Mr. Alain Alexis continued stating that magazines should be limited in capacity because "it's a fact that semi-automatic firearms have been used in the vast majority of mass killings in Europe in the past decade" and because "semi-automatic fire is more effective than full-automatic fire for massacres". and the EU should be allowed to impose strict medical criteria to all member States to be mandatorily implemented upon release and renewal of all gun licenses because "if a person with eyeglasses takes them off, he or she will not be able to shoot" - without specifying if that would apply to combat shooting, self-defense, or ISSF 10 meter airgun.

After these precious statements from the European Commission representative, the conference hall has been filled up with not really technical comments, laughs and a couple of yells also.

Adding up to the mix is the usual babbling about terrorism and mass shooting such as the Utøya island massacre – and many of the guests refered to it as nothing short of an insult to the entire category of law-abiding gun owners. As stated in a document released exactly the same day of the Conference - in short:

...

Following two trilogue meetings, the co-legislators were still unable to agree on the revision of the Firearms Directive. These negotiations must be unblocked to take military grade assault weapons off the streets including those converted to semi-automatic use. The Commission's position is clear that semi-automatic assault weapons derived from the "AK 47 Kalashnikov family" and the "AR 15 family" should be banned for civilian use given that they were designed for military use. Magazine sizes for short and long firearms should be limited to 10 rounds and should be subject to authorisation and stringent checks and any derogation should be strictly limited and tightly controlled. EU citizens expect swift progress in this area to ensure their protection, so we must reach agreement before the end of 2016 on this key piece of legislation.

...

One thing is now adamantly certain: the European Commission is clutching at straws to pursue an unpopular and hardly justified political agenda, and will not eat anything back, not by a long shot. There is still a long way to go, and to fight.

Read: Second Progress report towards an effective and genuine Security Union / by the European Commission