With the recent publication in the Official Gazette of Decree 104 of 2018 and with the relative application circular of 12 September, the transposition of the Weapons Directive, which came into full force on Friday 14 September. As regards the content of the decree, the Directive Committee 477 noted how the long and delicate commitment of the association and of the entire arms sector has finally obtained numerous improvements for legal gun holders.
These are the positive aspects listed:
- increase in the number of detainable sporting weapons (from 6 to 12), partially balancing the restrictions imposed in the past on many long guns no longer hunting;
- positive adjustment of the number of shots allowed in non-notifiable magazines (from 5 to 10 for long guns and from 15 to 20 for short guns);
- definition of the qualification of "Sport shooter", to which the new prohibition of possession of weapons of cat. A6 and A7 and of the “oversized” magazines, far less restrictive than the initial decree scheme, or true including also the members of the TSN sections, of the shooting ASDs affiliated to CONI and to the European sports federations;
- restoration of the possibility for Medical Officers to issue health certificates for firearm license, clearance and simple detention, a recent very serious problem whose solution we are particularly satisfied and proud of;
- rationalization and clarification of the value of rehabilitation for the issue of firearms licenses;
- update in the modalities of complaint of possession of weapons (now possible via certified e-mail to all PS offices and no longer only to the Police Headquarters);
- standardization on the possibility of transport and use of the weapons in the collection;
- elimination of the provisions that would have prohibited the sale of weapons by mail order or by "distance contract";
- confirmation of the need for a reminder by the PS Authority for the presentation of the medical certification for mere arms holders and extension of the deadline for compliance from 30 to 60 days.
However, the negative aspects are not lacking. Here is how the Committee commented on them: “First of all, we refer to the changes to the Legislative Decree 306/92 (on the limitations on the purchase of ammunition for holders of gun permits), in relation to which, following the discussions in February with the PS Department, we had already obtained important improvements in the first draft of the decree that would have significantly reduced the discretion in the affixing unjustified limiting prescriptions, improvements which not only the parliamentary committees have incomprehensibly requested to eliminate but which they have even been transformed into worsening that inevitably risk reinforcing this hateful custom which now appears to have been transformed into one of the standard features of the firearms license.
Then there is the aspect, very serious and in the sense of constitutional illegitimacy, of the substantial administrative and criminal retroactivity of the rule that limits the possession of A6, A7 and A8 categories firearms and of "oversized" magazines, so from 1 January all those who have legitimately purchased weapons of these categories will be outlawed since June 2017 (or true 15 months before the entry into force of the law!) without having subsequently proceeded to become "sport shooters" or to obtain the new bizarre collection license. From the drafts circulated before publication in the Gazzetta it seemed that the problem had been solved, on the contrary, the deadline of 13 June 2017 was restored against a short deadline for the adjustment, whose deadline is set at 31 December 2018 . A date that seems to have been specifically chosen to create complications, given that on 31 December the registrations to the TSN and other sports federations expire and therefore, unless do not renew subscriptions instantly, on 1 January thousands of shooters will automatically find themselves "discovered". It is also not clear to what purpose having eliminated the authorization of the Prefect for the purchase of weapons by correspondence, which, constituting a further control in addition to the authorization of the commissioner or to the license of arms, in fact already satisfied and indeed exceeded the levels of control required by the directive.
The consequence is that weapons will be available from 14 September purchase "remotely" only through professional operators going to constitute for the case an additional monopoly regime which was not felt the need. Finally, as regards the novelties on collectors, which are generally positive, this “extravagant” limit of 62 shots that can be fired in each shooting session stands out, the origin of which is clarified in the circular in the procedures for testing weapons of the State Police. In this regard, it is not clear exactly according to what logic we wanted to impose on common gun collectors the same test procedures provided for law enforcement weapons, inevitably causing many problems during the application phase. Regarding the elimination of the registration to a private shooting range or range from the requirements to be considered a "sports shooter", we underline how the establishment of regulations that substantially discriminate and disadvantage private shooting ranges are contrary to the liberal inspiration that we distinguishes, as well as against the market and the interests of the Armed Forces themselves who in private camps carry out much of the training on fire ".