Snejdarek
Member
As introduction: for anyone who doesn't know about Czech gun laws, here is Wikipedia article that sums them up nicely: Gun Politics in the Czech Republic. In a nutshell, the right to own and bear arms is not based in constitution, but in a "normal" law. To own, possess and carry a firearm, one needs to get a license. Licenses are shall issue, including concealed carry. There are no limitations on magazine capacity, military style rifles, number of guns, etc. (Full auto subject to hard-to-get may issue permit), all gun owners and all guns are registered. We still have comparatively low gun ownership since we were completely disarmed by Nazis and then Commies, but it has been steadily rising up. Unlike elsewhere in Europe, most common are pistols for self-defense and not hunting rifles...
The Czech Ministry of Interior has come forward with its first draft of changes to the Czech Firearms Act that come as a reaction to the Uherský Brod Shooting, that claimed lives of 8 civilians in February.
The Uherský Brod murders were most probably preventable (at least as regards through the use of legally owned firearms), since the shooter has previously committed misdemeanors and was mentally unstable, which are both reasons for revocation of gun license. However, there is no registry of misdemeanors, so the police never connected the dots (unlike with crimes, which are registered centrally), and in case of mental health issues, the police must, after having a well reasoned doubt as regards the person's mental state, (1) ask the person to undergo health evaluation, (2) wait one month for the person to bring a new health clearance, or fail to do so, (3) revoke the license and ask the person to either transfer guns to other person or surrender them, (4) in case the person fails to surrender the guns, get a warrant for house search & guns seizure.
In Uherský Brod, the police were alerted by the family that the guy went nuts. They instructed him to present new health clearance, which most probably set him off on the rampage (he committed the murders 4 days after receiving the letter from police).
The proposed changes include the following:
- while previously only foreigners from EU countries needed to prove that they were eligible to own firearms at their home country, now this will pertain also to other NATO countries foreigners (this mainly to prevent people from other EU countries from circumventing their home gun control and abusing the permissive Czech system to gain access to firearms; the license for EU/NATO foreigners remains shall issue),
- specialist doctors shall have access to the gun license owners' registry and thus shall be able to inform the police in case that the health state of the patient makes the patient unable to possess firearm according to law (the psychiatric association already attacked this proposal arguing that it will make patients reluctant to undergo treatment for fear of losing license, at the same time calls of some anti-gunners to have obligatory psychological evaluation as a pre-requisite of license were not accepted - this is actually in many European countries like Slovakia and Czech gun owners are fighting quite hard to prevent it. Under current system, a person needs to get general practitioner clearance, who may request specialist examination, but can't do so without a good reason, such as history of mental illness)
- when the application for license is filed, the police will obligatorily send a request for information to the municipal authorities. The applications are dealt with by district police and obviously they don't have any information on the person other than what is in the databases (i.e. if you don't commit crime, basically none). The license remains shall issue so it is not clear what kind of information the municipality could give, possibly only that the person is alcoholic/drug user (small amounts of drugs are legal in the country, weed is widely socially accepted), which are both reasons for denial. At the same time it is a far cry from the Slovak model where the cops ask family neighbors, coworkers, neighbors and then come up with their may issue decision based on blabber.
- as I mentioned above, now even when the police have quite clear information that the gun owner went nuts, they need to follow the process before they can get to the guns. The amendment proposes the possibility of the police to conduct immediate temporary seizure of firearms in case that they have well-founded reason to believe that the person is not fit health-wise (mentally), which includes also warrant-less access to the person's home. I personally consider this unconstitutional and expect that this part will be changed in a way that will provide for a fast track judicial warrant, providing a check&balance on the police opinion, but in essence this will most probably in one form or other be on the final bill.
- it was decided already in 2014 that a central registry of misdemeanors will be put up, the original plan was in 2017, now it will be much faster. The law doesn't change in that it takes two serious misdemeanors within three years to lose a license, however now the police will actually have a chance to really review whether a person has committed any (misdemeanors are dealt with by municipalities).
So, in conclusion, the main topic of anti-gunners - obligatory psychological testing - didn't make it even to the first draft by the Ministry of Interior. The hopes are high that it won't find a way there through the back door during the legislative process.
The main issue remains the warrant-less home search & gun seizure in case of cases of obvious nuts, as well as the question of how an obvious nuts will be determined. This will probably be subject to a lot of discussion and hopefully changed in a way that will provide judicial warrant first. In general, however, from the gun-owner's point of view, nothing should really change.
And here is a cut through CZ 75 D, just to make the post more interesting
The Czech Ministry of Interior has come forward with its first draft of changes to the Czech Firearms Act that come as a reaction to the Uherský Brod Shooting, that claimed lives of 8 civilians in February.
The Uherský Brod murders were most probably preventable (at least as regards through the use of legally owned firearms), since the shooter has previously committed misdemeanors and was mentally unstable, which are both reasons for revocation of gun license. However, there is no registry of misdemeanors, so the police never connected the dots (unlike with crimes, which are registered centrally), and in case of mental health issues, the police must, after having a well reasoned doubt as regards the person's mental state, (1) ask the person to undergo health evaluation, (2) wait one month for the person to bring a new health clearance, or fail to do so, (3) revoke the license and ask the person to either transfer guns to other person or surrender them, (4) in case the person fails to surrender the guns, get a warrant for house search & guns seizure.
In Uherský Brod, the police were alerted by the family that the guy went nuts. They instructed him to present new health clearance, which most probably set him off on the rampage (he committed the murders 4 days after receiving the letter from police).
The proposed changes include the following:
- while previously only foreigners from EU countries needed to prove that they were eligible to own firearms at their home country, now this will pertain also to other NATO countries foreigners (this mainly to prevent people from other EU countries from circumventing their home gun control and abusing the permissive Czech system to gain access to firearms; the license for EU/NATO foreigners remains shall issue),
- specialist doctors shall have access to the gun license owners' registry and thus shall be able to inform the police in case that the health state of the patient makes the patient unable to possess firearm according to law (the psychiatric association already attacked this proposal arguing that it will make patients reluctant to undergo treatment for fear of losing license, at the same time calls of some anti-gunners to have obligatory psychological evaluation as a pre-requisite of license were not accepted - this is actually in many European countries like Slovakia and Czech gun owners are fighting quite hard to prevent it. Under current system, a person needs to get general practitioner clearance, who may request specialist examination, but can't do so without a good reason, such as history of mental illness)
- when the application for license is filed, the police will obligatorily send a request for information to the municipal authorities. The applications are dealt with by district police and obviously they don't have any information on the person other than what is in the databases (i.e. if you don't commit crime, basically none). The license remains shall issue so it is not clear what kind of information the municipality could give, possibly only that the person is alcoholic/drug user (small amounts of drugs are legal in the country, weed is widely socially accepted), which are both reasons for denial. At the same time it is a far cry from the Slovak model where the cops ask family neighbors, coworkers, neighbors and then come up with their may issue decision based on blabber.
- as I mentioned above, now even when the police have quite clear information that the gun owner went nuts, they need to follow the process before they can get to the guns. The amendment proposes the possibility of the police to conduct immediate temporary seizure of firearms in case that they have well-founded reason to believe that the person is not fit health-wise (mentally), which includes also warrant-less access to the person's home. I personally consider this unconstitutional and expect that this part will be changed in a way that will provide for a fast track judicial warrant, providing a check&balance on the police opinion, but in essence this will most probably in one form or other be on the final bill.
- it was decided already in 2014 that a central registry of misdemeanors will be put up, the original plan was in 2017, now it will be much faster. The law doesn't change in that it takes two serious misdemeanors within three years to lose a license, however now the police will actually have a chance to really review whether a person has committed any (misdemeanors are dealt with by municipalities).
So, in conclusion, the main topic of anti-gunners - obligatory psychological testing - didn't make it even to the first draft by the Ministry of Interior. The hopes are high that it won't find a way there through the back door during the legislative process.
The main issue remains the warrant-less home search & gun seizure in case of cases of obvious nuts, as well as the question of how an obvious nuts will be determined. This will probably be subject to a lot of discussion and hopefully changed in a way that will provide judicial warrant first. In general, however, from the gun-owner's point of view, nothing should really change.
And here is a cut through CZ 75 D, just to make the post more interesting
