A guy that worked at Kettner shop in Nice (F) said that in 2 or 3 years, all the european hunters will be allowed to use 2 shot rifles, and in 2007/2008 only single shot rifles will be allowed. He said that the european community has already decided that. Did you hear something similar? - Lorenzo

Wildboar.

That's news to me - bad news! Yes, one shot is all I usually have to take when stalking Deer etc, but what about those folks who shoot on drives etc?

Not something I've heard about - and a problem as to how to ban all the millions of existing multishot firearms.

Don't think it's likely - too many problems would be caused by people not wishing to give up millions of euros worth of firearms.

rgds Ian

My occupations keep me in close contact with the European Firearms Directive and I can tell you there is no such thing as to envision restricting hunting rifles to single shots. What the Directive does promote however is the banning of private possession of full-auto weapons, restrictions on semi-auto's ownership and registration of any type of firearm. Now this is a supra-national European decree that each member-state MUST transpose in his national laws and, according to the fundamental "subsidiarity principle", each individual member-state, while not allowed to do less than what the directive prescribes, may decide to go further.
Beware of gossip, most people are just talking out of their hat

[ 12-09-2002, 18:39: Message edited by: Andr� Mertens ]

Andr� Mertens,
what kind of "restrictions on semi-auto's ownership"? Does it include handguns (also .22's) or is it just rifles? Or is it up to the member states to decide what is necessary?

Handguns are already considered as being submitted to a (police) buying licence, so the semi-auto reference applies to shoulder arms, smooth bored or rifled. As an example, Belgium treats s-a. shoulder arms as defensive weapons, the same as handguns. To acquire any of them, one needs a police permit. An exception is made for hunters, provided the magazine is non-detachable and contains no more than to 2 rounds. These may then be bought on simple registration by holders of a valid hunting licence and sold + registration among the latter. The present trend is to put some pressure on Belgium and France, both of which are targeted as having the most liberal policy in terms of gun laws in Europe . In these 2 countries it is still possible to freely (+ registration) buy sporting arms (incl. the above limitations).

Thanks Andr�, you reassure me. After careful consideration, I believe that the guy is silly! - Lorenzo