A tragic incident occurred in the Ukrainian capital. On Sunday evening, December 1, the killer shot at an elite car Range Rover and hit a three-year-old boy Sasha. The child died in an ambulance.
Initially, the bullet was intended for the baby’s father – businessman and deputy of the Kyiv Regional Council Vyacheslav Sobolev. The child became a victim of adult quarrels. But time is not a film, it cannot be rewound back.
So maybe Ukrainians should finally be allowed to bear arms. For self-defense and preservation of the lives of our citizens. If the law was in force, it is likely that the killer would not have behaved so brazenly and would not have shot at Soboliev’s car in the center of the capital.
In addition, weapons are the first factor of civic responsibility. A person with evil intentions will know that he can expect an even rebuff.
So do Ukrainians need the right to bear arms? There are many supporters and opponents of this initiative in the society. i-ua.tv inquired about the position of a member of the Ukrainian Gun Owners Association Veniamin Tymoshenko.
– Do we need a law on carrying weapons by citizens of Ukraine?
– Such a law is really needed, at least because it does not exist in nature.
– Even at the project level?
-There are two draft laws № 1222 and № 1222-1 in the Verkhovna Rada. But until now, “permits” for weapons are issued in Ukraine, gun shops and shooting ranges operate, but the circulation of weapons is regulated not by law, but only by police instructions. How do you like this?
– But many politicians and civil servants are given award pistols...
– The institution of award weapons was formed in the conditions of lawlessness, lawlessness and huge corruption. And the biggest trouble of his activity is not even that mistresses, wives, businessmen and just somebody’s friends receive personalized award pistols. They are sold to criminal authorities and even professional killers.
Do you remember recently in Kharkiv, in broad daylight, there was a shooting near a supermarket? One of the bandits died on the spot, and the other blew himself up with a grenade later. Of course, this whole story has been forgotten.
Nevertheless, it has developed. It turned out that the killer had a prize weapon. After burning his car, he was riding with a gun and a grenade in an ordinary bus, among people, to the train station. Can you imagine a wounded killer in public transport?
Then he blew himself up with a grenade, according to media reports: “literally lost his head”. So the question should be asked: why criminals have weapons, even reward weapons, and ordinary law-abiding citizens cannot defend themselves? Is this normal at all?
– In my opinion, this is unfair.
– Criminals have access to weapons, shoot and rob, and decent society is deliberately put in conditions of defenselessness. The question: “Why?”. Perhaps the government itself is criminalized and needs defenseless citizens? So that you can crush and rob individual entrepreneurs, openly engage in racketeering, raid and squeeze property, and finally – shoot people with impunity? Isn’t this the purpose of the situation of defenselessness of the majority of citizens? What do you think?
– Apparently, the authorities are simply afraid of people’s anger.
– The murder of a three-year-old child in Kyiv is a vivid continuation of the situation of injustice, impunity and lawlessness. Every year from 5.000 to 7.000 people die from gunshot wounds in Ukraine. Think about it. These are the statistics from the website of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine. That is, in the “peaceful” territory they knock out more than in the burning Donbas. How do you like these figures?
– They are impressive.
– I may sound a bit cynical now, but the boy’s death is just a dry statistical data. He is just one of those five or seven thousand citizens who will become the dry statistics of premeditated murders in Ukraine. We do not know how many people will be killed in the current 2019, but it will again be thousands of victims and that is what is horrifying.
– Yes, because, theoretically, the bullet could have hit a passerby.
– Criminal gangs are arranging their own battles, but even children suffer. This time an innocent child died, and next time who? The bullet ricocheted into the child, but it could have flown through the glass and hit a passerby.
What does the audacity of the crime say? The killer was not afraid of detention, prison and other unpleasant consequences. He felt completely unpunished and irresponsible. Hired killers go “on a rampage”, knowing that the government is criminalized and it will not do anything to them.
Citizens are absolutely defenseless against bandits. Therefore, I am among the activists of the Ukrainian Association of Gun Owners and the draft law № 1222, which I mentioned earlier, is the result of our work.
There was and continues to be a very difficult discourse with the authorities. Its representatives have said and say that the permission to carry self-defense weapons is not yet in time. They say that Ukrainians are not mature yet, Ukrainians are not like that, they get drunk and kill each other.
But don’t police officers kill citizens? Remember how drunken “law enforcement officers” killed a five-year-old boy in Pereiaslav-Khmelnytskyi. For them, everything went without consequences. Mutual responsibility. None of them is in jail, they do not even remember this case anymore. Here is proof that it is they who get drunk and shoot, not law-abiding citizens!
The lack of permission to carry weapons on the contrary gives rise to violence and murder. That is why our association has been working for many years to disprove the myth about “different” Ukrainians. The law on weapons is not just overdue, it is the most important law that should be adopted immediately. Ideally, this year.
– Perhaps if Ukrainians have the right to arms, it will contribute to their discipline. After all, before daring to hurt another, a person will understand that he or she can get a bullet in the forehead.
– Absolutely fair comment. Weapons are just a tool. A person shoots, not a weapon. Weapons are a good argument for prevention (crime prevention – ed.) of crimes. Now the criminal, who is going to break into someone else’s house and rob its owners, knows about the defenselessness of the victims. But if the criminal understands that he will face a guaranteed rebuff, it can stop him. Because everyone wants to live.
Prevention is the main task of the adoption of the law on weapons. If the state is unable to protect citizens and create a safe environment for life, people must take this issue upon themselves.
Among other things, Ukrainians now have, according to various estimates, about 5 million guns. And for some reason there are no shootings on the streets, although the society is polarized into “greenbots” and “gunpowderbots”. No matter how much our citizens are terrified, they understand that the armed conflict will finally tear the country apart.
That is why all statements such as: “weapons are out of time” and “Ukrainians are not like that” look absolutely manipulative and meaningless. On the contrary, weapons discipline a person. You understand that improper handling of the weapon will lead to either your injury or injury of another and such carelessness can lead to several years in prison.
Weapons discipline people and even change their attitude to others and the ways of society. It is the very tool and argument that will make us start respecting each other. Not to point fingers, not to make stupid threats, especially not to attack each other, and the profession of “titushka” will disappear forever.
– Of course, I am for the adoption of a law that would allow citizens to carry weapons. But on the other hand, is it possible to give a person a gun if he does not know how to handle it? Maybe you need a briefing?
– A fair point, but you have succumbed a bit to manipulative statements that weapons will be in free circulation and sold in almost every grocery store. Absolutely not. The draft law No. 1222 clearly stipulates who has the right to receive weapons and under what conditions. The document provides for a clear hierarchy of responsibility.
For example, the bullet can be used to determine the owner of the weapon from which the shot was made. A bullet and a shell casing are like a passport, which will immediately find the shooter. And then they will immediately establish who was the instructor of the shooter, who was the doctor who issued the certificate of fitness to own weapons.
Thus, before receiving weapons, the law provides for a criminal record check, medical examination and professional training. That is, the permission will not be given to a mentally ill person, drug addict or criminal. After the conclusion of law enforcement officers and doctors, the man will be sent for training to an instructor.
Therefore, in the event of an accident, the names of the shooter’s instructor and the doctor who issued him a medical certificate will become clear. And I doubt that a doctor for some miserable 200 UAH. bribe for the certificate will be willing to go through a criminal investigation that may have consequences for him.
The same will apply to the instructor. Today, everything is very formal. That obtaining a doctor’s certificate, that undergoing “training”, and the prices and the possibility of buying a “permit” in the so-called Permit system are already legendary. Everyone who has already received a “permit” for weapons will confirm my words.
What do you need from training? First, a person should know the legal conditions and consequences in which cases weapons can be used. Secondly, in order to avoid accidents and injuries, the weapon must be mastered at a high level. You need to go to the shooting range and understand how the weapon works, learn how to disassemble it and take care of it.
And after all these stages of acquaintance with weapons, a person gets the right to carry it. All this is laid down in the draft law No. 1222. I really hope that it will become a full-fledged law.