Netherlands: a controversy over a new gun bill

The Dutch government denied Thursday to want to record the ethnic origin and the religion of all the owners of firearms after a polemic had been launched to the Netherlands by an article of the newspaper of reference De Volkskrant.

The racial or ethnic origin, the political opinions and the religion of the people wishing to obtain or renew allowed them carrying of weapons fire appear among the personal data which would be recorded, under the government bill.

This is why the police must have personal information, added Mr. Grapperhaus, resulting from the conservative party Call Christian Democrat (HALF–VALUE LAYER), member of the government coalition, according to the newspaper.

“The risk factors for the possession of firearms are varied”, the Minister Dutch for Justice declared, Ferdinand Grapperhaus, in the government bill, quoted by Volkskrant.

However, “the police will not record the ethnic origin, the political opinions, the religion or the race of all those which require a gun licence. That is not what the government wishes”, the ministry for Justice in an official statement wrote, in answer to the article.

The new government bill must make it possible the police to be able to determine if a petitioning individual of a licence “has for example contacts with religious groups extremists or of far right”, the ministry added.

According to Volkskrant, the idea of the minister caused protests within the political arena and on behalf of associations of owners of firearms, which estimate that such a measurement would constitute a violation of the right to the private life as well as a form of “ethnic shaping”.

Published at the end of June, the government bill must be presented to the Lower House in the weeks to come, indicated De Volkskrant.

The Dutch daily newspaper did not specify why this project only now caused reactions among the members of the HALF–VALUE LAYER and other parties of the government coalition, returned of their summer pause at the beginning of September.

To know these details “is not necessary, even according to the minimal requirements of the European directive”, fustigated Monica den Boer, deputy of the party D66 social–liberal, which is part of the government coalition.

This initiative makes following a new European directive aiming at reinforcing the legislations on the wearing of weapon, in answer to the various islamist attacks in Europe, of which the attacks of Paris of November 13th, 2015, which caused 130 deaths.

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Gabriel MIHAI

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