THE HAGUE: The Dutch government has come under fire for plans to register the race and religion of gun owners following a string of European terror attacks, a news report said Thursday.
Lawmakers and gun owner associations say that the proposal by Justice Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus risks breaching privacy rights and could be a form of “ethnic profiling.”
The proposals are part of the Dutch response to new EU guidelines to beef up gun laws after a series of terror attacks including those in Paris on November 13, 2015 in which 130 people died.
“There are diverse risks factors for gun ownership,” Grapperhaus said in a memorandum explaining the changes in a concept bill published in late June, the center-left De Volkskrant daily said.
Therefore police “required personal data including race or ethnical origin, political views and religious and philosophical convictions,” said the Christian Democrat minister, whose party forms part of Prime Minister Mark Rutte’s four-party coalition.
But these inclusions “are unnecessary, even according to the minimum European guidelines,” said Monica den Boer, a lawmaker in the progressive D66 party, which is also part of the ruling coalition.
“We don’t discriminate and ethnic profile. These proposals must be dropped from the draft bill,” she told the paper.
Even some within Grapperhaus’ own party opposed the plans.
“I cannot forsee any situation justifying the inclusion of these suggestions,” said CDA lawmaker Chris van Dam.
The Royal Dutch Sports Rifling Association (KNSA) also took aim at the plans, saying it “could have a discriminatory affect” and stigmatize people.
“Almost no shooting incidents (in The Netherlands) are committed with legal weapons” apart from a major shooting in 2011, said KNSA director Sander Duisterhof.
He was referring to one of the country’s worst shootings since World War II when 24-year-old Tristan van der Vlis shot six people and wounded 16 others at a shopping mall in April that year.
Van der Vlis, who had a gun permit, unleashed a hail of automatic gunfire on lunchtime shoppers before turning the gun on himself. He had suffered from psychological problems before the shooting.
“To think that terrorists will get nervous because of these proposed new rules is wishful thinking by politicians,” Duisterhof said.
The new law will be before parliament within the next few weeks, De Volkskrant said.
Uproar over Dutch plan to ask race, religion of gun owners
Uproar over Dutch plan to ask race, religion of gun owners
- The proposals are part of the Dutch response to new EU guidelines to beef up gun laws after a series of terror attacks including those in Paris on November 13, 2015.
- The Royal Dutch Sports Rifling Association (KNSA) took aim at the plans, saying it “could have a discriminatory affect” and stigmatize people.
Philippine lawmakers start VP Duterte impeachment hearings
- The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds
MANILA: A Philippine congressional committee began impeachment hearings Monday that could dash Vice President Sara Duterte’s run for the country’s top job.
The daughter of former president Rodrigo Duterte, who recently announced her candidacy for the 2028 presidential election, was impeached by the country’s House of Representatives last year only to see the Supreme Court toss the case out over procedural issues.
The revived impeachment bid leans heavily on allegations that the younger Duterte misused public funds while in office and will see the House justice committee debate three such complaints.
A fourth case was dropped by complainants who hoped to speed up the process.
Duterte also stands accused of making a death threat against her former ally and current President Ferdinand Marcos, with whom she is engaged in an explosive political feud.
Under the Philippine constitution, an impeachment triggers a Senate trial. A guilty verdict would result in Duterte being barred from politics and sidelined from the 2028 presidential race.
The latest impeachment bid faces a changed environment with the vice president ahead in recent polls, analysts told AFP.
“The political context will be very different, especially now that Sara declared her candidacy,” University of the Philippines political science professor Jean Franco said.
“It’s definitely going to weigh on the minds of the members of the House of Representatives,” Franco said, adding that a vote for impeachment would effectively see a lawmaker’s career “marked for death.”
Anthony Lawrence Borja, an associate professor of political science at De La Salle University agreed saying: “It is ultimately a question of whether the patronage of the current administration outweighs their fear of Duterte’s condemnation.”
The same committee hearing the case against Duterte last month tossed out a pair of impeachment complaints against Marcos, ruling that allegations of corruption over a scandal involving bogus flood control projects lacked substance.
Michael Wesley Poa, spokesman for Duterte’s defense team, told AFP they were closely monitoring deliberations and trusted “the same standards” used in the Marcos hearing would be applied.
