Troubles ahead for the 2017 IPSC Rifle World Shoot
Firearms United received news from some countries that could prevent European shooters from attending the first IPSC Rifle World Shoot, to be held in Russia from next week
National implementation of some EU regulations could prevent many shooters to take part to the 2017 IPSC Rifle World Shoot in Kubinka
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After the publication of the article you see on this page, Vince Pinto, Executive Director for IPSC (the International Practical Shooting Confederation) has written the following comment on the Firearms United Facebook page - under a post promoting this same article - to state the IPSC position in respect to what our author had written to describe the situation going on regarding the upcoming IPSC Rifle World Shoot to be held in Russia in the next days.
For the good of information, in the interest of a better understanding of the current situation, we publish the words of Vince Pinto, here at page top (so that you cannot miss them):
Vince Pinto - The comment by Gunsweek.com: "A closing, possibly controversial remark is also paramount: the International Practical Shooting Confederation should have exercised better judgement when selecting the host Country for such a high-level event as the Rifle World Shoot. Sanctions against Russia have been in place since 2014, and the shooters community was well aware that it could represent a problem when it came to temporary export licenses for firearms", is not only controversial, it is misdirected and unjustified.
At the 2013 IPSC Assembly (before the sanctions were in place!), there was only one bidding region -- namely Russia -- and they were voted unanimously by 62 votes to 0. And, subsequent to that vote, there were no Motions in the following years to change the venue.
Shooters from some European Countries are being denied licenses to bring in their guns to the IPSC Rifle World Shoot in Russia
As we already announced in April, Russia will host the IPSC Rifle World Shoot 2017: the first IPSC world rifle championship is set to take place from May 25th to June 11th at the Patriot shooting range, located in Kubinka, near Moscow.
Unfortunately, according to some disturbing news received by sources of the the Firearms United network, some European shooters are facing serious troubles that would most likely prevent them from bringing their guns to Russia for the competition.
The issue seems to stem from national interpretations and implementation of the EU regulation no.258/2012, implementing Article 10 of the UN Firearms Protocol, whose Chapter II regulates both permanent and temporary export of firearms to third Countries and covers the temporary export licenses necessary to hunt abroad or to take part to shooting events outside of the EU.
The IPSC Rifle World Shoot will be held from May 25th to June 11th at the 'Patriot' shooting range in Kubinka, Moscow region
Some EU Member States are denying their citizens the necessary temporary export licenses for their guns
More specifically, according to the Firearms United network, the governments of France, Germany and the Netherlands – the same Countries that lobbied the most to obtain the recent passage of the restrictive amendments to the European Firearms Directive, also known as the "EU Gun Ban"! – seem to be refusing to apply the exceptions established by Articles 9, 10 and 11 of Chapter II of the EU Regulation 258/2012, thus resulting in systematic denial of the temporary export licenses that are necessary to their citizens to bring their guns to Russia to take part to the 2017 IPSC Rifle World Shoot. And other European Countries may soon follow suit.
The 'Kalashnikov Concern' has a lot of 60 rifles ready to be borrowed by those shooters... but will that be enough?
Will the systematic denial of temporary export licenses downplay the IPSC Rifle World Shoot?
Russia is still under sanctions due to the alleged involvement of the Moscow government in the ongoing crisis in eastern Ukraine. According to the Firearms United sources, the governments of France, Germany and the Netherlands (for starters) would be allegedly using this as an excuse to deny temporary sporting-purpose export licenses.
Still according to the Firearms United network, things are in motion to put a patch on this mess, at least partially: shooters from Countries that are not refusing to issue temporary export licenses for Russia are trying to bring in additional firearms for those unfortunate fellow shooters to use.
News also came about the Concern Kalashnikov having a limited run of sixty rifles ready to be borrowed by those shooters who have been denied the temporary export license.
Unfortunately, those are still temporary measures that can hardly make up for the despicable behaviour of some European Governments that seem hell-bent to destroy the lives of their citizens who, in their eyes, bear the stigma of being gun owners and shooters.
Plus, to use the words of a Swedish shooter who asked us to remain anonymous:
The offer from Concern Kalashnikov is very impressive.
but if you are going to fight for medals you need competition grade AR-15s, not AKs!
Maybe IPSC should have exercised better judgement before appointing Russia as the host Country for the Rifle World Shoot...
The systematical denial of temporary export licenses to European shooters risks to jeopardize the fairness of the IPSC Rifle World Shoot, turning it into a one-man show for Russian shooters who will have a "home-field advantage" and will be able to use their own guns, which they know very well, against European shooters who may be forced to borrow guns which they never used before.
From a political point of view, this is just another example of how European shooters must accept as soon as possible that they need to provide support to an organization that would uphold their rights both at a national and international level.
Take this as a warning: just because an "exception" is in the books, that doesn't automatically mean that your government will grant to you that "exception" – and even if it should, "exceptions" are easily revoked or removed.
A closing, possibly controversial remark is also paramount: the International Practical Shooting Confederation should have exercised better judgement when selecting the host Country for such a high-level event as the Rifle World Shoot. Sanctions against Russia have been in place since 2014, and the shooters community was well aware that it could represent a problem when it came to temporary export licenses for firearms.
Currently the Firearms United network is the only organization that aims to give shooters a voice at a European level