FIFA President Sepp Blatter speaks at the 26th Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Congress in Manama, Bahrain. (photo credit:REUTERS)

CONTINENTAL EUROPE has a problem with action. FIFA is just a symbol of a wider cultural problem. The same feigned strictures that underpin UN declarations, underpin not only FIFA, but the struggle against terrorism and the inability to deal with refugees. Why this laissez-faire attitude to enforcement? It is an interesting culture that creates committees on committees, massive bureaucracy and a plethora of regulations, but doesn’t enforce them.

Is the reason merely that these international and inter-state governing bodies are cumbersome? Is it that the Schengen zone of free trade and lax borders is simply difficult to police in practice? The evidence points to a deeper European problem. Why is it that terrorists in Europe, from the killers at Charlie Hebdo, the Paris attacks, the Toulouse murders, the French train shooter or the Copenhagen terrorist, all had relatively easy access to guns? Europe prides itself on gun laws, unlike those “gun-loving” Americans.

Yet, “it was unclear how Abdel-Hamed el-Hussein obtained the weapon,” wrote USA Today. In fact it was three weapons: An M95 assault rifle, a 9mm pistol and 7.65mm pistol.

The French train shooter had a 9mm Luger and also an AKM rifle. The AK-47s used in the Paris attacks were produced in Serbia, some of them decades ago. The rocket-launcher, rifles and submachine guns used in the Hebdo attacks were purchased in Belgium.

Why is it in Europe, under the “strict” gun laws, that all the criminals and terrorists have guns? Not just old handguns, but easy access to automatic rifles and rocket-launchers. Do you ever hear about gun dealers being arrested often in Europe? No. You hear about laws against guns, but not about enforcement of those laws. Prices for these weapons are not even outrageous. About $770 for an AK-47, more for a rocket launcher. French police estimate that “4,000 war weapons” are circulating in France. A German guns dealer has been detained following the Paris attacks, and 800 shotguns “moving from Turkey” have been seized.

In Maryland you can buy a semi-automatic Yugoslav Zastava AK-47 with a 16-inch wooden side mount with adjustable sights, of the kind used in Paris, for $579. How is it possible that in the US, with an open gun market, that a similar rifle (semi-automatic as opposed to full-automatic) can be bought for almost the same price? One would think that when things are “illegal” they would be more expensive. But not in Europe, where gun laws mean nothing. Google the phrase “gun dealer sentenced” in Europe and you won’t find a lot of news stories. The Guardian writes that pistols are “easily and cheaply available on the streets of the UK’s big cities.”

More here. h/t: ChanaS.