doublegunshop.com - home Forums General Discussion DoubleGun BBS @ doublegunshop.com Geno, questions baout gun ownershipin Russia

O.K., let's talk guns.

Someone mentioned the shooting sports. The registered sportsmen get the permissions for their guns through the national federation for the sport they practice. The permits for a sport weapon (be it handgun, rifle or shotgun) allows you only to store the weapon, use it on the range, and transport to/from the range. For the young sportspeople the responsibility for the proper handling of the weapons lies on their paents and coaches.

I haven' mentioned he handguns, and it' a curious thing. For a while after 1917, handgun ownership was based on the loyalty principle. That is, ordinary citizens couldn't own handguns, but active members of the Party, especially ones on "Party work", could. They couldn't buy a handgun, but they could keep one they had left over from the Civil War (when everybody had a gun), and have a permit for it from the ChK/GPU/NKVD.

Or they could keep an "awarded gun". The Soveit state didn't have it own military decorations for a while, so it was customary for Redrmy soldiers and officers, in recognition of their bravery or someting, to get, instead of medals, pistols, saberd, and such. Those pistols were often kept until the WW2 (unless the owner was arrested as "people's evemy, of course).

And, the Party members who actually needed a gun, were often issued one. Like my greatgrandfather, who (to avoid possible repressions) volunteered to go to Middle Asia to install collective farming there. When he found out how dangerous the job was, he went to the local NKVD dept. and got himself a Luger complete with a consealed-carry permit. The Luger he never parted with for about 8 years, and the permit, I think, is still in the family somewhere.

After the WW2 a lot of pistols were brought in by soldiers returning from the front. They called them "the awarded ones" - but most of those were soon deactivated or disposed of by their owners. However, the people who were officially awarded with a pistol, and had all the paperwork, could - and often did - keep the guns until their death.

The above-mentiones instances are nothing but exceptions. The rule was - and is - that a regular citizen cannot legally own a handgun.

Yet, in discourd with what seems to be the wrldwide practice, the authorities in this country have been apparently more and more pro-gun since the collapse of the USSR. First of all, the government recognised the right to buy firearms for self-defence (in USSR you ad to pretend you were going to hunt). Then, the citizens are allowed to buy non-letal selfe-defence handguns - it started with "gas guns", which were nothing more than sophisticated devices for spraying the bad guy with tear gas or pepper; now one can get a "gum gun" - and the max/ power of gum-gun ammo is increased every year. The word is that it's the works of domestic producers, who, when they've sold all of a given type they could, lobby something more powerful. I don't know how it's going to turn, but id the existing trend contnues, Rin 2 or 3 years Russians will be able to buy handguns legally for the first time since 1917.

And, the now-almost-customary, joke. An anacdote, really.

A man calls his wife from work and says he's going hunting, so could she please get all his hunting staff, including the rifle, in a heap by the front door, so that he can just grab it and go. She starts on, but in the middle of the process she's got another phone call from a friend. So they have a girlie chat for a while, and then the wife looks out and sees the husband's car pull up. "Oh, wait" she says to her friend - "There's my husband. Just hold on while I get the gun..."

Cute joke, HD!
I enjoy your story about gun owhership in Russia very much.
BTW I see some similarities with past situation here in Slovenia (no wonder, we were under communist rule as well) but now fortunately we have a digestable gun law and can own pretty much everything.
Regards,
Jani

I'm happy to see you fine people gaining some gun rights. Now as our nation(US)becomes more urban we must constantly fight to keep ours. Perhaps in the future Russian sportsman will have an organization like our NRA to bring all sportsman into one voice. I once saw in a gun magazine a shotgun made in Russia that was like a Purdey. The article didn't say who actually built the gun but I must say that it was beautiful. It would be nice to see a sporting arms industry in Russia building these types of arms. My wife tells me that her father in Belarus owns a rifle. This was a suprise for me. For my wife a rifle and a shotgun are the same. She told me that in Belarus they have Pheasant. The land certainly does look like it could support pheasant but I'm not sure if she knows what she is talking about. Does HD or Geno know for sure? I would have to think that in Russia and especially in Belarus there would be many hidden guns that were picked up by the retreating Nazis in WW2. I understand that even today it is a problem finding unexploded bombs by children around the country side. HD and Geno,do you have any national sporting publications in Russia devoted to hunting and/or sport shooting there?

Thank you for your kind comments! It's so rewarding...

Now for the questions.

tanky - I have no personal experience, but what I know from the Internet is Belarus is a very hunting country, with lots of game and reasonable gun laws, similar to Russian. Outfitting is a sort of a national business there, lots of Russians go hunt there regularly. There shouldn't be any native pheasant in Belarus, but some shooting preserves release birds and they survive with feeding.

There are numerous war relics in Belarus, but they're all military stuff.

We do have a number of sporting publications, both about shooting and hunting and other field sports. To think of it, Russia is actually a very normal country, we seem to have everything other countries have too, from gun control to hunting mags ;-) But strangely, there's never been anything remotely like NRA. Even in the wildest days of early democracy, when all kinds of parties were formed, up to Beer Drinking Party (they even tried to get into Parliament!) there wasn't even talks about forming a hunters or shooters party.

all - I'd like to clear up the idea of "hidden treasures". Any gun that was buried in 1917 or even 1941 is as good as dead now. I vitnessed the uncovery of a couple of guns hidden, according to Militia estimate, around 1941. Both 12 ga. sidelocks, one looked Brittish or Belgian, the other had Monte-Carlo stock and Krupp "drei ringe" barrels. But we couldn't even read the names of manufacturers, or proof marks, the guns were so rusty. They went to scrape metal. Geno, if I remember right, also posted a very nice (once) German BPE/Cape gun/ shotgun three barrel set combo found in someone's garden - also rusted beyound repair.