[grobdriver]

Russia already has strong controls on legal firearms, mandating that rifles and shotguns — handguns are illegal for the public to own — be registered to licensed gun owners who must submit to a series of background and medical checks that have to be renewed every five years. Besides a gun registry, it is mandated that rifle owners submit test rounds to a central cartridge registry as well.

Additionally, there are regulations on the number of guns that can be owned, where they can be shot, how guns are stored, and requirements for gun owners to pass regular tests on firearm laws and safety.

Well crap - not much further they can go short of an outright ban on ownership...

And also illustrates that no matter WHAT the bureaucrats do, crazies are going to get them, and use them.

[elcid1970]

Actually there is a vast black market in guns all over Russia especially since WWII when the land was practically littered with leftover small arms. Some take bizarre form like Mosin-Nagant rifles cut down into long pistols. The vast Russian interior contains thousands upon thousands of `black guns’ which means illegal, not the finish.

If Putin ever attempted to round up unregistered guns in Russia there would be chaos & insurrection. Police would have to say goodbye to their families every single day. Russians relish personal combat in a way we cannot even imagine.