Lawmakers are readying a bill that would tighten restrictions on obtaining nonlethal guns following a spike in the number of crimes involving so-called traumatic weapons, State Duma Deputy Alexander Gurov said Tuesday.
"People are obtaining medical clearance without a serious psychological examination. We should force people to go through serious exams before they can get a weapon," Gurov, a retired police general and longtime crusader against the traumatic guns, told The Moscow Times.
In February, President Dmitry Medvedev ordered the Interior Ministry to look for ways to tighten control over gun ownership after a number of high-profile accidents and deaths involving traumatic guns, which shoot either rubber bullets or gas-fired pellets.
According to Interior Ministry figures, 1.3 million Russian citizens legally own 1.5 million guns. Police say the number of crimes involving traumatic guns is on the rise, with 246 crimes last year, or 5 percent higher than a year earlier.
Leonid Vedenov, who heads the Interior Ministry's licensing department, said earlier this year that more then 1,500 criminal offenses were committed using traumatic guns over the last five years. More then 60 people have died, Vedenov said.
"There have been eyes blown out and some deaths. A person might have bought the gun legally, but what if he is a hidden sadist?" said Gurov, who sits on the Duma's Security Committee, which is drafting the legislation.
The lawmaker was referring to an incident in St. Petersburg on Saturday night. Popular actor Andrei Zibrov lost an eye while defending his longtime girlfriend after two unidentified men began harassing her.
On Tuesday, a group of unidentified people in Moscow attacked several migrants from the Caucasus using a traumatic gun, RIA-Novosti reported. One migrant was seriously wounded.
Gurov said the new law would make the rules to own traumatic guns more complicated. A person who wishes to buy a weapon would have to undergo serious psychological tests and would be required to attend classes on how to use the gun.
"We are not going to ban weapons, but an owner would need go through the full checkup," he said.
Under the current law regulating the use of traumatic guns, a person is required to obtain the medical clearance from both a psychiatrist and drug and alcohol treatment specialists at a local hospital.
Those documents are then submitted to the local police precinct, which decides on whether an individual can be permitted to own a gun. But many gun buyers are able to purchase the medical clearances through the Internet sites. One such site offers to sell the required documents for just 500 rubles (about $16).
"My assistant has told me that you can even buy them in commuter trains," Gurov said.
Anatoly Damaratsky, director general of The New Weapon Technology Company, the producer of the most popular Russian traumatic pistol Osa, or the Wasp, said his company was "positive" about the proposed changes. But he pointed out that the old law, passed in the mid-1990s, had enough checks. "It's another matter that it has not been followed properly," he said.
The Osa pistol, which fires rubber bullets, retails for about 8,000 rubles (roughly $275). Under the Administrative Code, the fine for carrying an unlicensed gun is no more than 1,000 rubles.