OSLO, Sept. 30 (Xinhua) -- Members of the Norwegian Parliament are busy with work on a new weapon law that will include stricter regulations, especially regarding semi-automatic firearms, newspaper Aftenposten reported on Friday.
Norwegian police has recently confiscated about 1,000 semi-automatic rifles, which they believe were constructed by additional parts found on the popular advertisements website finn.no.
Several of the 32 accused people have been employed in the Norwegian Armed Forces. They have embezzled some firearms that were meant to be destroyed and made them functional again by using additional weapon parts, the report said.
"Here we are talking about an environment which is well above average interested in weapons, and some take it as readiness to have access to a significant amount of heavy weapons, hand grenades and explosives," an unidentified key source told Aftenposten.
Hadia Tajik, leader of Parliament Justice Committee, said it is "natural to see if the present legislation is sufficient." She pointed out that possession, purchase and sale of weapon are regulated in the present weapon regulation.
"There is clearly a grey zone where one can work around the legislation, so we as legislators have to assess," member of parliament Ulf Leirstein said.
The result of the work on the EU's firearms directive will have direct consequences for Norwegian weapon rules because of the Schengen cooperation. According to Tajik, retrenchments have been notified, especially regarding semi-automatic firearm.
According to the report, the website finn.no has up to date no possibility to know whether the weapons for sale were legal, nor whether the buyers have weapons permits.
