Tag: hunters

photo: Semina Mikhail

The validity of permits for the storage and carrying of long-barreled firearms and pneumatic weapons, used exclusively for hunting, can be increased threefold – from five to 15 years.

The corresponding bill was prepared pursuant to the instructions of the State Duma Chairman Vyacheslav Volodin and submitted to the Chamber on July 23.

In the interests of three million hunters

In May 2019, following a meeting with representatives of the hunting community in the State Duma, Vyacheslav Volodin instructed the head of the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption Vasily Piskarev to prepare a draft law extending the validity of permits to carry and store hunting weapons.

Under current law, you need to renew documents every five years. And for this, Russians need to provide the authorized body with a medical certificate and certificates of the absence of prohibited substances in the body.

As a result, re-registrations turn for hunters into endless waste of nerves, effort, and money: citizens, especially those living in remote areas or representing the indigenous peoples of the North, have to come to the regional center several times, paying for travel and accommodation, examination, inquiries, as well as state fees.

And sometimes it turns out that the total cost of the procedure is comparable to the price of the gun itself. Therefore, it was decided to extend the validity of permits.

“The draft law on extending the period of re-registration of hunting weapons from 5 to 15 years is aimed at supporting more than three million hunters registered in Russia,” said one of the authors of the document, Vasily Piskarev.

At the same time, the deputy noted that the adoption of the draft will not affect the control over the circulation of weapons.

“The control will continue in full and on a permanent basis, as before, since the proposed amendments do not affect the authority of the Russian Guard and the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in this area,” he stressed. “The initiative was worked out jointly with the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the Rosgvardia and was conceptually supported by them.”

Cut without smooth-bore

A little earlier, on June 20, the State Duma Committee on Security and Anti-Corruption recommended to adopt in the first reading another bill concerning hunters.

A group of deputies, including Vasily Piskarev, offered to ease the conditions for the acquisition of civilian rifle weapons by hunters and sportsmen, to make repairs and maintenance more accessible, and to support domestic manufacturers of gunsmiths.

“In particular, hunters will be able to sell smooth-bore weapons, and this will not be an obstacle to owning a rifle with a rifled barrel,” said Vasily Piskarev.

According to the current standards, the presence of smooth-bore weapons in the arsenal of the hunter is a prerequisite for the purchase of rifled.

In addition, in the event of a law being adopted, it will be possible to repair and undergo service maintenance of weapons not only from manufacturers, but also in other workshops that have the appropriate license.

According to the authors of the bill, this will stimulate the development of small and medium-sized businesses in this area and, again, will help save a lot of money by the hunters themselves, who now do not have to go hundreds of kilometers to the manufacturer to repair the gun.

The minimum for the applicant

However, on the eve it became known that the Ministry of Natural Resources intends to toughen the procedure for obtaining a hunting ticket necessary for the possession of weapons.

The draft amendments have already been developed by the department and are being finalized taking into account the comments received from the federal executive bodies.

In particular, the draft law spells out the necessity of checking the knowledge of the requirements of the minimum of citizens who want to receive the specified document.

The fact that the issuance of licenses for firearms requires a more thoughtful approach is not for the first year the first deputy chairman of the Duma Committee on Ecology and Environmental Protection Nikolay Valuev.

“Hunter certificates are issued free of charge today, while applicants do not need to pass the hunt minimums, exams on knowledge of the rules of hunting, which has caused a lot of people with weapons who don’t know how to handle them properly,” said Valuyev. He noted that such "pseudo-hunters" are a danger, especially for themselves.

The initiative of the Ministry of Natural Resources is supported in the hunting community, but with caution.

“Examinations should be,” agrees Valery Kuzenkov, State Duma expert on hunting management. – However, the officials, it seems to me, do not calculate the next steps: who will take the examinations from the applicants and when, and most importantly, how much will it cost? On the one hand, we simplify the procedure for re-registration of weapons, and on the other, we complicate the possibility of using them for their intended purpose. ”

Gennady Melnik
                     July 26, 2019 at 13:42

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