Suspects or accused people to stop being granted gun licences

Additional reasons excluding the possibility of obtaining a licence

First of all, the changes refer to the reasons why a citizen won’t be granted or will be revoked a licence to buy, expose or collect weapons. The following categories of citizens won’t be able to get a licence:

• suspected and accused of committing an intended crime;
• exonerated by the court for committing an intended crime imposing a fine or for the reasons that don’t grant the right for rehabilitation earlier than two years after the court’s dedicated rule becomes valid;
• citizens who didn’t pass the examination for “a threat posed to violation of rights and liberties of citizens, a threat to state and public security. If a decision is made as a result, a citizen can go to extremes and he is dangerous, he will be denied the licence. Militaries and representatives of indigenous peoples have the right not to be examined.

• removed or expunged conviction for a grave, very grave crime or intended misdemeanour with gun use;
• removed or expunged conviction for an intended crime related to illegal weapon use and bullets, ammunition, explosive substances or explosive devices;
• given a warning or a fine for drug consumption, drink driving or letting a drunk person driving a vehicle. Citizens who didn’t meet the requirement of an official for doing a medical examination for alcohol intoxication will also be denied a licence. They can get the right to buy a weapon only two years after the court’s rule comes into force.

Also, another change was made — the term it takes to consider applications for people receiving a gun licence for the first time was extended. Now it takes 30 days instead of 14.

The latest changed in the law appeared a year ago

As Ramil Kamaliyev explained, the changes in the law On Weapon have been made in stages since 2022. Then, the novelties affected not only people who wanted to buy a weapon but also those who already possessed some.

So, since 2022, gun owners have been obliged to provide a document on passing a test on its safe use once in five years. Also, it is necessary to bring the weapon to officials for examination once in five years too and provide them with access to its place of storage.

Kamaliyev added that since 2022 replicas or deactivated weapons have also been registered. The owner must inform officials about buying such a commodity.

After last year’s changes, the following categories stopped being given licences:

• citizens under 21;
• whose conviction for an intended crime has not been removed or expunged;
• whose conviction for a grave or very grave crime has not been removed or expunged;
• who have a conviction for an intended crime using a gun;
• whose conviction for an intended crime related with illegal weapon use has not been removed or expunged;
• who have a conviction related to extremism;
• whose conviction for a crime related with violence against minors has not been removed or expunged;
• who have two or more criminal records.

43,000 Tatarstan residents possess a weapon

According to Kamaliyev, 43,000 Tatarstan residents have a civil weapon permit nowadays — it is a total of some 75,000.

1,153 violations related to gun storage and purchase were detected in Tatarstan in 2022. About 500 weapons were revoked in Tatarstan during the year.

As the head of the Gun Control Department of the Licence and Permit Centre of the Tatarstan office of the Russian Guard said, these are the possible reasons why a gun licence can be revoked:

• the owner’s death;
• two or more minor violations during the period of weapon possession;
• violation of current legislation;
• a decision of the State Committee for Biological Resources.

Over 1,900 illegally stored weapons were voluntarily returned by Tatarstan residents in 2022. More than 2,000 individuals and legal entities were imposed a warning or a fine.

By last June, 44,547 weapon owners were registered in Tatarstan. They have about 75,000 weapons in their hands. In 2022, the State Services portal received 16,000 applications from Tatarstan residents in all types of services related to weapons: licence extension, applying for a licence and so on.