Op-Ed: “The Firearms Directive before the Court of Justice (again): Opinion in Défense Active des Amateurs d’Armes and Others (C-234/21)” by Niels Kirst

In a recent (second) Opinion, Advocate General (AG) Campos Sánchez-Bordona affirmed his view that parts of the 2017 Firearms Directive infringe on principles of the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (the Charter’). Firearms regulation in the European Union (EU) is a complex and sensitive issue that aims to balance public safety and security concerns with the rights of EU citizens to own firearms (for a holistic analysis of firearms regulation in the EU, see here). The EU has established a framework for firearms regulation, but Member States retain some discretion in the implementation (see the latest codified version of the previous three firearms directives here). Such a discretionary transitional agreement recently occupied the C