Life and safety directly depend on controlling arms trafficking. The Ministry of Internal Affairs has recognised this area as one of the most corrupt
According to optimistic forecasts, Ukraine is home to approximately 41 million people. At the same time, Ukrainians own up to 7 million weapons. At the same time, only one in seven is legally owned, i.e. with the appropriate permit. A grim confrontation between law and lawlessness.
Weapons permits in Ukraine
Why go far? Representatives of the law are also not afraid of responsibility. A striking example was the case of Andriy Novak, a former judge of the Holosiivskyi District Court of Kyiv. The Anti-Corruption Court sentenced him to 7.5 years in prison and confiscation of all his property for taking an $8,000 bribe.
Interestingly, during the search, firearms with ammunition were found in his possession, of course, without the legal permit. Only because the judge was caught on corruption were the weapons seized.
But the situation with registered weapons is not good either. Ordinary people can only get a permit for hunting rifles or shotguns.
Instead, ‘unusual’ people can apply for traumatic and combat weapons. We are talking about weapons for self-defence - handy and compact pistols, but these are special offers from the Ministry of Internal Affairs for the ‘privileged’.
In fact, these are pistols that fire either rubber or real ammunition. But their main advantage is the ability to carry them under your clothes at all times, without attracting too much attention from others, and the ability to protect yourself at any time.
Who are the benefits for?
Pistols with rubber ammunition are available only to a narrow circle of people, including judicial and law enforcement officials, their close relatives, and
- Members of Parliament;
- military personnel
- civil servants
- members of public organisations;
- journalists.
But don't worry, it's not a problem to buy a permit for such weapons in a package with a journalist's certificate. The price is $400-$600.
According to the head of the Ukrainian Association of Gun Owners, he does not know of a single owner of a traumatic weapon who would have obtained such a gun without the use of illegal schemes. According to him, many such pistols are sold by companies that initially purchased them at a price of $8-12 from the Ministry of Defence, then converted them to ‘traumatic’ weapons and sold them for $600.
In this way, they sold permits for at least 220,000 ‘traumatics’. And by the way, such a permit must be renewed every 3 years. For which, of course, you have to pay $250-300 again.
We are talking about hundreds of millions of dollars. And their receipt is guaranteed by schemes that were ‘initiated’ by the Ministry of Internal Affairs itself.
In fact, if everyone who wanted to buy a weapon with rubber bullets was obliged to actually undergo a medical examination and a course in handling weapons, we would be sure that these weapons would not get to people who should not have them. It would not pose a danger to society, and the corruption rent would not end up in the pockets of unscrupulous officials and their entourage.
The second opportunity to obtain weapons applies to even more privileged and wealthy people, we are talking about ‘reward’ weapons.
In theory, it should be given only to military personnel and employees of military formations for outstanding services in
- ensuring the defence capability of Ukraine
- strengthening national security;
- exemplary performance of military
- service duty.
However, practice shows that such weapons are also awarded to those who can simply pay for them - businessmen and their bodyguards. People's deputies and ministers.
For example, back in 2013, MP Ilya Kiva avoided strict liability for bribery because he had a certificate of ‘psychopathic personality’. But 2 years later, this did not prevent former Minister Arsen Avakov from giving him a reward weapon.
By the way, over the past 7 years, almost 3,500 citizens, including 88 MPs, have received award firearms in his office. At the same time, submachine guns and assault rifles were issued under the guise of pistols.
Over 30 years, 50,000 such weapons (primarily pistols) have been issued. The average price for the uninitiated was 30 thousand dollars.
As an icing on the cake, the agencies do not disclose the list of people whom the state honoured with this award. Although logically, if such an award is not given to the military or law enforcement officers, society should know its heroes by sight, shouldn't it?
So we have a situation where ordinary people who do not want to use corruption schemes cannot own weapons for self-defence. Neither a gun that fires rubber bullets, nor even real bullets.
Against this background, there is a complete mess in the issuance of permits for such weapons for the more privileged and wealthy. How can this be regulated so that each of us has the right to self-defence and at the same time can walk safely down the street without fear that the weapon will fall into the hands of a ‘person with a stable psyche’?
There is currently no proper legislation that would regulate this issue. Over the past 30 years, MPs have registered more than 20 bills to regulate the circulation of civilian weapons. But none of them have been adopted.
The Verkhovna Rada is making another attempt to regulate the circulation of weapons
The Verkhovna Rada is currently making another attempt to regulate the circulation of civilian weapons. This is the draft law 5708, authored by more than 40 MPs from the Servant of the People, For the Future, and Trust factions. Among them are Ihor Fris, Speaker of the Parliament Ruslan Stefanchuk, Maksym Buzhansky and Halyna Tretyakova.
The draft law is fully supported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and has recently been recommended for adoption by the relevant Parliamentary Committee.
The Institute of Legislative Ideas has analysed this draft law in detail for risks. And I must disappoint you, it is full of corruption holes, including those I have just mentioned.
As it is now, only certain categories are allowed to own short-barreled weapons - ordinary people will not be able to get a permit for a pistol even with rubber bullets. Unless they use well-established corruption schemes.
What's worse, anyone can now get a weapon as a reward, even if they are not formally related to the military or law enforcement agencies, and have no special merit in ensuring Ukraine's defence capability.
And of course, there are no proposals to open a register of gun owners either. I'm not even talking about new corrupt innovations that concentrate the powers of the security forces to control and regulate both business and gun owners.
Among them is the mandatory approval of the National Police for each employment contract for employees of shooting ranges. The possibility for law enforcement to conduct inspections of gun owners at least monthly.
Due to the blurred distinction between administrative and criminal liability, the ability to choose the punishment for the offender at their own discretion - from a fine of UAH 1700 to imprisonment for 3 years.
Do we need a comprehensive law to regulate the circulation of civilian weapons? Of course we do. But what we don't need is a legislative screen behind which permits and award weapons will continue to be handed out for money, causing nightmares for businesses and making it impossible for ordinary citizens to protect themselves and their families.
Source: Channel 24