In Monday’s terror attack in Berlin, a terrorist drove a truck into a crowd of Christmas shoppers. The assault killed twelve and wounded dozens more. A Tunisian immigrant is currently the prime suspect. In response, the European Union has collectively moved forward with boldness and decision, taking an honest, top-down look at their security, immigration and foreign policies. Every serious proposal is being examined on its own merit, with no concern for previously-sacred shibboleths. E.U. leaders are putting everything on the table, with only the idea of keeping Europeans safe and prosperous as their North Star.

J/K. They’re blaming guns. From Deutsche Welle:

EU officials said the proposals, which were first mooted in 2015, will restrict access to some high-caliber weapons and give law enforcement authorities new tools to trace the weapons’ origins and avoid them being sold on the black market…

[F]irearms that are converted to blank firing weapons – for use in theaters or television – will be more tightly regulated, after “Islamic State” (IS) fighters behind the November 2015 Paris attacks had converted blank firing weapons back to lethal ones.

Short and long semi-automatic weapons with loading devices over 20 rounds will now face a ban, along with firearms that can be folded or concealed.

Standardized marking will be introduced for weapons’ components, along with the immediate registration of firearms sales, details of which will be kept in national police databases.

The rule change is the bloc’s first since 1991 and must still be voted on by the European Parliament.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said that Brussels “would have liked to go further” with an all-out ban “on the most lethal semi-automatic weapons such as the Kalashnikov, also known as the AK-47” but, according to Deutsche Welle, pressure from the “gun lobby” stopped that from happening.

(Aside: don’t be surprised that the proposed ban on certain semi-automatic rifles like the AK-47 is actually an issue on the Continent. Even though European countries have highly restrictive gun control laws, people in countries like Germany can still get access to some kinds of rifles after jumping through hoops that would be highly offensive to the Bill of Rights in America. Oliver Weiss discussed German gun laws on TTAG a few years ago, if you’re curious.)

In sum, this was a bit of Euro-legislation that had been sitting on the table for a while, and a bunch of Euro-crats decided that they’d try to make it appear that they were “doing something” by moving to enact it.

Even though Sweden was not attacked in the spate of high-profile terrorist incidents hitting Europe and the Near East, Sweden’s government is concerned. Specifically, they’re concerned that Swedes might get worried about their own safety. Swedish Interior Minister Anders Ygeman urged Swedes “not to change their way of life” in response. TheLocal.se reports:

“I believe we must continue to live our lives as we wish, and not let threats, hate or attacks change our way of living,” he told Swedish news agency TT. “Then we would have already started to give the terrorists an important part of a victory.”

In Germany, the country’s interior ministry has also said that Christmas markets should stay open in the wake of the attack.

Ygeman noted that Swedish authorities are in contact with both German police and security police, and emphasized that there has been nothing to suggest the threat level in Sweden should change following events in Berlin.

“At present there is no reason to change your behaviour, be scared or worried because of what happened in Germany,” he said.

Inconveniently for the Interior Minister, TheLocal.se also reports that “Sweden’s Security Service (Säpo) has had an “elevated” national terrorist threat level (level three on a five-level scale) in place since March 2016. “It had previously been on level four, or ‘high’, after earlier terrorist attacks in Sweden, but was lowered in March. At the time, Anders Thornberg, the Director-General of the Security Service commented that even though the threat level was being lowered, “The situation has been serious since 2010, and is still serious.”

Question: how long can a society endure when it is attacked from abroad, and the first reaction of its leaders is to attempt to disarm its people, both physically and mentally?

 

 

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45 COMMENTS

  1. Well, the disintegration of the EU is continuing on pace. I expect most of Eastern Europe as well as the Swiss to give this new “regulation” the middle finger.

    • Switzerland isn’t in the EU… Or are they just going to give it the middle finger out of contempt?

      • As part of the Schengen-Area (Free travel as well as trade)
        Switzerland would have to put those new rules into force, otherwise they could be kicked out.

        • Oh, I didn’t know they were part of the Schengen-Area too. The European political theater is unnecessarily complicated. Just combine into The Europire already or collapse. With the way things are going, I think the latter is more likely.

          And it’s true. They have tried to control non-EU states by refusing to trade with countries that don’t comply with their regulations. But that type of policy has harmed them a lot more than it has harmed any outside countries. Though with the Swiss quite literally being surrounded by the EU, they’re not in a very good position to refuse EU demands.

    • How long can a nation survive being attack by hostile forces and a foolish elite that disarms them? Not long.

      Fuck the gun grabbers and immigrationist, they are all marxist scum of the lowest order

    • Vote in the Eu council:
      AGAINST: Czech Republic, which just started process of amending constitution in order to include RKBA (+Luxembourg on ground the ban doesn’t go far enough)
      ABSTENTION: Austria, Switzerland (guest, vote doesn’t count anyway, buy they still didn’t pick hand against to join the Czechs)
      FOR: ALL 27 REMANINING COUNTRIES

  2. A funny thing happened last night. I took my (adult and still home) kids out Christmas shopping at the downtown upscale mall. Here in VA, unlike TX 30-06/07 laws, those silly little signs have no force of law. Concealed is therefore concealed, right? But lo and behold there were none of the anticipated warnings on any of the mall entrances. As I wandered about from store to store there were 1 or 2 individual storefronts with very transparent and hardly noticeable no weapons signs. Perhaps the tide is changing. I also noted that our local NFCU has removed their signs and discussion with the after hours LEO providing security confirmed that NFCU is no longer a gun free zone. And he personally was very happy about it. Maybe, just maybe, the tide of insanity is ebbing here in the good ole USA.

    • NFCU removed them a few months ago, noticed it back in May when I was sending a bribe to ATF in the form of a $200 cashier check.

  3. Well Duh? I mean if it weren’t for the easy availability of these semi-fully-automagic assault rifles well then we’d all just sit and hold hands in peace right?

    I mean really are you going to blame the truck? What’s wrong with you people.

    • I know, right?

      These gun they have, like, mind-control powers. If there were no guns, universal world peace would commence. Dogs would stop chasing cats, and all carnivores would realize the errors of their ways.

      Roll the presses!

  4. Sooo…. When are they going to crack down on explosive vests and bombs? I figured that would have been a logical thing to ban in the EU even before blank firing guns. Silly Europeans. Get your priorities straight.

  5. This ties nicely to the comments on yesterday’s news regarding Florida hoping to implement open carry and the concerns on its impact on tourism. I’ll reiterate what I said there: pass it. Let the euro tourists see how the free exercise of our civil rights actually works without the predicted “blood in the streets”.

  6. So when are they going to crackdown on almost everything in a normal home? You know like bleach, ammonia, drain cleaner, propane bottles, bic lighters, and any of a hundred other things that can be made into something deadly. (crickets)

  7. History shows that Europe has always been one of the top prizes Muslims wish to claim. And for ages, Europeans fought the invaders, but now they welcome them. It’s no longer armies besieging Vienna like 1683, but hordes (including “soldiers”) coming not to embrace their new found freedom (comparatively speaking) but to bleed the countries physically, mentally and economically.

    Hell, I hate making blanket statements and having blanket thoughts about entire groups of people, but unfortunately at this point it is a matter of numbers and facts. Sure, not all Muslims harbor these extremist views, but enough do. Europeans, who haven’t been brainwashed, need to stop being afraid of name-calling when they call a spade a spade. And as much as some of us might not like what the more “far” right elements have to say, we need people like them saying it. And by far right I don’t mean neo-Nazis and white supremacists, I mean nationalists.

    They need a little less Angela Merkel and a little more Bill the Butcher (Gangs of NY).

  8. Almost had me with Christmas cheer, only to be had by a message from Scrooge.

    Fixed your last line RF.

    “How long can California endure when it is attacked from within by legislators disarming its people, both physically and mentally?

  11. The Swiss reputation for staunch neutrality and utter independence isn’t quite what it used to be. They may not be a formal EU member, but they and the EU have several bilateral agreements in place that serve the same effect.

    Factor in that Switzerland actually has become a formal member of several international organizations in recent years, such as the European Free Trade Association, the Schengen Area, the World Bank, and even the United Nations. It looks like Switzerland’s main interest in preserving their so-called neutrality is more about keeping up appearances, and, oh yeah, keeping their corrupt banks secret. When WWIII breaks out, the Swiss will be Putin’s banker just like they were Hitler’s.

    “Switzerland: Spooning with despots, defrauders, embezzlers, and evaders since 1713.”

    • You do realize that the Swiss don’t do anything other than keeping your government from stealing your money? Right? As for being “Hitler’s Banker”… How quickly you forget that they took deposits from everyone, including the French.

  13. Hoplophobic Lib ideologues just can’t give up the ghost. Thats why they are all being voted out of office one by one. Merkel, you are next sweetheart.

  15. The EU is consistent. Head in the sand, butt in the air. Accountants have a principle called the “virtue of consistency” that basically says doing it wrong consistently is a good thing. So, there you have it. Security by the experts. Never mind that the experts in charge are not experts on security, just that they are experts at something.

  16. Psychotic Moose-lim murders Polish dude and drives a bigazz truck into a Christmas crowd. You ban guns…makes sense to me. Breed your dumb Euro-trash azzes into oblivion…allahu snackbar! Where’s Charles Martel when you need him?!?

  17. What Hitler did to Poland in 1939 was to send masses of soldiers in to kill, rape and pillage the underarmed and weaker nation. What Islam did/does is send masses of unarmed soldiers into Europe to kill and rape. Making this comparison since the blinded Merkel government, as well as most of the continent seem not to see.

  18. I wonder: Is this particular wave of forcible citizen-disarmament intended to protect European peasants from angry armed violent jihadists? Or is it to protect European overlords from angry armed peasants?

  19. Good, they get what they deserve. Let the terrorist attack them for a while and leave the USA alone. Maybe they’ll eventually wise up and let their people defend themselves or “GASP” stop letting terrorists into their nations.

  20. The thing that angers me about this is before the attacks happened.

    EU intelligence agencies knew the prep(s) who did this were possibly a threat but did absolutely nothing to stop them.

  21. We are still fighting in EU to twist the law enough so nothing will change locally. Europe may have quite often dificult rules to get the hand on the gun (licensing, registration, safes etc.) but in few countries, once you pass the requirements and will not do anything stupid (like walking drunk with your handgun) you can have pretty much any gun you want (e.g. in Poland you can ha anything with exception of the machine gun). We are however well aware how gun bans work (give finger, they will cut your hand off) and thus staunch opposition against any “assault rifle bans”. After last Berlin case, where fellow from my country died fighting with the terrorist (he managed to grab the wheel and drive the truck offroad after 80 meters – not as in Nicea last year -despite being beaten and stabbed) it may change slightly. In Poland people are not generally gun friendly – years of propaganda made it but there is hope. Mainstream media presented the interviews with wives of the truck drivers after event and when asked what one may can do to alleviate the fear for the husband the answer was simple – get him a gun.

    • Keep at it, Delwin. I have a brother-in-law with the last name of Podkowka. Friends and neighbors named Markowski, Swerdowski, Rava, Czajka, Czepiel, Szewil, Szijarto and a boatload more. Fine hard drinking, hard headed, hard working folks.

  22. Sorry Europe you are on your own. Americans are not going to save you this time.
    Our founders believed in arms for all the people not just a few select gun club members.

  23. An ‘asylum seeking person’ goes and runs a bunch of people over with a truck and the government decides to increase gun control laws. It really sounds like satire.

  24. It’s a week since the Czech ministry of interior introduced proposal of amendment of constitution that will give citizens the right to acquire, possess and carry firearms, and still no mention at TTAG?

    That should be THE news.

  25. If the EU was really trying to keep the people safe, it would require rubber baby buggy bumpers on all trucks.

  26. The liberal mind is twisted, demented, lacking all logic and reason.
    Don’t waste your time debating a liberal, they are mentally corrupt and should be committed to a clinic.
    Liberals are also morally bankrupt. Obama is a shining example.

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