Many countries have a weapons law that has for years been becoming increasingly restrictive (with every incident). It is estimated that there are ten million licensed weapons in Germany (in the hands of four million legal weapons owners) as opposed to more than twice as many illegal weapons. Nevertheless, the German police announced, just prior to the EU Weapons Directive, that they saw no need for further tightening, instead efforts should be made to ensure the current rules (for example, on secure storage) are respected. Experts have for years been pointing out, to no avail, that in the majority of crimes involving firearms (in Austrian crime statistics these account for a small fraction), the firearms were procured illegally.