Drizzt
Member
How Europe Deals With Weapons
Guardian
January 10, 2003
Germany
Germany has a serious problem with gun crime, writes John Hooper in Berlin. It surfaced in dramatic fashion last April when a 19-year-old expelled schoolboy in the quiet town of Erfurt in eastern Germany, killed 16 people with a pistol and a pump-action shotgun, before taking his own life. But his weapons were legally held and the real problem is the vast number of illegal firearms. Christian Pfeiffer, interior minister of Lower Saxony, last year put the total at 15m-20m. Vast numbers entered Germany during the wars in the Balkans.
Armed hostage-takings and robberies are relatively commonplace. In 2001, there were 11,270 gun-related offences. But gun crime is coming down sharply. The 2001 figure was a fall of almost 10% on the previous year.
France
Violent crimes, particularly armed robbery, increased by 9.8% in 2001, the last year for which figures are available, writes Jon Henley in Paris. Violence and insecurity became by far the most important issue in last year's tumultuous elections.
The debate was coloured by one-off atrocities such as the massacre of eight local councillors in Nanterre town hall by a deranged loner, Richard Durn, a gun club member who owned two Glock semi-automatic pistols and a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum.
Police have demanded a radical tightening of France's gun laws and a national register of gun ownership. Their wishes have partly been met by the hardline interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who has given police more money and wider powers. Initial evidence suggests petty crime is falling.
Spain
Gun crime has been relatively infrequent in Spain, writes Giles Tremlett in Madrid . However, alliances between Colombian cocaine cartels and the traditional smuggling fraternity of Galicia, north-west Spain, have brought a big increase in shootings.
That has been accentuated by Colombian migration into cities such as Madrid and Barcelona and the appearance of professional sicarios, or hit men, who fly in from Colombia. Their victims are often fellow Colombians.
But with only 55 violent killings of all types in a city of more than a million people like Madrid last year, the murder rate in Spain remains low.
Italy
The anxiety caused by violent crime was one of the factors that contributed to the election of Silvio Berlusconi's centre right government in 2001, writes Philip Willan in Rome . Last month Mr Berlusconi reported that murders were down by 15%, at 447, in the first nine months of last year, while burglaries and armed robberies were down 10%.
The use of firearms continues to be a sensitive issue, however. A woman was shot dead in Rome last month by robbers as she and her husband returned home with the day's takings from their toyshop. Controversy over the use of firearms was revived last week when an off-duty policeman in Naples shot dead a 13-year-old boy who had attempted to steal his motor scooter by threatening him with what turned out to be a toy pistol.
Belgium
Gun crime in Belgium is relatively rare although several high profile incidents have shocked the authorities, who are in the process of drawing up one of the strictest gun control laws in the world, writes Andrew Osborn in Brussels.
According to the Brussels-based Research Group on Peace and Security some 2m firearms are in circulation (Belgium's population is 10 million) although only 700,000 are registered.
Under the new law, every weapon would have to be registered and anyone applying for a licence would have to explain what they intend to do with the gun. Weapons for sport and hunting would be allowed, but not for self-defence or military purposes.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/smallarms/2003/0122europe.htm
Guardian
January 10, 2003
Germany
Germany has a serious problem with gun crime, writes John Hooper in Berlin. It surfaced in dramatic fashion last April when a 19-year-old expelled schoolboy in the quiet town of Erfurt in eastern Germany, killed 16 people with a pistol and a pump-action shotgun, before taking his own life. But his weapons were legally held and the real problem is the vast number of illegal firearms. Christian Pfeiffer, interior minister of Lower Saxony, last year put the total at 15m-20m. Vast numbers entered Germany during the wars in the Balkans.
Armed hostage-takings and robberies are relatively commonplace. In 2001, there were 11,270 gun-related offences. But gun crime is coming down sharply. The 2001 figure was a fall of almost 10% on the previous year.
France
Violent crimes, particularly armed robbery, increased by 9.8% in 2001, the last year for which figures are available, writes Jon Henley in Paris. Violence and insecurity became by far the most important issue in last year's tumultuous elections.
The debate was coloured by one-off atrocities such as the massacre of eight local councillors in Nanterre town hall by a deranged loner, Richard Durn, a gun club member who owned two Glock semi-automatic pistols and a Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum.
Police have demanded a radical tightening of France's gun laws and a national register of gun ownership. Their wishes have partly been met by the hardline interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy, who has given police more money and wider powers. Initial evidence suggests petty crime is falling.
Spain
Gun crime has been relatively infrequent in Spain, writes Giles Tremlett in Madrid . However, alliances between Colombian cocaine cartels and the traditional smuggling fraternity of Galicia, north-west Spain, have brought a big increase in shootings.
That has been accentuated by Colombian migration into cities such as Madrid and Barcelona and the appearance of professional sicarios, or hit men, who fly in from Colombia. Their victims are often fellow Colombians.
But with only 55 violent killings of all types in a city of more than a million people like Madrid last year, the murder rate in Spain remains low.
Italy
The anxiety caused by violent crime was one of the factors that contributed to the election of Silvio Berlusconi's centre right government in 2001, writes Philip Willan in Rome . Last month Mr Berlusconi reported that murders were down by 15%, at 447, in the first nine months of last year, while burglaries and armed robberies were down 10%.
The use of firearms continues to be a sensitive issue, however. A woman was shot dead in Rome last month by robbers as she and her husband returned home with the day's takings from their toyshop. Controversy over the use of firearms was revived last week when an off-duty policeman in Naples shot dead a 13-year-old boy who had attempted to steal his motor scooter by threatening him with what turned out to be a toy pistol.
Belgium
Gun crime in Belgium is relatively rare although several high profile incidents have shocked the authorities, who are in the process of drawing up one of the strictest gun control laws in the world, writes Andrew Osborn in Brussels.
According to the Brussels-based Research Group on Peace and Security some 2m firearms are in circulation (Belgium's population is 10 million) although only 700,000 are registered.
Under the new law, every weapon would have to be registered and anyone applying for a licence would have to explain what they intend to do with the gun. Weapons for sport and hunting would be allowed, but not for self-defence or military purposes.
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/smallarms/2003/0122europe.htm
