Assault weapons ban not working in Europe

Guardian:

An “arms race” between criminal groups in Europe risks making it easier for terrorists to obtain high-powered, military grade firearms, a report has warned.

The survey says long-standing barriers to obtaining firearms have broken down in recent years owing to the emergence of the internet, cross-border smuggling of military-grade assault rifles into the EU, the conversion of large numbers of blank-firing guns and the widespread reactivation of weapons previously rendered unusable to be sold to collectors.

“The increased availability of firearms has contributed to arms races between criminal groups across the EU,” the report, funded by the European commission, said.

In recent years, extremist attacks in France, Belgium, Denmark, Sweden and elsewhere have involved firearms. In the UK, plots involving firearms have been broken up by police and security services.

Militants from the Islamic State used automatic weapons and bombs to kill more than 130 people in bars, outside a stadium and at a concert hall in Paris in November 2015 in the bloodiest such incident.

Other uses of firearms in recent years have included lethal shootings at a museum in Brussels in 2014, the attack on the offices of a satirical magazine and a Jewish supermarket in Paris in January 2015, a series of attacks on off-duty soldiers and Jewish targets in south-west France in 2012 and at a synagogue in Denmark in 2016.

Attackers frequently have used “reactivated” and converted weapons, or firearms stolen from legitimate owners.
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Mass murder attacks have been especially lethal in Europe where Islamic terrorists seem to have no trouble getting banned weapons.  It raises serious questions about the attempt to ban law abiding people in the US from owning semiautomatic weapons.