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The main purpose of the amendments to the Law on Regulation of the Circulation of Weapons is the relations arising in connection with the circulation and production of civilian, service, as well as combat firearms, combat and projectile weapons in the Republic of Armenia, which are aimed at the legislative regulation of the citizen's right to self-defense through access to appropriate means of protection, with the legal regulation of property rights, as well as the conditions for the use of civilian weapons by individuals and legal entities. The deputy Vilen Gabrielyan noted during the sitting of the NA Standing Committee on Defense and Security held on September 5.

During the sitting, the draft law on Regulation of the Circulation of Weapons authored by the NA deputies Vilen Gabrielyan, Andranik Kocharyan and Armen Khachatryan was debated in the first reading with the related package.

Andranik Kocharyan, the co-author of the legislative package, informed that the development of the package has started months ago, and it is in the finalization stage until now. The experience of about two dozen countries was also studied during that time.

The proposed legislative amendments should regulate the existing legal relations in the field of circulation of civilian weapons, which are not properly regulated or are controversial until now, they should regulate and introduce new legal relations, as well as contribute to the development of economy and sports, the overcoming of possible corruption risks, the reduction of the number of illegal weapons and the gradual withdrawal from the shadow circulation. The current RA Law on Weapons was adopted in 1998 and apart from granting the privilege to certain state bodies to acquire service weapons, it has never undergone substantive changes since its adoption. The current law, in fact, duplicates the main provisions of the USSR legislation, which regulated the weapons circulation.

According to the rationale behind the draft, the majority of crimes committed with firearms in Armenia in recent years are committed with illegal firearms, while the number of crimes committed with legal firearms is ten times lower. 22 crimes were committed with legal weapons in 2017-2021, on average, 4 cases per year, and 296 cases were committed with illegal weapons, on average, 59 cases per year.

With the adoption of the package, it is expected to regulate the circulation of weapons and ammunitions, to promote the development of hunting, amateur and sports shooting, as well as military training, to introduce a culture of weapons handling, which will be aimed at self-defense and the increase of fighting ability of citizens.

“Will gun ownership be liberalized?” asked the deputy Vahagn Aleksanyan, in response to which, Vilen Gabrielyan clarified that this initiative does not envisage liberalization of the purchase of a gun. It was noted that retired persons who worked for 20 years in the middle and high officer ranks of the power structures will be able to purchase a gun.

“According to our proposed draft, we make the procedure for granting weapons permits stricter that the existing one. Now it is much more liberal, and we expect with the draft that responsibility for weapons should be formed in our society,” Vilen Gabrielyan underlined.

In his co-report, the RA Deputy Head of Police Ara Fidanyan presented the proposals of the Government, which are aimed at clarifying and improving the legislative package.

It will be proposed to include the legislative package in the draft agenda of the NA regular sittings with the endorsement of the Committee.