The Netherlands Outlaws IPSC By Ministry Fiat

From a poorly translated (by Google) release:

In the preamble of the agreement also outlines a number of measures that the Minister of Justice & Safety will take. The Minister has decided that the practice of disciplines in which a marksman moves and there is a continuous timekeeping as part of the scoring process and where the marksman in different positions, either behind obstacles on targets shoot, no longer permitted . The Minister thus refers in particular to the practice of dynamic disciplines Trail Shooting Rifle and Pistol, as regulated by the NPSA and the practice of Dynamic Service Rifle, as regulated by the APS.

The KNSA Board expressed its deep disappointment at this decision. The KNSA Board believes that, under strict conditions of security and exclusivity for participants in these disciplines, they are not prohibited would have to be. Prolonged and frequent consultation on the Minister has unfortunately not in other thoughts, and he announced a few things in regulation will capture. The board of the KNSA has finally filed to this decision and will take responsibility in this matter.

I could really use someone who speaks Dutch to translate this properly. Trail Shooting seems to be watch the dutch call IPSC stages. This basically outlaws any dynamic shooting that’s timed. I think it’s funny that in some European nations, that things can be made illegal just because a bureaucrat doesn’t like it.

Then again, it honestly isn’t much better here these days.

Related posts (automatically generated):

  1. First US Medal in Shooting
  2. E-Postal Results
  3. A Different Take

13 thoughts on “The Netherlands Outlaws IPSC By Ministry Fiat”

  1. I am told – by my dutch source, whom I am promptly sending a link to this post, and maybe he can elaborate – but another major measure is stepping down on the practice where people join
    shooting clubs merely because they want a gun permit, to own a firearm but not shoot regularly in contests. From now on, only people who shoot regularly at shooting clubs and are active competitors will be eligible to own firearms – and, in turn, the Dutch shooter’s association will receive a monopoly on said clubs (only regularshooters who are members of clubs run by KNSA will be eligible for this permit).

  2. The Germans are fighting the same threat. IPSC is heavily regulated by the goverment. If they get a whiff that you are shooting IPSC as “combat Training” you are violating the Law and going to jail.

  3. Guess they won’t be sending a Biathlon Team to the next Winter Olympics, huh? Can’t have people with Rifles on their backs practicing for a shot at a Gold Medal in the woods outside Amsterdam, now can we?

    1. This is exactly what I thought too. They have now foreclosed on most olympic shooting and they will never get a winter games again as all winter shooting sports are now prohibited by the rule.

  4. My other Dutch-language contact has translated some more stuff for me, and here’s what he says:

    Ah yes, this was in the news yesterday. It didn’t got a lot of attention, sadly, because shooting isn’t really popular in Holland. But anyways, from what I’ve heard it is a response to an incident in Alfen aan de Rijn that happened in April last year. A certain Tristan van der V killed seven people in a shopping mall with a rifle (an AR-15, an empty pistol that I don’t recognise, and a revolver of some kind) then shot himself in the head. Now that did gain a lot of attention in the news; especially because the weapon he had used was all legal, he had five weapon licences.

    So now they want to change the weapon law here. I personally do not find that a good “solution” to anything; myself, I am a lefty but I’m also pretty “pro-gun”. But it’s important to know that this is not just because it is it’s a thorn in the side for some bureaucrat: it’s because something bad happened and people fear it will happen again. Unlikely, but possible.

    I thinkt that is crucial information to add; if you don’t mind, I’ll add that in a post below.

    Namens het KNSA-bestuur heeft de voorzitter van de KNSA, de heer E.K. Greven, met de Minister van Veiligheid & Justitie, de heer I. Opstelten, een overeenkomst gesloten. Met de ondertekening van die overeenkomst beoogt de KNSA de schietsportbeoefening in Nederland voor de toekomst veilig te stellen.

    De kern van de overeenkomst is het verbeteren van de kwaliteit van schietverenigingen en nog meer dan in het verleden, het geven van grote prioriteit aan het versterken van de sociale cohesie binnen schietsportverenigingen. Juist die sociale cohesie kan een wezenlijke bijdrage leveren aan het vergroten van de veiligheid in de schietsport. De overeenkomst beoogt de schietsportbeoefening in Nederland te behouden en de wedstrijdparticipatie van sportschutters te vergroten. Uiteindelijk moeten de afspraken leiden tot een grotere veiligheid binnen de schietsport en een beperking van de risico’s op misbruik van vuurwapens onder leden van schietsportverenigingen.”

    “In the name of the KNSA board has sir E.K. Greven, along with the minister of law and order, made an agreement on securing the right to perform shooting sports in the Netherlands, now and in the future.

    The core of this agreement is improving the quality of shooting clubs, and moreover, improving the unity within shooting clubs, more than was done in the past. Only with unity we can can contribute to an actual increased safity within the sportshooting branch. The agreement attempts to keep sport shooting legal in Holland and increase the participation in competitions amongst the members. In the end, these measures will lead to a greater level of security within the shooting clubs and prevent the risk of abuse of firearms by members of shooting clubs.

    I know, the grammar is not correct at certain places. Sorry for that, but I hope this will help you out.”

    Now, your second question: the way I read it, this new law sort of sounds like a compromise between the minister and the KNSA, and both parties agree to it. Instead of banning guns altogether, serious restrictions will be imposed.

    A “Gebruiksgeweer” is a term I have never heard before, it seems to be a specific term related to Dutch firearm policy. Literally gebruiksgeweer translates to “use gun” or “user gun”. I think it is related to some sort of law that says: “you may only own guns if you actually use them for sportshooting” This was the main arguement with the Alfen aan de Rijn shootout: Tristan van de V had not been to the shooting club for a long time, but still had a weapon that he did not really deserve because he didn’t use it. Sort of.

    The report says the whole idea of a gebruiksgeweer has no meaning anymore. Guns that are not being “gebruikt” are labeled gebruiksgeweer. As of such they are scrapping that from the ruling. Any weapons now deemed as gebruikersgeweer have to be authorised over again. In other words, a lot of unnecesary paperwork that will hopefully scare the bad guys away.

    Hope this helps.

    Hopefully everybody understand the post above represents an opinion given to me by another person, and that I am neither in agreement with his opinion, nor do they represent mine. I am reposting this here so the readers of this blog can get a better view of the facts portrayed therein. In no way are the opinions therein expressed mine.

    1. Eh, you made them work well enough, we can figure out what you are saying and it was very helpful, thanks!

      The real problem is that there’s no Preview button and you have less than 2.5 minutes to get it right after you hit Submit (it says 2.5 minutes and even counts down but it refuses changes some time before that has elapsed).

      I get it right most of the time because I’ve been working with unforgiving computer languages since 1977 (sic; IBM 1130 punched card FORTRAN “IV” (really less than a IV, e.g. only numeric IFs)). You might want to practice HTML in a more forgiving environment, e.g. write or even better modify a simple file and view it in your browser, e.g on my Linux system file:///usr/blah blah. I normally wouldn’t suggest random people learn this but I think there’s a big enough payoff nowadays for most everyone knowing the basics of HTML that it’s worth it.

  7. So, if they could figure out how to do it without “continuous timekeeping”, then they could avoid this law. Intermittent timekeeping?

  8. Hi all,
    I am a dutch member of the NPSA (=IPSC)….

    What is happening is very simple : last year a shooting incident took place where 6 people where killed. A mental ill person requested a firearm license in 2009 and got is. Parents, friends, etc. warned officials to do something… nothing happend. Result where 6 death persons. Who was the blame? You can guess : Police and Ministery didn’t do theire job… but lets blame eeeeehhhhh…. IPSC!

    With this as base the Minister of Justice wants a ban on all “combat” a-like schooting disciplines. IPSC and DRS are the ones who will be banned 1st of May!

    Why is totally unclear.

    The incident is in no form related to IPSC or what the minister calls “combat”.

    Beside that there was absolute not feedback, respons ot whathever kind ov communicatieon between IPSC adn Minister. Tuesday evenign a one-way conversation took place where the Minister announched the ban. No discussions, question….Period, IPSC is banned per 1st of May

    ANYONE WHE CAN HELP…. PLEASE MAIL THE PRESEDENT OF THE DUTCH IPSC, MR. EDUARD RODIGAS AT PRESIDENT@IPSC.NL… with your comment why IPSC is NOT a “combat oriented” sport.

    Any mail will be added to a dossier who will be discussed next week. IPSC is a world sport where a ban in the Netherlands is a signal to other EU ministeries, and perhaps the start of a ban on all firearms!

    Help the NPSA to stop this ban!

    Spread the word !

  10. I’m NOT going to buy any dutch products EVER if this ban gets real! They can smoke marijuana and sell sex openly, but they can’t let people shoot IPSC! I feel sick!!!

Comments are closed.