Ruling party decides to arm Armenians

The Armenian parliament's defence and security commission has discussed a large-scale package of amendments to the law "On regulation of arms turnover" and 15 related laws.

The package of amendments was presented by MPs from the ruling Civil Contract party, Caliber.Az reports with reference to the Armenian media.

The defence and security commission chairman, Andranik Kocharyan, and the commission's members Armen Khachatryan and Vilen Gabrielyan are among the authors.

Submitting the bill, Gabrielyan proposed to provide citizens with the right to own weapons for self-defence purposes. He noted that the current legislation is essentially a repetition of the regulation in force in Soviet times. Citizens are allowed to own only hunting and sporting weapons, and weapons for self-defence are allowed only for law enforcement officers.

In exchange for the current strict rules, the authors of the bill propose, in fact, to grant this right to persons over the age of 18.

"Citizens who have reached the age of 21 have the right to purchase civilian combined or long-barreled firearms, while citizens who have reached the age of 18 have the right to purchase civilian weapons after obtaining a permit to purchase weapons from the Police of the Republic of Armenia," according to the draft law.

At the same time, "every citizen is allowed to purchase 10 units of civilian weapons with a permit to store and carry them, as well as an unlimited number of weapons to create a collection of weapons or demonstrate them". But it is allowed to register this weapon within 10 days after its purchase.

According to Gabrielyan, the proposed bill also establishes aspects of self-defence, that is, it specifies those cases when a citizen has the right to use weapons.

It also provides for the establishment of rules for the acquisition, storage, movement, demonstration, and creation of collections of weapons for individuals and legal entities. The procedure for granting and revoking licenses and permits for the production, import, export, and sale of weapons, as well as the activities of shooting galleries, is established. Tougher liability for violation of the established procedure is provided.