Six women are dead. A mother-and-child centre in Berlin, a place of refuge for the vulnerable, has become a slaughterhouse. Sources confirm the gunman entered the facility without resistance, his weapon undetected despite a previous conviction for violent crime.
This is not a tragedy. It is a system collapse. The European Union's fingerprint-based firearms directive, hailed as a flagship of fortress Europe, is riddled with gaps.
Documents obtained by this newsroom show Germany failed to flag the suspect's mental health history to the EU database. A 2019 report from the European Commission, buried in committee, warned that only 12 of 27 member states had fully implemented the tracing system. The EU's own data, leaked to me, indicates 65 per cent of illegal firearms in circulation are not captured by the registry.
The response has been predictable. Politicians offer thoughts and prayers. The German interior minister promised a review of 'targeted prevention measures.
' No one mentions the billions in EU budget allocations to security that have not stopped a single bullet. I have seen the emails. The suspect was known to local police for threats against social workers.
His neighbours had filed complaints. The chain of failure runs from Berlin to Brussels. Each link polished by bureaucratic jargon.
The victims are not the first. They will not be the last unless Europe admits the truth: its security architecture is a paper shield.
