European legislation could ban sales of vintage military vehicles

Engesa EE-9 Cascavel Mark V. Photo courtesy the Bovington Tank Museum.

Collecting tanks and other military vehicles in Europe may soon become a pastime of the past, thanks to a proposed set of European Commission regulatory reforms aimed at fighting terrorism.

Under the European Union's existing Firearms Directive, enacted in 2008, military weapons of any sort – including those integral to historic military vehicles – fall under Category A, the same category as fully automatic weapons, which means that private citizens, collectors, and museums may not own them unless they have been deactivated.

However, following the terrorist attacks last January and November in Paris, the European Commission proposed a series of changes to the Firearms Directive designed specifically to restrict the trafficking of deactivated weapons out of concern that those deactivated weapons could become reactivated, as some were for the Paris terrorist attacks. According to an EU press release, the governing body recognized that collectors had previously been exempted from the Firearms Directive, but "the Commission is proposing… to change this, since collectors have been identified as a possible source of traffic of firearms."

Specifically, the proposal allows "bodies concerned with the cultural and historical aspects of weapons" to keep deactivated weapons procured before the proposed changes are enacted, but makes no provision for buying, selling, or otherwise legally transferring their deactivated weapons after that date.

Aside from the legally ambiguous "bodies" wording, the Fédération Internationale des Véhicules Anciens, which represents collector car interests in Europe, has taken exception to the proposed changes to the Firearms Directive, noting that historic and collectible military vehicles would not make for likely candidates for use by terrorists or criminals for a number of reasons, among them the lack of suitable ammunition and the thorough deactivation process historic military vehicles are subjected to.

As FIVA wrote in a March 2016 brief outlining the organization's stance on the proposals:

The proposals as a whole have the effect of inhibiting and preventing the ongoing preservation of historic artifacts of genuine heritage interest and thus limiting and in part preventing the people of the European Union in general from having the opportunity to witness, enjoy, examine and study the armoured fighting vehicles of the present and future which may have been very important to the preservation of their civilisation and society.

Instead, FIVA suggested a number of changes to the proposals aimed at exempting historic military vehicles, in part by creating registries for "artifacts of cultural and historical interest" and by allowing the continued trade of such registered weapons and vehicles.

The EU's Vicky Ford, who has been tasked with guiding the proposed changes to the Firearms Directive through the EU Parliament, has gone on record saying the European Commission's proposal "is poorly drafted" and "needs a lot of work" and has begun a series of public hearings aimed at reducing the impact of the changes on law-abiding citizens.

While the European Commission had hoped to see the changes implemented by this summer, Politico.eu reported that it could take the EU Parliament until October or later to come up with a final draft of the changes.

from Hemmings Daily – News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/1Vdtgld