Question of the day: what is the threat of toughening the rules of arms circulation?

As you know, in connection with the Kazan tragedy, Putin ordered to urgently work out the tightening of the rules for the circulation of weapons. And now, on Monday, May 17, the United Russia party will introduce a bill to toughen the requirements for the acquisition and possession of weapons. According to the head of the Duma Committee on Information Policy, Alexander Khinshtein, this document will spell out additional grounds for refusing to receive weapons on medical grounds. Medical commissions will operate only in state institutions. Rosgvardia is planned to be given the right to verify these data, and the results of the survey will exist only in digital form.

Social media users debate the effectiveness of this measure.

For example, the ex-goalkeeper of the Russian national hockey team, Ilya Bryzgalov, who lives in the United States, writes in his channel, referring to the rich American experience:

“Both those who are on the side of arms and those who are against the free circulation of arms have their own truth. Some say: our weapon is our right, it will provide an opportunity to protect ourselves from the arbitrariness of the state. Others say: look at the consequences of a huge number of weapons on hand. Constant shooting in America. It's like good morning here. It's horrible!

I support those who say that you cannot sell weapons without checking a person. We do it in New Jersey, I passed this test several times. And there are states where supervision is greatly weakened, for example, Tennessee, where you can buy a pistol under the rights. And no one checks people for mental stability.

Here you can't give up weapons, the Americans have a strong opinion that weapons should be in order to protect their home and family, and if anything, from the state. You have no idea how many weapons people have in their hands. There are probably as many weapons for 330 million of the population. Even if the laws are changed, how can all this be removed? Nobody will give it back, the revolution will begin. This is an intractable question. Yes, it is dangerous, but people feel comfortable with weapons in the safe and the house on the alarm.

No one can save you from a psycho, a lone terrorist. What are you going to do about it? Came to the mall or school, how can you know what will happen? Nothing can be done here. Only toughen up the verification of those who want to buy weapons. And then the risk remains - a person may be normal now, but you never know what may serve as a trigger. Maybe his wife gave him horns, and his roof went off. Or he lost all his money on the stock exchange, and he blames everyone around. You cannot protect yourself from this..."

But the St. Petersburg journalist Dmitry Yezhkov strongly doubts that the tightening will somehow affect the situation:

“I have a gun - if officially, then twenty years. And if not officially, then even more. I listen to the leaders and wonder: what country do they live in? Everything they offer has been done long ago.

I registered the gun in 2000. It was given to my dad for his birthday when I was still a child. Previously, no permits were needed for a smoothbore (and mind you - no Columbines!) Daddy's friends came to the store, bought a gun there, screwed a nameplate onto the stock and presented it to him.

When it came time to get permission, no one even thought of doing this: in addition to a gun, we had a 5.65 rifle and a sports "Margolin" in our closet. The Makarov pistol didn’t lie just because my dad didn’t like it for its loud shooting and strong recoil, and called it a howitzer.

I was concerned that I needed to register the gun when it was in my house. My father and I arrived at the permitting department and said: "Forgive us, we will not be any more." The cops could immediately take away the gun and write out a fine, but they were in a good mood: they put the gun on record and issued a permit. Since then, I have renewed this permit every five years, and each time it becomes more difficult to do so.

Today it is easier to kill yourself against a wall than to get a medical certificate for a weapon. The clinic of private guards gives it out, but a psychiatrist can only be passed in a district mental hospital, nowhere else. The psychiatrist does not just look inquisitively into the eyes, but makes an encephalogram. I don’t know how in Kazan, but my district psychiatrist is carefully studying this encephalogram. What other state clinics do they need? What are they going to tighten up even more? Everything has already been stolen - in the sense of toughened, up to them.

What will happen next is quite clear. After all hunters, sportsmen-shooters and private security guards (a 6th grade guard has a rifle) stand in queues for many days for inquiries, a business will flourish, where it will be possible to obtain these certificates unofficially. Weapons will go into illegal circulation even faster than now. This columbiner has officially bought the gun, and the next one will just buy it in the alley around the corner.

Do you think that there are few illegal weapons on hand? In bulk. It is we in big cities who bother with all sorts of psychiatrists and medical commissions, but in the villages they were hammered into all this - you won't run into a psychiatrist in the city, and it's expensive. They just hid the guns, that's all. And they are there for every second. And by the way, the very same Russian Guard, which is instructed to tighten and prohibit all this, is putting weapons into illegal circulation.

This is how it is done. It is not very common in St. Petersburg, but it is common in Karelia. The permit is issued for five years. And many people forget to extend it. In the permitting department they see that the deadline has expired and a week later they send a police squad to the owner. Those come and say: "We take the gun. We can issue it officially." Here it is assumed that the owner will receive a new license, pay a fine and take his gun. But everyone knows perfectly well that taking a gun back, if it was confiscated, is not just difficult, but very difficult. Not to mention the fact that it can simply be lost according to the documents in the warehouse. And the cops offer another option: a person writes a statement about the loss (burned out, drowned), and the cops pay him a small penny - they buy this gun from him. And many agree: in one case they lose the gun, and in the other they will get at least something for it. Then they get a new license and buy a new gun. And then floats away in free swimming. First, the cops will hunt with him. The fact that it is not registered does not scare them: gamekeepers do not like to mess with cops. Then they will sell it to someone. And everything, so it went from hand to hand.

So, all this is nonsense. Complete inadequacy and misunderstanding of the current moment ..."