Lviv City Council supported the draft law “On civilian weapons and ammunition”

On May 21, Lviv City Council adopted an appeal to the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk and Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Volodymyr Groysman with a request to facilitate the speedy adoption of the draft law “On civilian weapons and ammunition” by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine.

This was reported to the Ukrainian Association of Gun Owners by the deputy of the Lviv City Council Taras Choliy.

“Today Lviv City Council voted to support the appeal to the leadership of the state on the legislative regulation of the right of Ukrainian citizens to arms,” said Choliy.

To the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko
To the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine V.B. Groysman
To the Prime Minister of Ukraine A.P. Yatsenyuk

ALIGNMENT

Lviv City Council
on the legislative regulation of the right
citizens of Ukraine for weapons

Dear Mr. President, Mr. Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, Mr. Prime Minister!

As representatives of the community of Lviv, we consider it our duty to address you and express our position on the situation with the circulation of firearms in the country.

Thus, recently, the highest officials of the state have made statements that were perceived by a significant part of society as aimed at narrowing the right of citizens to own firearms.

Instead, the problem of the state and society lies not in the failure of citizens to reach a certain level of consciousness that allows them to safely own and use weapons, but in the total unwillingness of the state to abandon the Soviet totalitarian ideology and corruption schemes that have developed over the years.

As you know, there is no special law on weapons in Ukraine, which would regulate all related issues, from the right to purchase and ending with the definition of the limits of lawful use. Instead, the entire legal arms market is manually controlled by a monopoly body – the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which combines licensing, permitting and control functions. It seems paradoxical, but in a modern state such fundamental things as the right to own, carry, dispose of and use firearms are regulated at the level of orders of the Minister of Internal Affairs and departmental instructions.

There is a more important aspect of the problem. While the country is flooded with illegal weapons, hundreds of crimes are committed with their use, law-abiding citizens remain virtually defenseless. The state is stubbornly unwilling to grant a law-abiding citizen the right to carry short-barreled rifled firearms that can be used for self-defense in accordance with the procedure established by law, in compliance with all procedures and checks. At the same time, according to the existing rules, a citizen can keep many times more powerful, semi-automatic long-range weapons, which are prohibited to carry and almost impossible to use for self-defense.

The experience of dozens of countries that have allowed concealed carry of short-barreled firearms debunks the arguments of opponents of this step. In particular, a significant reduction in crime has occurred in Moldova, as well as in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, which our officials cite as an example of a patriotic and capable of repelling the aggressor society.

For a long time, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has been considering draft laws to regulate the circulation of weapons, in particular, the draft law No. 1135-1 of 10.12.2014 “On civilian weapons and ammunition”, submitted by the People’s Deputy Ilyenko A.Y. and others. This project is able to solve all issues related to the circulation of weapons in the state, to maintain the balance of interests of the state and the right of a citizen to protect his life and health from unlawful encroachments, will lay the foundations of a society capable of defending its state.

In connection with the above, we ask you to speed up the consideration and facilitate the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the draft law №1135-1 “On civilian weapons and ammunition”.

As we reported earlier, Cherkasy City Council appealed to the leadership of the country with a request to consider and facilitate the adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine of the draft law №1135-1 “On civilian weapons and ammunition“.

Also, the Secretary of the Kyiv City Council Oleksii Reznikov informed earlier about the preparation of a similar appeal to the country’s leadership from the side of the Kyiv City Council.

In the near future, the draft appeal, which was unanimously approved by the Kyiv City Council Commission on Local Self-Government, Regional and International Relations, will be submitted to the plenary session of the Kyiv City Council.