At the session of the National Defense and Security Affairs Committee, the controversial draft of the Law On Regulation of Arms Circulation authored by KP MPs Vilen Gabrielyan, Armen Khachatryan, and Andranik Kocharyan was discussed. The chairman of the commission, Andranik Kocharyan, said that now there will be “manifestations of terrorism” by the opposition, that they accept this law to destroy our noble tribe, while in reality it is to protect the people.
“We have to shape those standards with our teeth, because if the standards are not there, but written on paper, they turn into Surmalu.”
Vilen Gabrielyan, presenting the project, said that it regulates legal relations related to civil service, as well as combat weapons and service weapons. The Arms Law in force in Armenia was adopted in 1998, but it does not define access to self-defense weapons and a number of other issues.
The new project defines the issues of importation of civil and service weapons, permission to carry them, issuance of licenses, revocation of licenses, restrictions on the circulation of weapons, and the responsibility for illegal weapons is tightened. According to the author, this project increases the protection of the society, regulates the circulation of weapons and munitions in RA, contributes to the development of hunting, amateur, and sports shooting, as well as military sports, and introduces the culture of handling weapons, which will be aimed at increasing the fighting ability of citizens.
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Expert Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that several proposals were not accepted in the project and he could not understand the logic. Civil Contract deputy Vahagn Aleksanyan conveyed the criticisms in the press that the purchase of a gun is being liberalized.
Vilen Gabrielyan answered that no liberalization is planned, let alone a gun, people will not be able to enter the store and buy a weapon. Civil Contract faction MP Babken Tunyan expressed concern that if people have too many weapons, crimes will increase.
Vilen Gabrielyan answered, “Both the international experience and the experience in Armenia show that there are almost no crimes committed by shooting with legal weapons. We studied the experience of 17 countries, and the international experience proves the same. The “liberalization” of arms that you say exists is seen around the world as a deterrence mechanism. We are actually tightening the procedure for granting weapons permits. A culture of owning weapons and responsibility for weapons will be formed in society.”
Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that in America, there are more than 50 weapons per 100 people. “There are 120 weapons per 100 inhabitants. The next country is Switzerland with about 30-32 guns. In the USA, there are 7-8 murders per 100,000 inhabitants, crimes with weapons, while in Russia, where there are 12 weapons per 100 inhabitants, there are 9-10 murders.”
Artsrun Hovhannisyan said that in the USA, they are now tightening up, but the interesting thing is that most of the restrictions proposed by President Biden is in the package of the Armenian law, that is, giving the driver’s license at the age of 21 and establishing an examination system.
Hripsime JEBEJYAN
