Via a mailing from Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, I was directed to this interesting development:
Vladimir Putin’s Russia Adopts Concealed Carry
Russia, which according to official figures has the fifth highest murder rate in the world, has relaxed its gun ownership laws.
Yep. The land of Vladimir Putin, run by an oligarchical collection of cronies and criminals, is about to relax their gun laws… And not by just a little. After the reforms, they’ll make some US jurisdictions look positively Soviet. While places like New York and Washington DC continue to make it (almost) impossible to get a permit for carrying a handgun, Putin’s Russia is about to make it easier.
Previously, Russians were only permitted to own firearms (subject to approval) for hunting or sporting. But under the new law they will soon be allowed to carry guns, open or concealed, for the purposes of self-defense. (Yeah… A background check and training will be a prerequisite.)
And let’s face it, having a gun for self-defense is probably not the worst idea in Russia. While America saw its share of homicides in 2011 (roughly 13,600), Putin’s homeland saw far more… Despite having a population that is almost half of the US, Russia recorded over 21,000 homicides in the same year. (Wow… So much for believing that gun control works, right Chicago?) The new laws aim to curb that trend, and add to Russia’s homeland defense against outside threats.
The report above is by Michael Schaus and links in turn to this report by Tom Porter in the International Business Times.
New York and (especially) Washington DC already looked positively Soviet.
I haven’t seen any more details on Russia’s proposed reforms than are presented here, but I have a sneaking suspicion that they mean to emulate California–in theory it’s possible to get a concealed carry permit there, but in practice only the rich, powerful, and white can actually do so.
Well, I don’t know if letting Russians carry guns about is a good idea or not. But I do know they are gonna get used.
I knew a few Russians who were permitted to carry guns as part of their job, others used to own them for sport, and one or two would carry ones with plastic bullets for self defense (which was legal). They’re no stranger to guns, a lot of them having done national service, but the way they drink…and the recklessness which which their young men use a dustbin lid, let alone a gun….well, I dunno. They will get waved about, and they will be fired.
Yes 21 thousand murders a year (out of population that is barely over a hundred million) is not a good advert for “gun control”.
Has anyone told Michael Bloomberg that, in this respect at last – now Putin may be giving up “gun control”, Vlad Putin is more liberal (in the old sense) than he is?
Paul, are you suggesting that Bloomberg views Putin as an exemplar and so should be emulating him? The first part of that sentence is probably correct, but the second seems highly unlikely: Bloomberg has far too much invested (both financially and politically) in gun control to repudiate it now, even if his idol has. After all, Stalin (Bloomberg’s real role model) never did so.
I’ll bet that this is all because of Tony Abbott’s promise to ‘shirtfront’ Putin! Next time Putin sees Abbott, he’ll shoot him in ‘self-defence’. I look forward to very lively G20 meetings in future! (And because the number of politicians is being reduced, really productive meetings!)
Putin’s kicking himself for not having thought of this earlier.
He could have outfitted his entire army in touristy tee-shirts and Bermuda shorts with dark socks and fanny-packs and sent them all into Ukraine on Intourist buses while sitting back and exclaiming “what invasion? it’s vacation time!”
When a Commie in an autocracy allows greater freedom than a putative democrat in a constitutional democracy, you have to wonder what the world is coming to…
democracymonarchyTim Newman
November 26, 2014 at 7:34 pm
Well, I don’t know if letting Russians carry guns about is a good idea or not. But I do know they are gonna get used.
I knew a few Russians who were permitted to carry guns as part of their job, others used to own them for sport, and one or two would carry ones with plastic bullets for self defense (which was legal). They’re no stranger to guns, a lot of them having done national service, but the way they drink…and the recklessness which which their young men use a dustbin lid, let alone a gun….well, I dunno. They will get waved about, and they will be fired.
So – you’re saying that the current Russian gun control regime is *working? That its currently actually keeping guns out of the hands of people likely to use them hazardly/illegally? Or is this ‘we’re going to have a lot more addicts if we legalize drugs’ type of argument?
Mexico has a strict gun control regime – there’s basically only *one legal gun store in the whole country* and guns are readily available from the northern to the southern border.
The devil is in the details. There’s a world of difference between “shall issue” (where the State has to prove why it shouldn’t issue a licence) and “may issue” (where the individual has to prove “need” to the State bureaucracy. The former (as practised in gun-friendly states like Texas) is a boon to citizens, while “may issue” (as practised in the soviet states like New York and California) is simply a way for the nomenklatura to be able to protect themselves.
Which option Russia ends up adopting will speak volumes about the individual freedoms of Russian citizens, and the government’s attitude towards them.
Indeed, Kim. Even that aside, we don’t even know if the report itself is reliable.
It’s not, from what I’m told. The change applies to “non lethal” self defence weapons, plastic bullet pistols.
Curses! So much for that flood of Soviet surplus Makarov pistols that have been selling for about $200 here in the US. They’ll be going into the domestic market in Russia. OTOH, that’s a nice new market for US pistols, too…