Attention, "Columbine": FSB will take suspicious citizens by the gun

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Will the Rosgvardia bill prevent new shootings in schools?​

Vera Zherdeva

The material is commented on:

Lev Gudkov

Sergey Goncharov

Citizens wishing to purchase weapons will be checked by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB before purchasing a "barrel". Relevant amendments in the legislation prepared by the Russian Guard. According to the authors of the initiative, this will help prevent weapons from falling into the hands of members of organized criminal groups, including extremists and terrorists. At the same time, security officials and civil servants will be excluded from inspections

The fact that the circulation of weapons needs to be controlled is a common truth. Many are convinced that private individuals should not have weapons at all. None. Even hunting rifles. And their position deserves respect. As well as the circumstances of those for whom hunting is an opportunity to feed their families (the inhabitants of the elite metropolitan areas cannot understand this). Or those to whom the weapon gives the opportunity to protect themselves and their loved ones.

Situations are different. In a metropolis filled with video cameras and police patrols, a person feels completely protected. And the likelihood of running into a hungry bear or a couple of wolves on the way to work is zero. But in our country there are areas where you can only get to the precinct by helicopter or by dog sled if there is no kerosene (this, by the way, happens quite often). There, the weapon will stop both the predator and the bandit.

And we must not forget that if the tightening of the law "On weapons" leads to a decrease in demand for it, many people will simply be left without work. In the short term, 9,000 jobs will be cut (further - more), but the treasury will miss 5 billion a year - gunsmiths warn.

In general, you need to approach prohibitions and restrictions wisely. Especially against the backdrop of the fact that in June, President Putin already signed amendments that broadened the grounds for refusing to issue weapons licenses. The age of acquisition of hunting and smooth-bore long-barreled self-defense weapons was also increased from 18 to 21 years.

Would it make sense to tighten the nuts?

Sergey Goncharov, President of the Association of Veterans of the Anti-Terror Unit "Alpha", President of the Russian Union of Security Enterprises , believes that common sense in this sentence is:

- If there is a suspicion that a person who has already received a permit for a weapon stores it incorrectly, or his behavior poses a threat to society (the district police officer must know about this), then the weapon will be legally confiscated from him. Likewise, a person prone to manifestations of aggression will not receive permission at all. But I do not believe that the new measures will help prevent weapons from falling into the hands of criminals.

"SP": - Maybe it is enough to tighten the rules for passing the medical examination, so that persons prone to antisocial behavior can be identified by a psychiatrist?

- Unfortunately, in our country the situation with corruption is so neglected that no measures will correct this situation now. As long as a person makes any inquiries to himself for money, no tightening will save him. It is necessary to remove the corruption component that will allow psychos to receive these certificates.

"SP": What conditions need to be created so that citizens voluntarily refuse to acquire weapons, considering them unnecessary?

- During the Soviet Union, about which many now say that everything was very bad then, a person received the right to acquire weapons only if he was a member of the “Society of Hunters”. And the Society guaranteed that the weapon would go to the person who would actually be hunting.

But if a person lives in a city and acquires weapons for self-defense, I want to ask, from whom is he going to defend himself? In addition, our law on self-defense is written in such a peculiar way that it can be interpreted very broadly. Remember, there was a case when a girl wounded a taxi driver who tried to rape her? She got the term! As long as we have a mess with laws, what we are talking about will happen.

Sociologist Lev Gudkov, Director of the Levada Center * , also doubts that new checks will leave organized crime groups and terrorists unarmed. Because they rarely apply for permission for it:

- There are illegal channels of arms trade. Let's say the weapon comes from hot spots. These additional checks are pure window dressing. This will not affect the real state of affairs in any way. It is necessary to cut off illegal channels, control the sources of weapons proliferation, and not double-check those who already have them.

There is one more aspect of the new amendments. Changes are proposed to be made to the Federal Law on Weapons, but since new powers are needed to conduct inspections of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the FSB. This means that it will be necessary to amend the Federal Laws "On the Police" and "On the Federal Security Service". And this can already affect the interests of not only the owners of weapons, but also many other citizens.

By the way, in May of this year, the Human Rights Council proposed to study in detail the biography of each candidate before issuing a weapon permit, and to oblige everyone who wants to purchase a weapon to pass a specially developed test that should show whether a person is capable of murder. But then this proposal did not find support.
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* The ANO "Yuri Levada Analytical Center" was entered by the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation into the register of organizations performing the functions of a foreign agent.

A source

 

[Alexander Konovalenko.]

The ideas are correct, but here in Russia it usually turns out how it works, they want the best, but everything turns out, as they say, through one place. They begin to rush from one extreme to the other. Then they will tighten the nuts with one, then they will solve everything with the other.