Russian Parliament suggests doubling weapons sales to the public
The State Duma of Russia introduced a bill softening restrictions on the possession of weapons.
According to the Parliamentary Gazette, the amendment proposes to double the limit of the small weapons in the hands of one person.
This includes hunting rifles, sport rifles and smoothbore long-barreled weapons. At the moment Russians are allowed to have no more than 5 units in each category, and the deputies suggest raising this allowance to 10 units.
The authors of the project, led by the chairman of Russia’s Committee for Security and Anti-Corruption, Vasily Piskarev, argue that this measure will allow Russians to sell around 100,000 weapons, which will help the domestic weapons industry development.
In their opinion, this will not cause any damage to public safety.
In addition, the amendments will allow athletes to use larger capacity stores for shooting training, as well as participate in competitions not only with a sporting weapon but also with a hunting weapon, provided this is included in the competition rules.
Finally, the bill should eliminate the legal uncertainty in regards to owning a civilian smoothbore firearm that applies to the acquiring of a weapon with a rifled barrel. The current rule provides for continuous experience of ownership, and the proposed amendments will provide a more flexible time frame.