Following a massive referendum movement, the Czech Republic’s Congress confirmed introducing a right to self-defense with a firearm to its Charter of Rights and Freedoms and Liberties.
54 members of the Senate voted to alter the Constitution, exceeding the required three-fifths mandate; however, it will become legislation once approved by Czech president Milos Zeman. He has already pledged admiration for a European 2nd Amendment and cannot reject the amendment to the Constitution in any event.
According to Czech news, the new part of the Constitution will say, the right to protect one’s self-life or the lives of yet another individual with a firearm is protected underneath the conditions laid out by law.
The Constitutional Change Was Driven By Public Support
The addition came after a strong petition drive that saw over 102,000 people create a pledge demanding that a right to own a gun in self-defense be added to the national laws; this came in reaction to European Union measures to restrict firearms and other weaponry ownership across the EU.
Czechs Hit Back Against EU Crackdown on Legal Gun-Owners: ‘Free Countries Don’t Disarm Their Citizens’ https://t.co/7C0Xykjrtj
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) June 22, 2018
Whereas the Czech Republic has historically been required to comply with EU Parliament weapons restrictions, the political change will now prohibit any EU directives from curtailing citizens’ and households’ right to own firearms.
The EU Parliament has maintained that guns restrictions are necessary to combat terrorism, but others have pointed out that jihadists have been discovered to mostly employ guns illegally.
For decades, the Czech Republic has battled EU gun control efforts; Commander-in-Chief Milo Zeman has been a staunch advocate of the right to bear guns, supporting the bill that resulted in the 2018 constitutional amendment.
Czech Prez Calls for a European ‘Second Amendment’ for Self-Defence Against Terrorists https://t.co/boKKSyO6lC
— Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) October 12, 2017
The President Is Known For is Strong Support Of A European Second Amendment
Throughout a media briefing the year before, Zeman infuriated reporters by brandishing a mock firearm with the phrase “for journalists” engraved on the barrel, regardless of the fact that the only munitions it held were Becherovka wine.
Meanwhile, the President caused controversy with a replica gun "for journalists." https://t.co/eSZYFIQrfU
— Christopher Chiu-Tabet (@CCTabet) December 10, 2019
Unlike European Union officials, the Czech president believes that European nations ought to have the freedom to own arms in order to defend themselves against terrorism.
The European Parliament authorized a policy in mid-March strengthening firearms controls under the pretense of counter-terrorism. This forced the Czech Republic (which also integrates lower levels of gun control with safe streets and incredibly low terrorist attacks) to implement additional constraints or face punishment from Brussels.
Václav Klaus Jr., the president of the Center for Civic Liberties and the son of former President Václav Klaus Sr., lamented that anti-democratic and fascist regimes, not free nations, disempower their citizenry.
President Zeman is a critic of the European Union who also opposes massive immigration and engaged in the Prague Spring rebellion against the Soviet puppet regime during communism. He also originally called for a European version of the American Second Amendment to combat terrorism.
