Posted on 07/07/2011 6:20:26 AM PDT by marktwain
Russians should be given the right to bear arms, albeit with strict regulations, believes acting upper house speaker, Aleksandr Torshin.
I believe that law-abiding citizens should be returned the lost right to bear small arms,” he told journalists, as cited by RIA Novosti.
According to the senator, carrying a gun is “a huge responsibility”, but “citizens should have an opportunity to defend themselves, their families' lives and their property”. Torshin believes that if people were allowed to carry weapons, they would have a fair fight with the “lamebrains and villains” in the event of an attack.
If journalist Oleg Kashin had had a gun, his nighttime encounter [with his assailants] could have had a completely different outcome,” Torshin noted.
In November 2010, the Kommersant reporter was severely beaten not far from his home in Moscow by two unknown men. For several days, he teetered between life and death at an intensive care unit as he was forced to undergo several surgeries.
The Federation Council speaker stressed that the sale and use of weapons can only be carried out under the strictest of controls. Only mentally healthy people, with clear criminal records who have no dependency problems with drugs or alcohol addiction would be allowed to possess and carryguns. In addition, everyone who decided to obtain a firearm would be obliged to pass a training course on how to use it.
At the same time, the legislator approved the idea of equating non-lethal guns to their lethal counterparts and acted introduce tougher punishments for the illegal trafficking of so-called pain inducing (or non-lethal) weapons. According to Torshin, Russians currently have over 3.5 million non-lethal firearms.
“What had been created as a means of self-defense has turned into a big problem,” he observed. Within the last five years, about 70 people were shot dead and 600 wounded with non-lethal guns. According to the senator, owners of non-lethal weapons do not seriously consider the consequences of their use while the owners of lethal weapons would be a lot more responsible.
On December 28, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev signed a law that prohibits the carrying and use of items such as pneumatic pistols, as well as the sale of cartridges for non-lethal weapons without special permission.
These steps followed a sharp rise in crimes with the use of non-lethal shotguns, including an attack on RT's editor Natalia Arkhiptseva who was wounded in a downtown Moscow café in October of last year. After she reprimanded a drunken man who had insulted her, he drew a pistol and fired a bullet into her foot. In March of this year, 35-year-old Sergey Virolainen was sentenced to a year in a prison camp and ordered to pay 300,000 rubles in compensation for shooting Arkhiptseva.
In August 2008, Roman Romanchuk, a well-known Russian boxer, killed a resident of Russia’s Far East region, Oleg Meshkov with an Osa (Russian for “wasp”) non-lethal pistol. During a conflict between the two men, Meshkov fired his non-lethal gun at the boxer. Romanchuk wrestled the gun from the 22-year-old and shot him in the head. The silver medalist of the World Boxing Championship was sentenced to 1,5 years behind bars.
Torshin's initiative to legalize firearms possession has both its supporters and detractors.
Many fear that allowing people to have guns will result in a higher crime rate as conflicts between citizens end in bloodshed.
Others refer to some Western countries' – such as Switzerland and Finland – with high gun ownership rates and very low crime rates.
The US leads the world in gun ownership, with about 90 guns per 100 people. However, the country is also no stranger to mass shootings.In January, a gunman killed six people and injured others, including a US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona. Over 30,000 Americas die annually due to gun violence and an estimated 200,000 more are injured. Gun policy is one of the most hotly debated political issues in the country.
Wouldn’t that impugn that whole communism thingy?
“no dependency problems with drugs or alcohol addiction”
That rules out about 90% of Russians.
No, because only the elite, loyal communists will pass the "tests" while everone else will be denied for some vague reasons.
This is just a means of protecting the ruling class from their subjects.
Yeah, that though crossed my mind as well.
You beat me to it by a minute. Also, the numbers mentioned at the end about the victims of gun violence in the USA seem to be pulled out of thin air, and of course no mention that the criminals will use guns no matter what the laws are.
While this is undoubtedly a move in the right direction, the phrasing here makes me think that perhaps our former Soviet "comrades" still don't get it.
The right to protect one's self and one's family using the best means available isn't "given"... it's inherent. The fact that this right isn't currently recognized by the Russian government is an abuse against the people, not a norm.
But at least they're moving in the right direction. I wish I could say the same about the Obama-bamboozled masses right here in the good ol' U. S. of A.
Russia: Not quite so communist, any more.
Plus - they site Switzerland and Finland, yet fail to show the comparison in the U.S. of crime statistics by State where the gun control laws are pro-individual vs. anti-2nd Ammendment.
You beat me to it.
It’s a sad reality. Maybe not 90%, that was a joke, but the hopelessness over there is a testament to decades (and probably centuries) without Christ.
Russians HAVE the right to bear arms; it comes from their Creator, just like our right to bear arms doe.
The fact that they are DENIED this right is another matter, but no one GIVES them, or me, the right to keep and bear arms.
A critical distinction.
doe = does.
Yep.
In fact Russians de-facto has right to own arms right now.
They can legally bear a variety of arms prohibited in US as ‘assault weapons’.
Their lawmakers aren’t busy to outlaw pistol grips, detachable mags, folding stocks, muzzle breaks etc.
Any rifle or shotgun is legal as soon as it is longer than some 30 inches, 50 or less cal (larger ones are considered artillery for military purpose)and unable to fire full auto.
Short guns like revolvers and pistols are tricky to own but there are still some ways to own it legally of you want it badly.
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