Easy to get automatic weapons past open borders: A'dam mayor

According to the Amsterdam police, it is easier for criminals to come by automatic weapons since the borders within the European Union were opened and the "structures of the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe and Balkans" fell away.  Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan wrote this in response to Marijke Shahsavari's (CDA) questions following the appearance of Kalashnikovs in the murder of criminal Dekaoui van der Meijden in mid-August. Flats around the Borneokade and C. van Eesterenlaan and one (closed) day care center were hit with heavy ammunition. Van der Laan reiterated that it is "a very worrying development" that citizens are seriously endangered by these kinds of assassinations, which have become almost commonplace during the gang war that has been raging in Amsterdam for the last couple of years. The mayor also stressed that, in the perception of the police, it is not easy for an outsider to get hold of a firearm. Last year thirteen automatic weapons (8 machine guns and 5 assault rifles such as Kalashnikovs) were found in Amsterdam. In the last five years the number of automatic weapons found in the city fluctuated between 7 and 20 per year. The police investigates all found automatic weapons via Interpol to determine whether the whereabouts of the weapon is known since it entered the black market and whether the weapon was involved in other crimes.