The struggle to ensure proper protection is gaining new meaning, new supporters and new arguments.
This was demonstrated by the parliamentary round table, which took place on 30.05.2019. in the Parliamentary Committee on European Integration chaired by MP Olena Sotnyk.
At the beginning of the roundtable, the main thesis in favor of streamlining the circulation of weapons was voiced, namely: uncontrolled circulation and lack of civilized legal regulation lead to the annual death of about 7 thousand Ukrainians at the hands of criminals; about 6 thousand more are seriously injured.
It is not difficult to calculate that during the years of independence the number of dead and injured Ukrainians from armed compatriots exceeded 300,000.
Attention! Three hundred thousand are people who could not defend themselves, because, unlike the attackers, they were not armed.
Deaths and injuries, according to the participants of the event, fill the karma of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The traditional factor is corruption octopus related to the issuance and extension of permits, control of police officials over the pricing and sale of weapons and ammunition, etc. Corruption is followed by reward weapons which is indiscriminately issued/sold to “respectable” and wealthy individuals, and failure of law enforcement to overcome the crazy growth of crime.
The discussion continues
Of course, the police are doing something. And even seizes about two thousand weapons per year. However, it is obvious that with 4-5 million “guns” in the population, this work will take two thousand years and several billion from the state budget.
Also, the police sometimes detain someone who has an unregistered weapon. However, the percentage of criminals who pay “vacation pay” in police departments and courts is not subject to calculation.
At the same time, the participants of the discussion gave other arguments to regulate the turnover of civilian weapons. The first is the constant threat of invasion the army of a neighboring country. The experts acknowledged that the Ukrainian Armed Forces are fatally lagging behind the former metropolis in terms of their power, and that only armed, motivated, organized and trained citizens united in territorial defense units can cool the enemy’s intentions. But between the terms, it was said that the political leadership of the country is not very decisive in counteracting the aggressor, and therefore for five years of war there is no effective territorial defense at all.
Private security companies should become the core of such a truly national defense and, at the same time, an effective tool to protect citizens from internal criminal threats. However, the state stubbornly does not provide them with weapons. Why?
The participants of the event expressed their belief that the provision of weapons to “private citizens” is deliberately hindered by high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as this will lead to the loss of monopoly by commercial police units providing security services, and, as a result, to the loss of by someone of multi-layered corruption profits.
An important argument in favor of weapons for self-defense is safety of women . It is women who most often find themselves in dangerous situations when their honor, life, health and property can be saved (according to the activist of the women’s movement) only by a wallet in a purse.
Sadly, the number of single women has increased due to widows of fallen soldiers in the current war with Russia. And how many women are waiting alone for their husbands to return from the front?
Participants of the event
Finally, international image of the country which, due to inadequate legal regulation, can acquire monetary content. The fact is that as of 2017, the courts in Ukraine punished more than 52,000 people for “illegal” (let us recall, in the absence of the law) carrying, storage, purchase, manufacture, repair, transfer or sale of firearms. The Criminal Code provides for imprisonment from 3 to 7 years.
If every convicted person applies to the European Court of Human Rights, what will be the total amount of compensation?
Thus, in contrast to the arguments such as “ they will drink and shoot one by one“, there are new and new arguments that are supported by real concern for people, society and the state. And the fact that the issue of civilian weapons regulation is gaining more and more supporters and is already being discussed in the Parliament speaks volumes.
At least that the historical call for self-defense and decent life in Ukrainians for hundreds of years has not been killed.
P.S. The round table was attended by the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the NGO “Ukrainian Gun Owners Association” Georgiy Uchaykin, lawyer of the NGO “Ukrainian Association of Gun Owners” Mykola Orekhovskyi, lawyer of the political party “National Corps” Victor Shendybylo, women’s movement activist Yulia Fedosyuk, Head of the Supervisory Board of the NGO “Professional Association of Bodyguards” Oleg Konchakivskyi, Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Association of Private Detectives of Ukraine Oleksandr Denysenko, expert on territorial defense Svyatoslav Stetsenko.
The initiator and moderator of the round table was MP Olena Sotnyk.
Following the discussion, it was decided to finalize the text of the draft law №1135-1 by the beginning of August this year and propose it for the 1st reading to the new composition of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.
The video of the round table is available here.
Author: Alexander Krasnopyorov, Security UA