After incidents involving gun-carrying Members of Parliament sparked warnings that someone might be shot, Greek police said they will have a special three-member committee check all the gun licenses issued in the country to make sure the people who have weapons know how to use them.
Police chief Nikos Papayiannopoulos said the panel will assess whether the gun owner has the necessary skills to use the weapon. That came a a day after Public Order Minister Nikos Dendias demanded checks on all gun owners following an episode at Athens International Airport when a handgun belonging to neo-Nazi Golden Dawn MP Antonis Gregos went off as he was handing it to security staff before boarding a flight.
The panel will have the power to withdraw owners’ gun licenses or to change the type of firearm for which there is a permit. MP’s now have the right to carry a weapon anywhere they want and are immune from all crimes, even if they unlawfully use a weapon, unless their parliamentary immunity is stripped by their colleagues.
Last month another Golden Dawn MP refused to remove his handgun from a car seat while driving into the parking lot at Parliament and some critics said they feared that what they called short-tempered and hair-triggered lawmakers might pull a gun in the chamber and start firing as proceedings get unruly. The MP’s are supposed to check their guns at the door before going into the chamber but it’s not sure whether they do.
About 50 of Greece’s 300 lawmakers have gun permits, in a country where legal gun ownership is uncommon and strictly regulated for everyone else.
Golden Dawn, which rejects the neo-Nazi label attached to it by mainstream parties and international rights groups, holds 18 of Parliament’s 300 seats. More than a dozen of its lawmakers are believed to hold gun permits, although police have declined to issue full details, citing security concerns.
A party lawmaker has been accused of trying to pull a handgun as he was being restrained by police guards after allegedly trying to punch the mayor of Athens this month. A police official told the Associated Press that authorities will now re-examine all politicians’ gun permits to see why they were initially issued, what security concerns were cited and whether they are valid.
“They will also check whether the necessary psychiatric documentation has been submitted,” the official said on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to talk to the media on the record. “And obviously the behavior of each lawmaker will play a part — that is whether they were involved in incidents where they threatened to use a gun or made intimidating moves.”
“You can’t have lawmakers who are loony, fascists, populists or idiots walking through (Parliament) with guns,” conservative member of Parliament Fotini Pipili argued before the ban was imposed.
The Socialist PASOK party, a minority partner in Greece’s conservative-led governing coalition headed by Prime Minister Antonis Samaras, said it was a matter of luck that nobody was injured in the airport incident. “Golden Dawn’s guns have their safety catches off and are ready to shoot anyone,” a party statement said.
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