This recent shooting in Finland by a 22-year-old student who shot 10 other students dead has proven one important dimension in better European governance. The people of Finland, if anything, have been failed by their own national Parliament – to legislate properly on their own gun laws, instead of waiting for the wording of a new EU firearms directive to be finalised in May, and the directive itself to be approved in July this year.
It is an essential part of the reason why nation states should control their own legislation and not Brussels – in this instance, the Finnish Parliament failed not only to be proactive (after already having one mass shooting in 2007) but now they claim they are unable to be reactive. They are now doing nothing but seeking an immediate and rushed implementation of the Directive. Here’s a plan: why not control your own affairs?
I also wonder if the EU gun laws would have changed a thing for Finland even if they had been implemented. It makes me reflect on what our own Labour MEP politicians are now thinking given that they recently wanted old-fashioned and authoritarian EU controls “fast-tracked” through the European Parliament over Finnish gun laws – would they have had hardly any effect on stopping Matti Juhani Saari, 22, arming himself with a .22 calibre handgun and doing what he did?
This is really what happens when people are badly governed.
