sovereignty.

  14. It’s not exactly an equivalent to 2nd Amendment, but it put the subject of citizens bearing arms into the constitution as a nation security measure, hereby attempting to circumvent the recent nasty EU direction about firearms (since nation security matters are above EU directions).

    However, our Senate needs to give it a green light too.

  16. So: “You have a right to bear arms…except for when we decide you don’t”

    Looks like a win and a loss all in the same legislation.

    • Getting the 2nd Amendment into the european constitutions anywhere is illusory.

      Heck, even the Swiss who can have operating machine guns regularly at home, cannot carry anything outside. But in Czech republic, you can’t get regularly anything automatic, on the other hand the CCW is a shall-issue.

      Each coin has two sides.

      • This is true and while we should never be complacent with “good enough” when it comes to gun rights, I think that by European standards this is a huge win. We’ll just have to see how it plays out. Will the Czech amendment resemble NJ in their interpretation of firearms freedom, or Vermont?

        • Ideally, nothing will really change for the citizens regarding current Czech gun laws (shall issue CCW, shall-issue permit for any civilian-authorized semi-auto gun in very short) , which are already very good, and exceptional for Europe these days. But those gun laws become subject to national security through the constitution, thus the EU gunbanning directives should not really affect them.

      • As we keep preaching here: “The first rule of a gunfight is: have a gun.”

        Having the ‘right’ to own a gun, but not to carry it, is pretty much an academic approach to gun rights.

        Having a less academic right, but few legal restriction on carrying it everyday, and everywhere? Big win in the face of what Europe is now facing.

      • Well, in the Czech Republic once you get gun dealer’s license getting your hands on FA is pretty straightforward (instead of going through may issue process for standard civilian license, which may be challenged in courts where the court would most likely rule in favor of the applicant… after several years). So yeah, there is a red tape, but to make a comparison – it is still more straightforward to get FA AR 15 in the Czech Republic than getting semi-auto AR 15 in Germany.

        Otherwise, please note that Switzerland will be bound to implement the EU Gun Ban too. This amendment is our way to get out of the EU Gun Ban, it yet remains to be seen what the Swiss will come up with, if anything.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Firearms_Directive#Amending_Directive_.28EU.29_2017.2F853

  17. The new amendment states that citizens have a right to posses …

    Citizens have a right to posses? That’s fantastic. Does their Sheriff have to organize those posses or can the citizens form them without any oversight?
    /end_smart_alec

  18. As others have said elsewhere, we already are a shall-issue country (I’m Czech, in case you can’t guess that). This is more about doing what’s possible to prevent the EU from crippling our existing gun laws and disarming us – and it is not the only effort we’re making in this regard. The disarmament wouldn’t be total; the new EU directive, for those lucky enough not to know, tries to do things like limit magazine capacity or ban ex-military weapons that have been converted into semi-autos. In short, it does absolutely nothing to prevent loss of life and it is a part of an effort to to take away our rights bit by bit. The new amendment should help make gun laws a matter of national security, outside the EU reach.

    Could the text of the amendment be better? Sure. Could our existing gun laws get better? You bet. Will we try to gain even more? Yes, even if it takes a lot of time and sweat. But in this day and age, it is a victory that put a smile onto my face 😀

  19. Congratulations to the Czechs. I do still have mixed feelings about this as by instituting legislative caveats, they’ve boiled down their right into a privilege. However that is at least more up front and honest, as our own legislatures ignore the constitution and go ahead with their desired restrictions anyway, leaving the violations to be ignored or approved by the courts.

    • It’s not exactly a privilege. If you pass tests (paper test, safe manipulation and shoot successfully enough) and have everything that the law demands (age, health, dependability and integrity as defined by law) then you can get your gun(s) no more questions asked.

      It’s not exactly a right too, like “you’re a citizen, go and buy a gun.”

      But compared to the western Europe, it’s USA 😉

      • I’d only add that the difference between privilige and right is that you can successfully sue the government into compliance with your rights.

        Czechs can do that – once they meet the requirements.

        Can a Californian do that? Last I checked US Supreme Court continues to refuse to hear 2A cases.

  21. I guess seeing the invasion of Europe convinced most of them it was time to do something about it.

  23. Poland should be next. They did the next best thing, no mosques, no Muslims. Japan has also taken this approach. No mosques, no Muslims, no terrorist. The Japanese have a very strict no Islam policy. It’s to bad that they don’t allow firearms.

  24. Please correct the article. It has only passed through the Chamber of Deputies, it still needs to pass through Senate which is very far from a done deal.

    Also…

    > So while everyone has a “right” to carry a gun, the legislature left themselves a loophole to lock that down as tightly as they may want with no constitutional entanglements.

    The proposed text is as follows:

    > Citizens of the Czech Republic have the right to acquire, possess and carry arms and ammunition in order to fulfill the tasks set in subsection 2. This right may be limited by law and law may set further conditions for its exercise in case that it is necessary for protection of rights and freedoms of others, of public order and safety, lives and health or in order to prevent criminality.

    This means that any law which would limit that right would have to be necessary for the reasons stated, and Government would have to prove in front of the Constitutional Court that such necessity really exists (and that no lesser kind of infringement of the right to possess and carry would be sufficient to meet the given goal).

    You are right that the wording may have been better, but given that Czech Constitutional Court is very aggressive in protection of citizens’ rights, while US Constitutional Court is repeatedly refusing to hear 2A cases, if it passes it seems that us Czechs will be better off. Just ask anyone in New York, DC or California. And after asking them, ask yourself whether 2A is currently any good as regards protection of your rights in your home state.

  26. Sounds like the 1970 Illinois Constitution which passed only because it add a “right of the individual” to the Illinois Constitution.
    SECTION 22. RIGHT TO ARMS
    Subject only to the police power, the right of the
    individual citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be
    infringed.
    (Source: Illinois Constitution.)

    It took 38 years for HELLER and McDonald and a few more until the 7th Circuit forced Illinois to pass concealed carry.

    • Well we are going at it from the other direction. We have shall issue concealed carry which extends to any firearm you own (not only pistols), no magazine capacity restrictions, no SBR restrictions, etc. We just need to preserve them in spite of EU attack on our rights. And this seems to be the way.

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