Gun Policy News
Gun violence, gun control and small arms
Ukraine,Netherlands,Sweden,Finland,Germany,Poland,United States,Russia
NATO Countries Pour Weapons Into Ukraine
2 March 2022
New York Times
The Dutch are sending rocket launchers for air defense. The Estonians are sending Javelin antitank missiles. The Poles and the Latvians are sending Stinger surface-to-air missiles. The Czechs are sending machine guns, sniper rifles, pistols and ammunition.
Even formerly neutral countries like Sweden and Finland are sending weapons. And Germany, long allergic to sending weapons into conflict zones, is sending Stingers as well as other shoulder-launched rockets.
In all,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times
40616
Ukraine,Russia
The Events Leading Up to Russia's Invasion of Ukraine
1 March 2022
Reuters
Russia launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. Here is a timeline of Ukraine's fraught relationship with Moscow since it won independence in 1991 and the events that led to the current conflict.
1991: Shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union, Ukraine declares independence from Moscow.
2004: Pro-Russian candidate Viktor Yanukovich is declared president but allegations of vote-rigging trigger protests, known as the Orange Revolution, forcing a re-run of... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Reuters
40615
Azerbaijan,Armenia,Russia,Israel,Turkey,United States,United Kingdom
Arms Supplies to Armenia and Azerbaijan
17 February 2021
EVN
Armenia and Azerbaijan have been embroiled in an intense and violent ethnic conflict over Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) for over three decades. The conflict is at the very core of the modern statehoods of both countries. It has resulted in two full-scale wars in 1992-94 and 2020 and regular skirmishes, with the most significant one being the 2016 Four Day April War. The conflict has led to both countries becoming among the most militarized countries in the world. A 2019... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: EVN
40621
Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa,Yemen,China,Israel,Russia,Brazil,United Kingdom,Germany,India,Canada,Austria,Australia,Mexico,United States,Japan,South Africa
How to Buy a Gun in 15 Countries
2 March 2018
New York Times
Many Americans can buy a gun in less than an hour. The process takes months in some countries. Here are the basic steps for how most people buy a gun in 15 of them. Many countries have exceptions for specialized professions, and local laws vary.
United States
1) Pass an instant background check that considers criminal convictions, domestic violence and immigration status.
2) Buy a gun. Many states have additional buying restrictions, including waiting periods and... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times
40300
Philippines,United States,Russia
Philippines Will Buy Guns from Russia if US Won't Oblige [FR]
3 November 2016
TRT (Turkey)
[Translated summary: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte says he'll turn to Russia if the United States refuses to sell M-16s to his country. The declaration was made after the US cancelled an order of assault rifles intended for Philippine Police, citing concern about violations of human rights.]
Le président philippin Rodrigo Duterte a déclaré, mercredi, qu'il solliciterait la Russie si les Etats-Unis refusent de vendre des armes à son pays.
La déclaration de... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: TRT (Turkey)
40147
Philippines,United States,Russia
Philippines Will Turn to Russia if the US Won't Sell Them Guns
2 November 2016
CNN
Outspoken Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte had a blunt message for the United States after reports emerged of a potentially blocked arms sale.
"They're blackmailing me that they won't sell weapons? We have lots of explosives here," Duterte said, according to CNN Philippines.
And suggested, the country would turn to Russia for its weapons.
"[I] remember what the Russian diplomat said: Come to Russia, we all have here anything you need."
The comments were in... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: CNN
40129
Russia
Police Raid Illegal Gun Makers in Moscow, 24 Russian Regions
25 October 2016
Tass (Russia)
MOSCOW -- Operatives of the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Criminal Investigation Department have liquidated a workshop of illegal arms producers in southwest Moscow, the ministry's press office told TASS on Tuesday.
"Operatives of the Russian Interior Ministry's Main Criminal Investigation Department and the Federal Security Service have carried out searches in Moscow and the Moscow Region at the places of residence of four lawbreakers to find and seize 22 pistols... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Tass (Russia)
40087
Australia,Afghanistan,Russia,Central Asia,Pakistan,China,Turkey,Brazil
UN Rule of Thumb Suggests 600,000 Illegal Guns in Australia
21 October 2016
Age (Melbourne)
As many as 600,000 illegal guns could be circulating in the Australian underworld, but national efforts to control the spread is being hampered by inconsistencies between states, a firearms intelligence report has found.
The Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission report on guns - to be released on Friday, the same day as state and federal government representatives meet to thrash out a way to combat illegal firearms - also backs a national amnesty.
Chris Dawson,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Age (Melbourne)
40025
China,Russia,France,Ukraine,United Kingdom,Saudi Arabia,Yemen,Israel,Bahrain,Belgium,Oman,Turkmenistan,United Arab Emirates
UK, Second Largest Gun Exporter, Arms the Middle East [FR]
5 September 2016
Sputnik News
[Translated summary: The United Kingdom is the second largest exporter of arms. Between 2010 and 2015, the UK has sold weapons worth 10 million pounds to Oman, Turkmenistan and the United Arab Emirates, countries that are classified as "Non-free" by the Freedom House NGO. Other countries that buy from the UK are Saudi Arabia and Israel.]
Le Royaume-Uni est le deuxième plus grand exportateur d'armes du monde sur les 10 dernières années et devant des pays comme la... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Sputnik News
39824
Germany,Russia
Germany Calls for New Arms Control Deal With Russia
25 August 2016
New York Times, Reuters
Germany's foreign minister has called for a new arms control deal with Moscow to avoid an escalation of tensions in Europe, where intensified military exercises by Russia and NATO have raised concerns that a war could inadvertently be triggered.
In an apparent reference to Russia's annexation of the Crimea region of Ukraine, Frank-Walter Steinmeier said Russia had violated basic, non-negotiable principles of peace, breaking delicate bonds of trust built up over... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times, Reuters
39753
United States,China,Germany,United Kingdom,France,Russia,Spain,Italy,Israel,India,Saudi Arabia,United Arab Emirates,Pakistan,Australia,Turkey,Singapore,South Korea,South Sudan,Ukraine
Killer Facts: The Scale of the Global Arms Trade, Gun Totals
22 August 2016
Amnesty International (London)
Transfers of heavy conventional weapons
The top 10 exporters of conventional arms (excluding small arms/ light weapons – SALW) 2010-15
USA: US$55.006 billion
Russia: US$42.404 billion
China: US$9.943 billion
Germany: US$ 9.467 billion
France: US$ 8.932 billion
UK: US$ 7.627 billion
Spain: US$ 5.310 billion
Italy: US$ 4.360 billion
Ukraine: US$ 4.156 billion
Israel: US$ 3.280 billion
The top 10 importers of conventional arms (excluding SALWs) 2010-15
India:... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Amnesty International (London)
39717
Ukraine,Russia,Iraq,Syria,Libya
Ukraine Once Again a Trove for Black Market Gun Trafficking
25 July 2016
New York Times, Reuters
SLOVIANSK/MOSCOW — On Feb. 12 last year, the same day that a ceasefire ended the worst of the fighting in eastern Ukraine between rebels and government forces, a former rebel fighter seized a chance to turn his inside knowledge of the conflict into hard cash.
He traveled to a spot on the Russian-Ukrainian border where he retrieved a cache of weapons hidden there earlier by his comrades in the pro-Russian rebel movement.
Four days later, shortly before 6:00 p.m., he... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times, Reuters
39613
Sudan,Russia
Guns Continue to Proliferate, Russia Blocks Inquiry in Darfur
7 July 2016
Guardian
"I fired my first gunshot when I was nine," says Salih. "For years after that I was very eager to do it again. I owned my first weapon when I got to 14. It was an AK-47."
Salih is now 38, but guns have been a permanent fixture in his life. Growing up in Darfur in one of the Arab tribes that has been at war with other ethnic groups in the region since 2003, he says it quickly became clear the only way to protect his family was to get a weapon of his own.
In the 13... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Guardian
39550
Russia
Putin Launches New Russian Police Force to Target Guns
28 April 2016
Moscow Times
U.S. gun enthusiasts live in constant fear of the federal government confiscating their weapons. For Russian gun owners, such a fear may be about to become a reality. On April 14, President Vladimir Putin, announced the formation of a new National Guard, and declared one of its key functions would be to control firearms.
"We are creating the National Guard to limit the circulation of weapons in the country," he told the Russian people during his annual "direct line"... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Moscow Times
39191
Asia,Europe,Russia
Russia's Kalashnikov Concern to Increase Gun Sales in 2017
27 April 2016
Sputnik News (Russia)
IZHEVSK — Russia's famed small arms manufacturer Kalashnikov Concern plans to increase its firearms sales twofold in 2017 to reach 5.8 billion rubles (some $88.6 million), as well as to begin the mass production of 10 new types of weapons, Kalashnikov CEO Alexei Krivoruchko said Wednesday.
"In addition to the development of new products, by 2017 we plan to double [our] sales of small arms to 5.8 billion rubles [165,000 pieces] and to start the mass production of not... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Sputnik News (Russia)
39178
Russia
East Europe Might be Supplying Guns to Syria
15 April 2016
TASS (Russia)
MOSCOW -- Russian Foreign Ministry has noted mass media reports suggesting that Syrian militants might be getting weaponry of Soviet manufacture from East-European countries.
"An intensification of the flows of contraband weaponry and shells across the Turkish-Syrian border has been registered," the ministry said in a commentary on Friday. "A number of international media have claimed a big consignment of Soviet-made weaponry has been dispatched to the Syrian militants... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: TASS (Russia)
39142
Argentina,Canada,Mexico,Australia,United Kingdom,Russia,China,South Africa,United States,Israel,Norway,Finland,Germany,Switzerland
Three European Countries Lead US in Mass Shootings: WSJ
3 October 2015
Wall Street Journal
The latest U.S. shooting that ended in the deaths of 10 people at an Oregon college last week is reigniting calls for tighter gun laws and prompting comparisons to gun violence in other countries.
President Barack Obama asked why Americans can't follow the example of the U.K. and Australia. They crafted laws that "almost eliminate mass shootings," he said. "We know there are ways to prevent it."
Adam Lankford, an associate professor at the University of Alabama... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Wall Street Journal
39221
Russia
Russia Refuses to Sign 'Unbalanced Arms Trade Treaty
9 September 2015
TASS Russian News Agency
Russia did not sign an international treaty on arms trade because of its unbalanced nature and superficial description of a number of issues, Deputy Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said on Wednesday.
"Recently, new tools emerged in the global arms trade, in particular, the Arms Trade Treaty, which came into force last December. We did not sign this document and see no reason to move in this direction," Ryabkov said.
According to him, the document is... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: TASS Russian News Agency
39037
Nicaragua,Peru,Haiti,Dominican Republic,Cuba,Mexico,Honduras,Guatemala,Turkey,El Salvador,United States,Russia,Austria,Belgium,Colombia,Brazil,Czech Republic,Germany,Israel,Venezuela,Italy,Spain
The Latin American Gun Leak
16 January 2015
Los Angeles Times, Opinion
During the 1980s, El Salvador was the single largest recipient of U.S. military hardware and weaponry in the Western Hemisphere. Although the Central American country's civil war ended in 1992, the guns, grenades and bullets linger, as do their murderous effects. In September, a U.S. official from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives estimated that half the weapons available on El Salvador's vibrant black market were made in the United... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Los Angeles Times
38856
Russia
Russian Citizens Can Now Carry Rifles in Public
20 November 2014
Business Insider (Australia)
After a change to national gun law on Tuesday, Russians can now carry certain guns in public for the purposes of "self-defence."
The new policy allows the use of weapons to "protect their lives, health and property" but not against "women, disabled persons, and minors, unless they attacked you with a group and arms," according to an analysis by Russian media site Arguments and Facts.
These weapons include "long-barreled weapons, pistols, revolvers, 'home-made tubeless... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Business Insider (Australia)
38820
South America,Central America,Caribbean,Cuba,United States,Russia,Nicaragua,Israel,El Salvador,Honduras,Europe,Belgium,Czech Republic,Germany,Italy,South Africa,Spain,Colombia,Mexico,Venezuela,Brazil,Argentina,Chile,Paraguay,Panama,Ecuador
Small Arms Trade a 'Dramatic Threat' to Latin America
13 October 2014
NACLA
Small arms and gun violence present the most dramatic threat to public safety in Latin America and the Caribbean. After decades of uncontrolled proliferation, at least 45 million to 80 million small arms and light weapons—that is, weapons operated by an individual or small group, including handguns, assault rifles, grenades, grenade launchers, and even man portable surface to air missiles—are circulating throughout the region.(1) Gunshots kill between 73,000 and... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: NACLA
39011
United Kingdom,Russia,Germany,Thailand,Kazakhstan,Italy,United States,Canada,Norway
Kalashnikov Small Arms Production in Russia More Than Doubles in 2014
28 April 2014
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – The Kalashnikov Concern produced 230 percent more small arms weapons in the first quarter of this year than in the year-ago period, the company's press service told RIA Novosti Monday.
"In the first three months of the year we had a record-high volume production of small arms in the amount of 31,000 items, which makes 41 percent of the total output of similar products for 2013," the company said.
"The current results are 230 percent higher than those in the... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
38614
Russia,United States,Japan
Japanese Parliament Approves Bill to Ratify Arms Trade Treaty
23 April 2014
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – Japan's upper house of parliament, the House of Councillors, unanimously approved Wednesday a bill providing for the country's accession to the UN Arms Trade Treaty, the NHK channel reported.
The Japanese government now expects a fast ratification of the treaty, although no specific date on its implementation has yet been announced.
The Arms Trade Treaty, adopted at the UN General Assembly last year, is the first international pact regulating commerce in... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
38588
South Africa,China,Russia,United States,Mozambique
South African Gun Culture Shown in Art
11 April 2014
Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg)
Best known as the director of the 2008 South African crime film Jerusalema and for his music video work with such top stars as Tony Braxton and Michael Jackson, Ralph Ziman's new art installation Ghosts is a powerful comment on the global arms trade and the worship of guns in South African society.
The work includes an extraordinary series of photographs showing men dressed in Day-Glo outfits toting wire-and-bead AK-47s, which are exhibited alongside the imitation... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg)
38555
Africa,North Africa,Russia,Syria,Mali,Qatar,Turkey,Libya,Egypt,Chad,Somalia,Nigeria,Niger
Libya's Guns Free-For-All Fuels Region's Turmoil
22 March 2014
St Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
TRIPOLI — At the heart of the Libyan capital, the open-air Fish Market was once a place where residents went to buy everything from meat and seafood to clothes and pets. Now it's Tripoli's biggest arms market, with tables displaying pistols and assault rifles. Ask a vendor, and he can pull out bigger machine guns to sell for thousands of dollars.
Libya, where hundreds of militias hold sway and the central government is virtually powerless, is awash in millions of... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: St Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri)
38494
Ukraine,Russia,European Union
Russia Uncovers Arms Smuggling Route Through Ukraine
20 March 2014
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – Russian law enforcement raided an arms group that smuggled weapons to the country's North Caucasus from the European Union via Ukraine, the country's Federal Security Service said Thursday.
Agents at a Ukrainian-Russian land border crossing detained several of the smugglers, who had in their possession pistols made by Desert Eagle, Smith & Wesson, SIG Sauer and others.
"Information was received about the procurement of a significant number of handguns from... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
38484
United States,Russia
Gun Press, Arms Dealers Talk Up US/Russia 'Ammo Shortage' Sales Panic
11 March 2014
Washington Examiner
American gun owners are gobbling up cheap Russian ammunition in huge quantities, worried that President Obama's tussle with Vladimir Putin over Moscow's grab for Crimea will result in new trade sanctions cutting off imports of bullets.
"We've seen an ammo-hoarding effect," said Larry Hyatt, owner of Hyatt Gun Shop in Charlotte, N.C., one of the nation's biggest gun stores. "It's almost like milk and bread when it gets ready to snow: It's just a mass of people running... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Washington Examiner
38450
Russia
Russians Seek Right to Protect their Homes with Firearms
3 March 2014
Russia Beyond The Headlines
Russians are seeking the right to use firearms to protect their home and property. A proposal to introduce the relevant amendments to the Russian Criminal Code has been put up for a popular vote on a special website, garnering the support of more than 100,000 people. However, experts are divided on the prospects of adopting these amendments.
The public initiatives website was set up not long ago on an initiative from Russian President Vladimir Putin in order to collect... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Russia Beyond The Headlines
38427
Libya,West Asia,Egypt,Syria,Mali,North Africa,Italy,France,United States,United Kingdom,Russia,Belarus,China,Algeria,Caribbean,South America,Niger,Chad,European Union,Tunisia
Post-Uprising Gun Proliferation is Destabilising the Middle East
20 February 2014
Fair Observer
In recent years, as order in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) eroded between uprisings and armed conflicts, the desire for arms amongst a wide range of actors became one more destabilizing factor in the complexities of each situation.
However, arms proliferation is nothing new to the MENA region. Whether it was through state actors or black market trading, weapons have circulated throughout the Middle East and North Africa for many years.
Today, arms... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Fair Observer
38403
China,Australia,United Kingdom,United States,Japan,Russia
Japan Set to Ratify Arms Trade Treaty Despite Proposal to Relax Gun Exports
16 February 2014
Japan Times
A bill to ratify the Arms Trade Treaty, the first international pact to regulating trade in conventional arms, is scheduled to be submitted to the Diet by the end of this month, government sources said.
The measure, coming less than a year after Japan signed the treaty adopted at the U.N. General Assembly last April, underscores Tokyo's eagerness to nudge others to join the framework, the sources said Saturday.
However, the move appears incongruous with the stance of... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Japan Times
38377
Russia,United States
Olympic Biathletes Meet Strict Gun Control in Russia
10 February 2014
Wall Street Journal
SOCHI, Russia — The most carefully guarded sporting equipment in the Winter Olympics lies behind the door of a sealed-off corridor in a stadium near the upper reaches of the Caucasus Mountains. It is monitored at all hours by security guards who open the door only for its owners. And even then, they need personalized keys to retrieve it from their lockers. For biathletes, the security measures are just one more reminder: It isn't easy getting your equipment around the... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Wall Street Journal
38356
India,Russia
Kalashnikov Eyes Indian Partners for Firearms Production
6 February 2014
RIA Novosti (Russia)
NEW DELHI – Russia's Kalashnikov Concern is in talks with several Indian companies on setting up joint ventures to produce small arms and high-precision weaponry, a company official said Thursday.
"India for us is a market with high potential…and we are marketing here all weapons on our production list, including assault rifles, sniper rifles and high-precision weapons," Andrei Baryshnikov, Kalashnikov exports director, said at the DEFEXPO INDIA-2014 exhibition in... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
38345
Russia
Is School Shooting A Wake-Up Call For Russia?
4 February 2014
Bloomberg (USA)
Russians had considered their country immune to the kind of school violence that the U.S. has suffered in incidents such as the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings and the Columbine High School massacre. Now, 15-year-old Sergei Gordeyev has disabused them of that notion, killing a teacher and a cop at his school in northern Moscow.
News of the shooting, which occurred around midday Monday, immediately prompted comparisons to the U.S. "Have we caught the American disease?"... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Bloomberg (USA)
38334
Russia
Russian Cops Searching for Owner of Assault Weapon Left at IKEA
28 January 2014
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – A visit to Moscow's popular and crowded IKEA furniture stores can often be a trying experience, but somebody appears to have courted temptation by taking along their Kalashnikov.
Russian online media reported Tuesday that police are looking for somebody who left an assault rifle in a coatroom at an outlet of the Swedish retailer in the Moscow suburb of Khimki.
The 1974 Kalashnikov and more than 100 rounds of ammunition were discovered Tuesday morning at the... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
38316
Colombia,Russia,Venezuela,Israel
'Lord of War' Arrest Shines Light on Colombia Arms Trade
22 January 2014
InSight Crime (Bogota)
Police in Colombia have captured an arms dealer whose operations reached across continents and whose criminal contacts spanned the spectrum of Colombian armed groups.
According to police, Gustavo Velasquez, alias "El Señor de la Guerra" (the Lord of War) sourced assault rifles through contacts in Israel and Russia and moved them through Venezuela and into the department of Norte de Santander in Colombia.
Police say the arms were then sold on to the narco-guerrilla... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: InSight Crime (Bogota)
38303
Russia
Russian Arms Trafficking Ring Raided
17 January 2014
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – Russian security officers have seized a cache of weapons and arrested 15 people suspected of trafficking in small arms, the Interior Ministry said on its website Friday.
The group allegedly smuggled the weapons into Russia by car from the Baltic countries for delivery to the Moscow Region.
The suspects were arrested by police and Federal Security Service officers during a series of raids in the Pskov Region along Russia's western border with Estonia and... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
38290
Russia
Kalashnikov Wrote About Feeling Responsibility For Deaths From His Gun
13 January 2014
ITAR-TASS News Agency
MOSCOW - A legendary gun designer and author of the AK-47 machine gun Mikhail Kalashnikov, who died in December 2013, six months before the death wrote a letter of repentance to Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill.
In that letter, the Izvestia daily writes, the designer shared with the head of the Russian Orthodox Church his emotional concerns and doubts about his responsibility for the death of people killed from the gun he had invented.
"My inner pain is... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: ITAR-TASS News Agency
38275
Russia,United States
Russia's Kalashnikov Plans to Sell 200,000 Guns in US Annually
13 January 2014
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – Russia's Kalashnikov gun maker is planning to sell up to 200,000 hunting and sporting rifles and shotguns in the United States every year, the company said Monday.
The recently established Kalashnikov Concern, which includes Izhmash, Izhmekh and some other small-arms manufacturers under the famed Kalashnikov brand, is expected to sign an exclusive agreement with the Russian Weapon Company at the 2014 SHOT Show in Las Vegas in January.
According to... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
38274
Russia
Russian Wedding Motorcade Stopped After Report of Shooting
22 December 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – Moscow police on Sunday stopped a 12-car wedding motorcade in the south of the Russian capital after receiving a complaint that shots were being fired from the cars, a police spokesman said.
Thirty-five people from the procession were checked and taken to a police station. One of them, a 29-year-old resident of the Moscow Region, handed police a rubber-bullet pistol. All but the man with the handgun, who police said had fired a few shots into the air, were... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
38217
Iraq,Syria,Israel,India,Ireland,Togo,Canada,United States,Afghanistan,Côte d'Ivoire,Iran,Sri Lanka,Germany,Russia
Growing Number of Personalised Firearms to Boost Safety Available
30 November 2013
Economist
To help push Soviet forces out of Afghanistan in the 1980s, America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) gave Afghan fighters shoulder-launched Stinger anti-aircraft missiles (pictured). Accurate and easy-to-use, the Stingers caused grievous losses. But after the Soviet withdrawal in 1989, the CIA wanted to discourage the use of the leftover missiles. It got hold of some of those circulating on the black market and booby-trapped them, so that anyone who tried to fire one... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Economist
38133
Russia
Russian Man Shoots Neighbour, Self After Fight Over Noisy Renovations
24 November 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – An man from Siberia's Republic of Buryatia shot his neighbor dead in a row over noise before taking his own life on Saturday, investigators said.
According to the local investigative department, a 57-year-old resident of Ulan-Ude was in a bitter feud with a young family that had bought an adjacent apartment and was renovating it.
Investigators said the man, angered by the renovation noise, "has repeatedly threatened the family with violence."
When the... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
38105
Russia
New Gun Transport Laws Proposed in Russia to Attract Hunting Tourists
19 November 2013
Moscow Times
Aiming to lure tourists to Russia for hunting trips, the Interior Ministry has proposed new legislation that could make it easier to temporarily import sporting firearms and transport them within the country.
The amendments would allow foreign citizens to carry firearms across the Russian border without certification if the purpose of their visit is to hunt or participate in shooting related events, according to a draft posted Monday on the unified government... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Moscow Times
38099
Russia,England & Wales
British Crime Gangs Adapting Antique Guns, As Crackdown Limits Supply
22 October 2013
BBC News
Antiques and obsolete guns are being adapted and used by criminals facing a shortage of weapons, according to police.
A decade ago, Britain's cities were experiencing a surge in gun crime but, following successful interventions by crime agencies and the government, the number of firearms offences annually is now half what it was in 2003, according to the Office for National Statistics.
One reason is the supply of weapons has been severely restricted, forcing criminals... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: BBC News
38007
Russia
Large Arms Cache Found in Russia's North Caucasus
19 October 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – A cache with arms and ammunition has been found in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Ingushetia, the National Anti-Terrorist Committee said Saturday, describing the discovery as the "largest find" in recent years.
The cache containing six grenade launchers, 19 grenades, two guns, two rifles, a Kalashnikov gun, a tank machine-gun and ammunition, including 100 electric detonators and explosives, was found in the Nazran district of Ingushetia on Saturday, the... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
38009
Russia
Russian Ex-Cops Face Prison for Stealing, Selling Firearms
19 October 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
CHITA – Three Russian former police officers stand accused of stealing firearms from their local police depot in eastern Siberia after investigators compiled a case against them and submitted it to a court on Saturday.
In 2011, two police captains – the head of the reserve arms depot and the head of a police weapons workshop – took two hunting rifles from the depot that had been handed in to the police by their owners for temporary safekeeping, investigators in... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
37998
Russia,Nigeria
Gun Trafficking Charges Dropped Against Russians in Nigeria
8 October 2013
Leadership (Abuja)
A Federal High Court sitting in Lagos on Tuesday heard that the alleged arms trafficking charge against the 15 Russian sailors had been dropped.
The Russians, charged with unlawful importation of arms into Nigeria are: Zhelyazkov Andrey, Savchenko Sergel, Lopatin Alexey and Baranovskly Nikolay, Llia Shubov, Dimitry Bannyrh, Alexander Tsarikov and Kononov Sergel.
Others are Chichkanov Vasily, Varlygin Igor, Komilov Alexander, Mishin Pavel, Korotchenko Andrey, Vorobev... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Leadership (Abuja)
37949
Oceania,China,Europe,Americas,Africa,Russia,United States,Asia
Arms Treaty Now Signed by Majority of UN Members
25 September 2013
New York Times
A pioneering United Nations treaty aimed at regulating the global trade in conventional weapons surpassed a symbolically important threshold on Wednesday when 18 countries, most notably the United States, officially signed the document, pushing the total number to more than half of the organization's member states.
Proponents of the treaty, which was adopted overwhelmingly by the 193-member General Assembly in April, but still required signing and ratification, said... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times
37913
Russia,United States
US Has More Guns, But Russia Has More Homicides
21 September 2013
National Public Radio (USA)
The U.S. and Russia have been taking lots of jabs at each other.
Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized President Obama's plan for a military strike in Syria, and the Russian leader then denounced American "exceptionalism" in a biting op-ed in The New York Times.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., fired back Thursday with his own op-ed in the Russian paper Pravda, entitled, "Russia Deserves Better Than Putin."
Even Monday's shooting at the Navy Yard in Washington, in... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: National Public Radio (USA)
37903
Russia,Trinidad & Tobago,Caribbean,Nicaragua,United States,Canada,Guinea-Bissau,Libya,Mexico,Colombia
Small Arms: The Worldwide Scourge
8 September 2013
Newsday (Trinidad & Tobago)
Trinidad and Tobago is awash with guns. Gang leaders, bandits, drug smugglers are armed and shooting at each other, at citizens, at the police without hesitation. The majority of the weapons are small arms and they are usually "imported" with illegal drugs or there is an exchange of drugs for arms. Drug cartels use their illicit profits to purchase these guns, the two trades being intertwined, according to the latest report from the United Nations Office for Disarmament... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Newsday (Trinidad & Tobago)
37845
Russia
Russian Corporate Conflict Ends in Fatal Shooting
19 July 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
KRASNOYARSK - Two people were fatally wounded in a business dispute that ended in a shootout in central Siberia, regional police said Friday.
Staff from two construction firms clashed Thursday morning, reportedly over a school renovation tender both companies wanted to win. They agreed to meet later in the day to resolve their differences, the police said.
A director of one of the companies was one of those killed, the police confirmed, adding that 20 people were... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
37683
Libya,Syria,Turkey,Qatar,Russia
UNSC Asked to Probe Alleged Arms Supply from Libya to Syrian Rebels
5 July 2013
Xinhua
MOSCOW - Russia on Friday urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to investigate media reports about illegal arms supply to the opposition in Syria.
"Russia applied to the UNSC Committee overseeing sanctions against Libya asking to initiate an investigation of the information (about alleged arms supply to the Syrian opposition from Libya)," the ministry said in an online statement.
It cited reports in western media that Libya has been supplying Syrian opposition with... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Xinhua
37645
Russia
Russian Boy Unintentionally Kills Brother with Unregistered Gun
12 May 2013
Reuters
A 7-year-old Russian boy told investigators he had shot and killed his 4-year-old brother by accident with their grandfather's rifle on Sunday, law enforcement authorities said.
The boy said he and his brother had found the gun under a bed in their grandparents' house in the Siberian town of Bukachacha and were playing with it on the porch while the adults slept, the federal Investigative Committee said.
The boy said he accidentally pulled the trigger while trying to... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Reuters
37455
Russia
Russian Police Detain Several People Over Celebratory Shootings
28 April 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – Police have detained at least nine people traveling in a wedding caravan of five cars for allegedly firing celebratory shots in southern Moscow on Sunday, a police spokesman has said.
"A wedding cortege of Azerbaijan's nationals has been detained at the entrance to the Tsaritsyno park," the spokesman said adding that the passengers and the drivers have been taken to a police department to "give explanations over the shooting."
Police have halted a caravan... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
37383
Russia
Russian President Opposes Gun Sales for Self-defense
27 April 2013
United Press International
MOSCOW - Russian citizens should not be allowed to freely own guns for purposes of self-defense, says President Vladimir Putin.
His comments were made after a gunman with a rifle killed six people in southwest Russia Monday, RIA Novosti reported Saturday.
"I do not support the idea of free arms distribution in Russia," Putin told a Russian television station. "It is dangerous to artificially stimulate this process."
Police arrested the suspect, 31-year-old Sergei... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: United Press International
38821
Russia
Russian President Opposes Idea of Free Gun Sales for Defensive Use
27 April 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Saturday he opposes the idea of allowing Russians to buy guns freely for self-defense purposes.
"I do not support the idea of free arms distribution in Russia," Putin told Rossiya 24 television adding: "It is dangerous to artificially stimulate this process."
The idea came after a shocking massacre in downtown Belgorod, southwest Russia, on Monday afternoon, which left six people dead.
A gunman killed three people... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
37381
Russia
Russian Mass Shooting Suspect Has Criminal Record, History of Aggression
24 April 2013
BBC News
A gunman suspected of shooting six people dead in the western Russian city of Belgorod on Monday has been captured, Russian police have said.
Sergei Pomazun, 31, was detained after being caught trying to flee the city on a freight train.
The manhunt lasted more than 24 hours and involved over 2,000 police.
Mr Pomazun is believed to have shot dead three people in a hunting shop and three passers-by. He is said to have wounded a policeman during his capture.
When... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: BBC News
37365
Russia
Russian Man Steals Rifle, Shoots and Kills Six People
22 April 2013
Reuters
MOSCOW - A man shot dead six people, including two schoolgirls, with a rifle after robbing a hunting shop in the western Russian city of Belgorod on Monday, local officials said.
Police said their main suspect was a former convict in his thirties, adding that the attacker had fled in an expensive car.
The man, who was still on the run on Monday evening, first opened fire at the personnel of the shop and then also shot dead passersby outside in the city's main street,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Reuters
37355
Russia
Russia Govt Passes New Law to Crack Down on Shootings in Public
17 April 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW - Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, on Wednesday adopted in the first reading a bill toughening punishment for shooting in public places.
The amendments to the Russian Administrative Offenses Code were proposed by a group of Duma deputies. In line with the draft law, those shooting in inhabited localities and at sites where shooting is not allowed will be fined 50,000 rubles ($1,575), their weapons license suspended, weapons seized, and may... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
37343
Poland,Ukraine,Israel,Côte d'Ivoire,Bulgaria,Belarus,China,Angola,Russia
Guns Easily Available in Côte D'Ivoire Despite Embargo
16 April 2013
IRIN (UN News)
ABIDJAN - Côte d'Ivoire's recent turbulence - including the ouster of president Henri Konan Bédié in 1999, a long-running insurgency and deadly poll unrest in 2011 - has left the country awash in arms, which have contributed to human rights abuses, widespread crime and persistent insecurity.
Two years after coming to power in 2000, Laurent Gbagbo's administration faced an army mutiny, which morphed into a full-scale rebellion. In response, the government underwent a... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: IRIN (UN News)
37347
Russia
Lovesick Russian Man Takes Girl Hostage With Replica Uzi
15 April 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
ST. PETERSBURG - Police officers freed a female undergraduate student who was being held hostage by a man she spurned, the Interior Ministry said on Monday.
The young woman was captured at a university dormitory near St. Petersburg on Sunday morning and held by a man armed with an Uzi CO2 BB gun and a kitchen knife.
The girl's friend called the police, who arrived at the scene and eventually talked the man into laying down his arms and turning himself in.
The hostage... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
37331
Russia
Russian Police Find World War II Gun Arsenal in Apartment
5 April 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
KALININGRAD – Russian police in the Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad have discovered an arsenal of World War II firearms in an apartment belonging to a local resident, the regional Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday.
"They found an MG 34 machinegun, MP 38 and MP 40 sub-machineguns, a PPSh sub-machinegun and also five bolts, three pistol grips with trigger mechanisms, and six gun barrels from an unidentified model. In addition, there were also 220 rounds of... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
37292
India,Egypt,Russia,China
China Says UN Arms Treaty Lacks Consensus
3 April 2013
South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
There is no consensus on an international arms trade treaty, major weapons exporter China said on Wednesday, after it abstained as the UN General Assembly passed the measure by 154 votes to three.
The only votes against the first treaty on the conventional arms trade were from Syria, North Korea and Iran.
The 23 countries abstaining included Russia and China, ranked respectively as the number two and five weapons exporters by the Stockholm International Peace Research... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: South China Morning Post (Hong Kong)
37276
Turkey,Syria,Russia,France
Turkish Authorities Seize Guns Bound for Syria
29 March 2013
RTÉ (Dublin)
Turkish authorities say they have seized thousands of guns in a warehouse by the Syrian border.
A local news agency said the weapons had been destined for Turkey's war-torn neighbour.
The firearms, including more than 5,000 shotguns and rifles, starting pistols, gunstocks and 10,000 cartridges, were discovered during a raid in a village on the edge of the Turkish town of Akcakale.
The Dogan News Agency said the weapons were being stored on the edge of the border... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RTÉ (Dublin)
37257
Russia
Russians Debate the Right to Bear Arms After Shooting
26 March 2013
Russia and India Report
"If you outlaw guns only outlaws will have guns" – so goes the famous slogan of the National Rifle Association in the US. Until recently, few people thought that this would ever be a contentious issue in Russia. But the case of Alexandra Lotkova, a 21-year-old Moscow student, is stoking the fire of a debate that will eventually spill into the open.
Lotkova was jailed for three years this month because she injured a man with a shot from a travmatichesky pistol, or... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Russia and India Report
37235
Romania,Burkina Faso,Poland,Russia,Latvia,Tunisia,Guinea,Senegal,Bulgaria,China,Africa,Europe,Côte d'Ivoire
Arms Proliferation and Abuse Shatter Communities in Côte d'Ivoire - AI
20 March 2013
Amnesty International (London)
Reckless and illegal arms supplies from Europe, Africa and China to the warring parties in Côte d'Ivoire over the past decade continue to fuel grave human rights abuses and violent crime in the country, Amnesty International said in a detailed report launched at the United Nations (UN) headquarters.
The 33-page report, Communities shattered by arms proliferation and abuse in Côte d'Ivoire, documents how a handful of states and a network of multinational arms... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Amnesty International (London)
37206
Germany,United Kingdom,France,Mexico,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa,China,Russia,United States
Armed Violence Kills 66,000 Women and Girls Each Year
20 March 2013
New Zealand Herald, Associated Press
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon has urged the world's nations to agree on a strong UN treaty to regulate the multibillion-dollar global arms trade in the next two weeks, saying it will save lives and make it more difficult for warlords, organised criminals and terrorists to obtain weapons.
Hopes of reaching agreement on what would be a landmark treaty were dashed last July when the United States said it needed more time to consider the proposed accord - a... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New Zealand Herald, Associated Press
37202
Africa,Americas,Asia,Europe,Oceania,United States,Russia,Italy,Germany,Brazil,Switzerland,Israel,Austria,South Korea,Belgium,Spain,Turkey,Norway,Canada,United Kingdom,Australia,France,Pakistan,Yemen,Honduras,El Salvador,Jamaica
Fact and Figures: Global Trade in Small Arms
18 March 2013
al Jazeera
Diplomats from around the world have gathered at the UN for talks on an international arms trade treaty, in an effort to stop the sale of illegal conventional arms.
Similar talks held last July failed, mainly due to the objections of the US and Russia, the world's two largest arms exporters.
Al Jazeera has compiled a list of facts related to the global production and trading of small arms.
1. Authorised international transfers of small arms, light weapons, their... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: al Jazeera
37196
Russia,China,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa,United States
NRA Opposes UN Arms Trade Treaty
16 March 2013
Washington Post
The National Rifle Association, which is battling a raft of gun control measures on Capitol Hill, also has an international fight on its hand as it gears up to oppose a U.N. treaty designed to restrict the flow of arms to conflict zones.
Negotiations open Monday in New York on the Arms Trade Treaty, which would require countries to determine whether weapons they sell would be used to commit serious human rights violations, terrorism or transnational organized... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Washington Post
37191
India,Egypt,Syria,Russia,United States,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa
Urgent Call for Tighter Rules on International Arms Trade - Oxfam
12 March 2013
Oxfam International (Oxford), Media release
Draft Arms Trade Treaty text littered with loopholes which need fixing urgently to save lives
More than 325,000 people are estimated to have lost their lives through armed violence since negotiations for a treaty to regulate the global arms trade for the first time ground to a halt in July last year, say Oxfam and Saferworld, part of the Control Arms Coalition.
The Control Arms Coalition calls on world leaders to urgently adopt robust rules on international transfers... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Oxfam International (Oxford)
37183
Europe,China,Asia,Americas,Oceania,Kenya,Cuba,Côte d'Ivoire,Africa,Central America,Russia,United States
Women Explain Why an Arms Trade Treaty Can Save Many Lives
7 March 2013
Amnesty International (London), Media release
It is estimated at least half a million people are killed with guns every year and on average a further 200,000 men, women and children die as an indirect result of armed conflicts and violence that are frequently fuelled by the uncontrolled flow of small arms.
And for every person that is killed in an armed conflict, many more are injured and tortured, raped, abused, forcibly disappeared, taken hostage or displaced. Even more have their access to food, water, shelter,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Amnesty International (London)
37175
Russia
Russian Police Raid Illegal Gun Workshop Making and Repairing Guns
7 March 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – The police and the Federal Security Service (FSB) have uncovered an underground arms factory and large cache of firearms in the Moscow Region, the Interior Ministry reported on Thursday.
"Two underground workshops for arms re-engineering were liquidated and four suspected criminal gang members were arrested," the police reported in a statement.
The workshops were based in two garages west of Moscow, where the security forces discovered at least nine machine... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
37155
Russia
Russian Police Seize Large Cache of 'Black Market' Weapons
26 February 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW – Police has confiscated over 100 pieces of weaponry during a raid on an apartment in eastern Moscow owned by a suspected arms dealer.
"The seized arsenal included 24 Kalashnikov assault rifles, 34 Makarov handguns, 14 TT pistols, four Nagan revolvers, a Walther and a Parabellum pistols, three machine-guns, six rifles, a hand grenade and several fuses," police said in a statement on Monday.
The suspect, a 40-year-old Muscovite whose identity has not been... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
37113
Russia,Nigeria,Madagascar,Guinea
Nigeria Charges Russian 'Gun Dealers' for Smuggling
19 February 2013
BBC News
Fifteen Russian sailors have been charged in a court in Nigeria's main city, Lagos, with illegally bringing weapons into the country.
The crew of the MV Myre Seadiver were denied bail by the High Court, pending a final ruling on Monday.
The Nigerian navy had seized the ship, owned by Moscow-based security firm Moran, last October.
Moran has said the ship had permission to carry arms and had stopped in Lagos to change crew.
The vessel had been travelling from... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: BBC News
37084
United Arab Emirates,Russia
Russia Offers UAE Ammo Production Deal
18 February 2013
RIA Novosti (Russia)
ABU-DHABI - Russia is ready to offer the United Arab Emirates license-production of ammunition for BMP-3 infantry fighting vehicles previously sold to the country, Pribor defense firm chief Oleg Chizhevsky said on Monday.
"About 700 BMP-3's have been delivered to the UAE; naturally, there is high demand for those shells and we are ready to meet it in any form, in any format," he said at the IDEX-2013 international arms exhibition in Abu Dhabi. He did not specify which... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
37081
Finland,United States,European Union,Germany,Switzerland,Russia,South Africa,Mexico
Registry Shows Germans Fourth in World for Guns
17 February 2013
Local (Germany)
Figures compiled for Germany's new National Weapons Registry reveal that there are 5.4 million legally owned guns in the country, making it the world's fourth most-armed nation per capita.
Der Spiegel magazine reported on Sunday that the state of Bavaria topped the list with 1.1 million, followed by North Rhine-Westphalia with 1 million and Baden-Württemberg with 700,000.
The new national gun register bundles together the data from over 500 local authorities, which... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Local (Germany)
37072
Russia,Afghanistan,Israel,Belgium,United States
How Video Games Fund Arms Manufacturers and Sell Guns
31 January 2013
EuroGamer
The American confectionery company Victoria Sweets claims to have invented the candy cigarette. A thin stick of chocolate, wrapped in edible paper and designed to impersonate a roll-up, it debuted in 1915 and soon became the accessory of choice for children keen to play grown-up. Hollywood star, GI Joe, team captain: the sweet gave kids the chance try out one of the vogue props of adulthood.
Within 20 years it was so popular that cigarette companies began to take... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: EuroGamer
37023
Czech Republic,Hungary,Côte d'Ivoire,Iran,Guinea,Niger,Russia,South Sudan,China,Uganda,Afghanistan,Nigeria,Kenya,Iraq,Congo (DRC)
Trail of Bullet Casings Leads from Africa's Wars Back to Iran
11 January 2013
New York Times
The first clues appeared in Kenya, Uganda and what is now South Sudan. A British arms researcher surveying ammunition used by government forces and civilian militias in 2006 found Kalashnikov rifle cartridges he had not seen before. The ammunition bore no factory code, suggesting that its manufacturer hoped to avoid detection.
Within two years other researchers were finding identical cartridges circulating through the ethnic violence in Darfur. Similar ammunition then... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times
36931
United States,Russia,China,Mexico
Mexico's Gun Problems Go Beyond Drug Wars
11 January 2013
Inter Press Service News Agency
MEXICO CITY - A lot of attention goes to the U.S.-made weapons in the hands of criminal groups in this Latin American country. But there is little talk of another problem: the large number of light weapons in the hands of civilians.
The Mexican Constitution establishes the people's right to "own guns in their homes for their safety and self-defence", with the exception of high caliber weapons, while the 1972 Federal Law on Firearms and Explosives stipulates the... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Inter Press Service News Agency
36928
Russia,Nigeria
Russia Asks Nigeria to Release Alleged Gun, Ammo Smugglers
10 January 2013
This Day (Lagos)
The Russian government Wednesday called for the immediate release of the 15 sailors arrested by the Nigerian Navy for allegedly smuggling arms into the country.
Nigerian authorities intercepted a ship and arrested its Russian crew on October 23 last year after they found 14 AK-47 rifles guns and 8,500 rounds of ammunition on board.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said the sailors were facing a court case initiated "under false pretexts" and that Nigeria broke a promise... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: This Day (Lagos)
36924
Somalia,United States,Ethiopia,Yemen,Libya,Israel,European Union,East Africa,Kenya,Ukraine,Russia
Special Investigation: Lack of Gun Treaty Fuels Kenyan Smuggling Trade
9 January 2013
Star (Kenya)
Whether looking after his herd of cattle or taking them to the watering point, Boru hardly leaves his AK47 behind. He lives in the outskirts of Gambella village, a few kilometres from Isiolo town.
"It has become like a stick for me. I carry it around and my enemies fear me. It gives me more power than I had before I acquired it," Boru said.
Taking cover from the scorching sun under the shade of an old acacia tree, Boru, a father of three, told the Star he bought his... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Star (Kenya)
36922
Guatemala,El Salvador,Venezuela,United States,Australia,Jamaica,Russia,Colombia
NRA 'Good Guys With Guns' Theory Already Disproved in Latin America
5 January 2013
New York Times
In the wake of the tragic shooting deaths at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., last month, the National Rifle Association proposed that the best way to protect schoolchildren was to place a guard — a "good guy with a gun" — in every school, part of a so-called National School Shield Emergency Response Program.
Indeed, the N.R.A.'s solution to the expansion of gun violence in America has been generally to advocate for the more widespread deployment and... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times
36904
Russia,Belarus,Europe
Men Jailed for Smuggling Guns, Ammo into Russia
13 December 2012
RIA Novosti (Russia)
BRYANSK - The Bryansk city court in western Russia sentenced two businessmen to three and four years in prison on Thursday for illegal arms imports from Europe via Belarus, the Federal Security Service (FSB) said.
The operation was set up in 2010 by a Russian and a Belarusian national based in the city of Mogilev.
The handguns and ammunition they brought in were sold mainly to organized crime groups in Russia.
Police broke up the operation in September 2011 when a... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
36822
Russia
Russian Poll Shows Civilians Think More Guns Means More Risk
23 November 2012
Kyiv Post (Ukraine) / Interfax (Ukraine)
MOSCOW - The overwhelming majority of Russians (82%) object to arms trade liberalization. They think that unlimited access to weapons may increase the crime rate.
Only 13% support free selling of weapons and 5% do not know, the Public Opinion Foundation said in comment on a poll held in 100 towns and cities in 43 regions on November 17-18.
Seventy-eight percent of 1,500 respondents said they would not buy weapons even if Russia permitted free selling of armaments to... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Kyiv Post (Ukraine) / Interfax (Ukraine)
36771
Russia
Russia Proposes Tougher Gun Laws After Alcohol-Fueled Mass Shooting
8 November 2012
Russian Legal Information Agency
MOSCOW - Amendments which tighten the regulations for carrying weapons may be approved in the near future in response to a recent incident in Moscow where a 30-year-old lawyer shot dead five of his colleagues, Izvestia daily reported, citing the head of the licensing service of the Interior Ministry Leonid Vedenov.
The newspaper reported that the draft amendments to the law "On Weapons" will be submitted to the Interior Ministry's administration.
"We have proposed... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Russian Legal Information Agency
36722
Russia
Russian Arms Company Rogozin Wants Kalashnikov Merger
3 November 2012
RIA Novosti (Russia)
KLIMOVSK - Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin called on Saturday for a merger of two of Russia's leading small-arms makers, Izhmash and Izhmekh, under the Kalashnikov brand.
"We need to set up a new-old brand, named 'Kalashnikov', based on the two old factories," said Rogozin, who has special responsibilities for Russia's arms industry, during a visit to the TsNIITOCHMASH arms plant near Moscow.
Oleg Bochkaryev, a member of Russia's military-technical... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
36716
Russia
Russia Gets Tough on Celebratory Gunfire at Weddings
28 October 2012
Daily Beast (Russia)
A caravan of cars with tinted windows and streaming ribbons stretches along the highway. Drum music accompanies the proud procession; gun-shot salutes ring out, calling neighbors to join the happy event. Guests gather outside in the courtyards of apartment buildings to clap, fire off more guns, and cheer. Couples perform the Lezginka, the traditional dance of the region.
This is a typical scene for a wedding in the North Caucasus, and for many years, one rarely seen... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Daily Beast (Russia)
36700
Russia
Three Die in Shooting as Russia Police Attempt Arrest of Alleged Militants
24 October 2012
BBC News
At least two suspected Islamic militants and a member of the security forces have been shot dead in a clash in the central Russian city of Kazan, local officials say.
The shooting came after the militants were surrounded in a residential building in an operation against "especially dangerous criminals".
Police said one of the dead militants was wearing a suicide belt.
Kazan is capital of a region with large numbers of Muslim Tatars and Bashkirs.
Officials said the... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: BBC News
36681
Russia,Iraq
Iraq Govt Signs $4.2b Arms Deal with Russia
9 October 2012
BBC News
Iraq has signed contracts to buy Russian arms worth $4.2bn (£2.6bn; 3.2bn euros) this year, Russian news agencies report.
Moscow, the main supplier of arms to Iraq under Saddam Hussein, thus becomes the country's second-biggest arms supplier after the US.
The new contracts were announced after talks between the two countries' prime ministers near Moscow on Tuesday.
Reports suggest attack helicopters and missiles are included in them.
Iraq has been rebuilding its... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: BBC News
36632
Russia
Russian Weapons May Get Electronic Chip to Monitor Use, Ownership
9 October 2012
Voice of Russia (Moscow)
Russian weapons will fire only in the hands of their legitimate owners. A unique system of control over the operation of weapons has been developed by the order of the Interior Ministry and the Ministry of Industry and Trade.
An electronic chip fitted into a pistol or machine-gun will be able to identify the marksman and block the shot if the biometrical information does not fit.
A photo, fingerprints, retina peculiarities and other personal information will be... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Voice of Russia (Moscow)
36629
Russia
Russia Calls for Ban on Gun Sales to NGO End-Users, Prevents Diversion
8 October 2012
Russia Beyond the Headlines / Interfax
Russia has called on the world to agree on selling small arms and light weapons only to authorized dealers of importer countries, Russian Foreign Ministry security and disarmament department head Alexander Deineko said in an interview with Interfax.
Russia has suggested a set of measures, which would tighten control over the distribution of small arms and light weapons, primarily in the areas where the risk of an arms leak to the black market is high, he said.
"For... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Russia Beyond the Headlines / Interfax
36623
Russia
Anger Over $3 Fine for Celebratory Gun Shots in Russia's Capital
1 October 2012
Daily Reporter (Indiana)
MOSCOW — It was an unusual wedding escort even for Moscow's brash style: A red Ferrari led a motorcade in which guests fired celebratory shots from car windows as they sped down one of the city's main avenues near Red Square.
Sunday's parade drew an angry reaction from the Kremlin-controlled parliament, where senior lawmakers voiced outrage Monday after wedding guests from the province of Dagestan in Russia's North Caucasus walked away with $3 fines. Just one man was... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Daily Reporter (Indiana)
36604
Russia
Drunken Russian Cop Kills Colleague While Shooting Bottles
28 August 2012
Moscow Times
A drunken cop accidentally killed a colleague while out shooting bottles near a Chelyabinsk region railroad, Urals transportation investigators said Monday.
According to investigators, the 25-year-old policeman killed his 30-year-old colleague in February after inadvertently firing at him while passing him a rifle by the Nyazepetrovsk-Uraim railroad.
The rifle, which the pair were using for target practice, was pointed at the head of the colleague at the time.
The... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Moscow Times
36510
Peru,Argentina,Dominican Republic,Colombia,Mexico,Russia,United States
What Google's Arms Trafficking Map Tells Us
28 August 2012
InSight Crime (Bogota)
The lights blanketing the globe on Google's latest foray into data visualization tell a hidden story of the gun trafficking business: that understanding the movement of ammunition is just as important as understanding the movement of weapons.
Google says the interactive map, which was a joint initiative between Google Ideas and the Brazil-based Igarape Institute, was pulled together using more than a million data points of small arms, light weapons, and ammunition... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: InSight Crime (Bogota)
36509
United States,Russia
Russian Town Sells 'Tens of Thousands' of Assault Rifles to US
14 August 2012
New York Times
IZHEVSK, Russia — The nickname of this town, home of the factory that makes Kalashnikov rifles, is the "Armory of Russia." Over the years, it has armed a good number of other countries, too, as the lathes and presses of the Izhevsk Machine Works clanged around the clock to forge AK-47s and similar guns for insurgents and armies around the world.
But these days, many of Izhevsk's weapons are headed somewhere else: the United States.
Despite the gun's violent history... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times
36466
Russia
Russian Police Seize Cache of Guns, Anti-Tank Rifle from Home
3 August 2012
RIA Novosti (Russia)
Russian investigators arrested a man in northwest Russia on Thursday for arms offences, including possession of an anti-tank rifle, the police said on Friday.
Police raided the man's apartment and country house in Gatchina, Leningrad Region, and uncovered an arsenal of weapons including the anti-tank rifle, pistols, grenades, mortar, and aircraft machine-guns, city police said.
The unemployed 39-year-old man was detained after he tried to sell a TT-30 semi-automatic... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
36427
China,Russia,United States
US Gun Lobby Wins One, Beats Back UN Treaty to Slow World Gun Trade
29 July 2012
San Francisco Chronicle
When a global treaty to limit shady weapons sales gets swept up in the gun-control debate, it's clear that this country has a problem. A bloc of U.S. senators, chiefly Republicans with a sprinkling of Democrats, has managed to derail a U.N. treaty to restrict weapons sales between countries.
The reasoning is spurious and shameful, a political play on distrust of the United Nations and unfounded fears about a loss of domestic gun rights. But the threat was enough to... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: San Francisco Chronicle
36409
Russia
Russia Plans to Relax Handgun Laws, 'Promote Weapons Culture'
24 July 2012
Russia and India Report
The Federation Council, the upper chamber of Russia's State Duma, has proposed that the public be allowed to own and use firearms. Alexander Torshin, deputy speaker of the Federation Council, is planning to submit a draft bill to the president that would allow service pistols to be used in self-defense. According to the document, a person would not be jailed for shooting under such circumstances. The bill is expected to be submitted to the State Duma early next year.
... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Russia and India Report
36379
Mauritius,Russia
Mauritius Bans Ex-Associates of Gun Smuggler from Operating Airline
17 July 2012
New York Times
MOSCOW — Two former business associates of Viktor Bout, the convicted Russian arms dealer now in federal prison in the United States, have been blocked by the government of Mauritius from setting up an aviation company that could have been used for smuggling guns, according to the government and a private American arms investigation group.
In a report scheduled for release on Wednesday, the group, Conflict Awareness Project, says that Mr. Bout's former lieutenants... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times
36351
South Africa,United States,Russia,United Kingdom,China,France,Germany,Liberia,South Sudan,Algeria,Egypt,Iran,Venezuela,West Africa,Africa,Angola
For Africa, Ammunition Control Deserves Global Gun Trade Treaty Focus
9 July 2012
IRIN (UN News)
JOHANNESBURG — For a couple of hundred dollars or less an arms dealer can illegally source a blank end user certificate with the required signatures and stamps - needed to transfer weapons across international borders - and "if no one checks its authenticity (often the case) he can ship his wares to the world's hotspots with minimal risk, for maximum profit," a report by the Small Arms Survey (SAS) said in 2008.
Since then "not much has changed" Glenn McDonald, based... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: IRIN (UN News)
36317
Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa,United States,Pakistan,Cuba,Iran,China,Russia
Arms Trade Treaty Should Cover Broad Range of Arms and Ammunition
8 July 2012
New York Times, Editorial
The world is awash in conventional weapons, like tanks, firearms and aircraft, with the market valued at $40 billion to $60 billion a year. Far too many of these arms are fueling conflicts and atrocities in Syria, Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and beyond. They have been used to kill countless innocent civilians, and they will be used against countless more if the international community does not find a way to keep them out of the hands of unscrupulous regimes,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times
36316
United States,India,Russia
Russia's Position on the Arms Trade Treaty
6 July 2012
Voice of Russia (Moscow)
Russia has one of the most well developed arms control systems in the world and we have only one arms exporting nongovernmental agency which controls all arms trade.
Interview with Sergey Denisentsev – expert of the Center for Analysis of Strategies and Technologies from Moscow, Russia.
What is the position of Russia on IATT?
Well, the key difference between the Russian approach towards IATT and the approach of countries of the EU is the matter of goals of IATT.... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Voice of Russia (Moscow)
36307
Russia,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa,United States,Syria,Egypt,China,United Kingdom
UK to Push for Ammunition Control in Arms Trade Treaty
28 June 2012
Independent (UK) / Press Association (UK)
Britain is to push for ammunition sales to be covered by new international arms trade controls despite strong resistance from the US.
The UK sees the inclusion of ammunition as an essential element of the proposed Arms Trade Treaty and will negotiate hard for it when a month-long conference opens at the United Nations in New York next week.
But the British delegation faces opposition from a number of countries including China, Egypt and Syria but also its traditional... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Independent (UK) / Press Association (UK)
36286
Syria,Russia,Africa,China,India,Pakistan,European Union,Americas,Asia,Europe,Oceania,Congo (DRC),Sudan,Chad,Colombia
NGOs Set Minimum Specifications for Arms Trade Treaty [FR]
27 June 2012
Le Monde (France), Opinion
[Translated summary: Associations, NGOs and hundreds of members of the global coalition "Control Arms" have set minimum specifications for the future Arms Trade Treaty. It will have to control all types of conventional arms and ammunition used by military as well as by law enforcement, since they can be used for serious human rights violations. ATT will include exports but also imports, transit and all types of transfers and all actors, such as arms brokers, like Viktor... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Le Monde (France)
36280
Russia,Venezuela
More Assault Rifles Floating Around, the Last Thing South America Needs
15 June 2012
Honduras Weekly, Editorial
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez said on Wednesday that his country has built several unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and has plans to potentially export them to other Latin American countries. The president of Compañia Anonima Venezolana de Industrias Militares (Cavim) says the drones have a radius of 100 kilometers, a flying time of 90 minutes and a maximum altitude of 3,000 feet. The plane can transmit live streaming video and take high resolution... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Honduras Weekly
36256
Russia,Colombia,Venezuela
Venezuela Set to Produce 25,000 Kalashnikovs, Sniper Rifles a Year
14 June 2012
InSight Crime (Bogota)
Venezuela is nearing completion of an arms factory which will produce 25,000 Kalashnikov and sniper rifles a year, a development which could have troublesome implications for the conflict in neighboring Colombia.
In a June 13 televised speech, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez praised an arms factory in Aragua state, constructed with Russian assistance. Though it is still waiting on equipment from Russia, when production is at full capacity the factory will be able to... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: InSight Crime (Bogota)
36247
United States,United Kingdom,Russia,Germany,France,China,Africa
The 'Big Six' Arms Exporters - Amnesty International
11 June 2012
Amnesty International (London)
DOCUMENT
1. China
There are few official statistics on the Chinese arms trade but the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimates that accounts for around 3 per cent of the global trade in conventional arms.
Countries supplied
Recipient countries over the past decade have tended to be developing countries with poor human rights records including Algeria, Angola, Bangladesh, DRC, Guinea, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kenya, Libya, Myanmar,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Amnesty International (London)
36235
Sierra Leone,Yemen,Syria,Algeria,Iran,Somalia,China,Belarus,Italy,Germany,Bulgaria,Austria,Russia,Tunisia,United Kingdom,United States,Qatar,Sudan,Africa,Libya,Egypt,France
An Arms Buyback for Libya? – Analysis
9 June 2012
Eurasia Review (EU/Asia)
The Libyan civil war of early 2011 was one of the bloodiest conflicts in recent history, with an estimated 30,000 killed and 50,000 injured. While Muammar Gaddafi's death marked a watershed moment in Libyan history, the months of frenzied violence that preceded it saw a massive buildup of arms and munitions in the country. In the months leading up to and after his fall, Gaddafi's arms warehouses all across the country became unsecured; such was the level of... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Eurasia Review (EU/Asia)
36228
United States,France,United Kingdom,China,Pakistan,Venezuela,Cuba,Iran,Algeria,Egypt,Russia,Syria,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa
New Global Arms Treaty Must Set Tough, Legally Binding Rules - Oxfam
29 May 2012
Chicago Tribune / Reuters
LONDON - States must set legally binding global rules on weapon and ammunition sales, aid agency Oxfam said on Tuesday, ahead of a United Nations summit to agree an arms treaty to prevent arms reaching human rights violators.
Citing the example of Syria, which has continued to receive arms shipments even as it is accused of killing more than 9,000 civilians in a crackdown on a popular uprising, Oxfam said it is vital that regulations on weapons sales are... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Chicago Tribune / Reuters
36186
Russia,France,China,Oceania,United Kingdom,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa,Germany,United States
Arms Trade Treaty: Will World Waste an Extraordinary Opportunity?
24 May 2012
Guardian (UK)
I often write a reflective piece to accompany the publication of the Amnesty International annual report on the state of the world's human rights, and as a result I have an archive of reflective pieces which read as a chronology of progress and problems charted over the last decade. We shall see whether the 2012 report will be the one that came just months before the world secured a binding, bulletproof arms trade treaty in the negotiations due to take place in July, or... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Guardian (UK)
36180
Russia,Syria,United States,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa
Arms-control, Humanitarian Groups Push for 'Bullet-proof' Arms Treaty
24 May 2012
Bloomberg (USA)
Arms-control and humanitarian groups are pressing President Barack Obama to seek a tough international treaty restricting sales of conventional arms.
"We are writing to encourage you and your administration to spare no effort to seize the historic opportunity to negotiate a robust, bullet-proof Arms Trade Treaty," groups including the Arms Control Association, Amnesty International USA and Oxfam America wrote in a letter to Obama.
The United Nations will attempt in... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Bloomberg (USA)
36165
Russia
Russian Bill to Relieve from Criminal Liability Individuals Who Forfeit Guns
22 May 2012
RIA Novosti (Russia) / RAPSI
MOSCOW - The Supreme Court will introduce a draft law to the State Duma proposing to relieve individuals who forfeit illegally possessed arms from criminal liability, even if they had used those weapons to commit crimes, the court told the Russian Legal Information Agency on Tuesday.
"The bill will bring greater transparency and certainty to the criminal law which states that an individual who voluntarily gives up his arms will be relieved from criminal liability,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia) / RAPSI
36155
Hong Kong,Italy,Germany,Israel,Austria,Bulgaria,Russia,India
Over 29,000 Russian AK-47s Imported by Indian Paramilitary Forces
20 May 2012
Times of India
NEW DELHI - AK-47s continue to be the preferred assault weapon for the country's paramilitary forces deployed to neutralise terrorists and Maoists at the frontiers and in the hinterland.
Over 29,000 pieces of this Russian-origin rifle were imported by forces like CRPF, BSF and NSG over the last three years, leaving behind, by a large margin, other sophisticated assault weapons procured from the US and Israel.
The inventory of the assault weapons procured for security... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Times of India
36147
Russia,China,United States,United Kingdom,Congo (DRC),Myanmar,Iran
UK Minister Calls for International Support on Arms Trade Treaty
17 May 2012
Guardian (UK)
The international arms trade has become the greatest threat to development and has to be controlled by a tough treaty to regulate weapons and munitions sales, a government minister warns.
In a speech to the Institute for Strategic Studies thinktank, Alan Duncan, the minister for international development, will urge allies such as the US to set aside their concerns and sign up to the comprehensive arms trade treaty (ATT), which will be hammered out during a month-long... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Guardian (UK)
36143
Russia,China,United States
US Marines Stole, Sold Nearly $2 Million in Guns to Gangs, China, Russia
15 May 2012
International Business Times (US)
U.S. Marines at Camp Lejeune, N.C., stole and sold approximately $2 million in guns and combat equipment to streets gangs and to China and Russia, military officials confirmed. The stolen guns and combat gear included assault rifles, night-vision goggles and flashlights.
More than 60 people have been implicated in the incident, the Daily News in Jacksonville, N.C., reported. 47 service members and 21 civilians have been charged so far. Several of them have already... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: International Business Times (US)
36134
Ethiopia,South Africa,Burkina Faso,Sierra Leone,West Africa,Ukraine,Côte d'Ivoire,Eastern Europe,Russia,Central African Republic,Iraq,Afghanistan,United States,Colombia,Angola,Liberia,North Africa,West Asia,Africa
Shadowy 'Merchants of Death' Behind Africa's Illegal Gun-Running
11 April 2012
Think Africa Press (London)
Arms dealer Viktor Bout was sentenced to 25 years by a US federal court last week.
Widely known as the 'merchant of death', the 45-year-old Russian has delivered weapons and arms to a wide range of presidents, insurgents and rebels in Africa and the Middle East including the likes of Charles Taylor in Liberia and Jonas Savimbi in Angola. He was caught in a US sting in which his services were solicited for the supply of weapons to Colombia's FARC rebels.
His companies... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Think Africa Press (London)
36019
Qatar,East Africa,Russia,North Korea,China,West Asia,North Africa,Syria,Mali,Libya,Belgium,West Africa
Small Arms Manufactured in Belgium Proliferate in Libya, Mali [FR]
11 April 2012
L'Express (France) / AFP
[Translated summary: Notwithstanding risks of proliferation, small arms manufactured in Belgium circulate in Libya, Mali, and maybe tomorrow in Syria? Belgium is the biggest european exporter of small arms: in 2010, 32% of european exports of small arms to Middle East and North Africa came from this country.]
Malgré les mises en garde à Bruxelles sur les risques de prolifération, les armes légères fabriquées en Belgique circulent de la Libye au Mali. Et demain,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: L'Express (France) / AFP
36014
West Asia,North Africa,South America,Africa,United States,Russia
Russian Arms Dealer Sentenced to 25 Years in Prison by US Judge
5 April 2012
New York Times / Reuters
NEW YORK - Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer caught in an undercover sting by U.S. agents posing as Colombian guerrillas seeking weapons, was sentenced to 25 years in prison on Thursday by a U.S. judge in New York.
Bout, who was the subject of a book titled "Merchant of Death," asserted his innocence during the sentencing, telling the judge through a Russian interpreter, "I never intended to kill anyone. I never intended to sell arms to anyone. God knows this... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times / Reuters
36000
Sudan,Syria,Russia,China,Papua New Guinea,Fiji,Oceania
Pacific Nations Push for Global Arms Trade Treaty to Curb Gun Trade
19 March 2012
ABC News (Australia), Transcript
Every year illicit trade in small arms results in thousands of deaths. Most of them in developing countries, including the Pacific, where the impact of gun violence has been devastating.
Now the international community is to meet at the United Nations to finalise the first ever global arms trade treaty.
HELEN HAKENA, WOMEN'S RIGHTS CAMPAIGNER: I was seven months pregnant when gunmen came into our village terrorising the entire village community. My house was burnt to... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: ABC News (Australia)
35944
Africa,Americas,Asia,Europe,Oceania,Somalia,United States,Russia,Egypt,Iran,Pakistan
A 'Bulletproof' Arms Trade Treaty Could Slow the Global Flow of Guns
8 March 2012
MediaGlobal News (New York)
Every day, according to Amnesty International, thousands of people are killed, injured, raped, and forced to flee from their homes as a result of armed conflict, armed violence, and human rights violations and abuses perpetrated using conventional arms.
As violence continues unchecked around the world, a coalition of humanitarian and health organizations is rallying support for a "bulletproof" global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), to be discussed in July, that would stymie... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: MediaGlobal News (New York)
35894
Russia
Crusading Russian Woman Journalist Killed with Modified Air Pistol
6 March 2012
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW - Russian investigators have identified a man who sold the gun used to kill campaigning journalist Anna Politkovskaya in 2006, Kommersant daily reported on Tuesday.
Businessman Vladimir Nabatov modified an air pistol to fire live bullets and then sold the gun to Dmitry Pavlyuchenkov, a former senior police officer on trial for organizing the contract killing.
It is not clear whether Nabatov is in police custody.
The suspected gunman, Rustam Makhmudov, was... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
35888
Estonia,Dominican Republic,Ecuador,Ukraine,Kyrgyzstan,Moldova,Kazakhstan,Belize,Latvia,Venezuela,Belarus,Lithuania,Bahamas,Bolivia,Azerbaijan,Russia,Antigua & Barbuda,Guyana,South Africa,Jamaica,Honduras,Guatemala,El Salvador,South America,Colombia,Brazil,Central America,Caribbean
1/3 of Femicides Committed With Gun in Latin America and Caribbean [ES]
2 March 2012
RT-TV Novosti (Russia)
[Translated summary: Nearly a third of crimes against women are committed with a firearm and in Brazil, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras this indicator is 60% - Small Arms Survey.]
El mayor nivel de feminicidios se registra en Latinoamérica y el Caribe. Catorce países latinoamericanos aparecen entre los 25 del mundo con la tasa más elevada de crímenes contra la mujer.
El informe de la organización de investigaciones independientes Small Arms Survey,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RT-TV Novosti (Russia)
35882
Eastern Europe,Russia,United States,Belgium
Important Arms Cache Revealed by Belgium Police [FR]
29 February 2012
RTL (Belgium)
[Translated summary: Explosives and weapons of war, including kalashnikovs, were seized by Belgium Police. This arms cache was Brussels' organised crime private supermarket.]
Kalachnikovs, grenades et dynamite, c'est l'étonnante découverte qu'a faite, mardi, la police d'Anderlecht dans un hangar, révèle une information de Sudpresse.
Selon le parquet de Bruxelles, ces explosifs et armes de guerre pourraient être revendus et destinés à des attaques à main... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RTL (Belgium)
35873
Russia
Russia Reveals Plans to Upgrade Kalashnikov Soviet-era Assault Rifle
28 February 2012
Guardian (UK) / Reuters
MOSCOW - Moscow announced plans on Tuesday to modernise the Kalashnikov, giving a new lease of life to the Soviet-era assault rifle.
The move is part of a 20 trillion-rouble (£435bn) modernisation of Russia's armed forces that includes the addition of new armaments, submarines and aircraft by 2020.
The Kalashnikov has been a mainstay of the Russian army, as well as a weapon of choice for paramilitaries and gangsters around the world. The new-look weapon will get a... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Guardian (UK) / Reuters
35876
Europe,Israel,Russia,United States
Why Does America Lead the World in School Shootings? - Opinion
28 February 2012
CNN, Opinion
Editor's Note: Dr. Frank Ochberg is Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at Michigan State University and former Associate Director of the National Institute of Mental Health.
School shootings are far more frequent in America than in other countries, although terrible massacres have occurred in Russia, Israel, and several European nations. In the high-crime neighborhoods of inner cities, school turf is relatively safe. We have learned to harden the target and patrol with... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: CNN
35875
Philippines,Trinidad & Tobago,Zimbabwe,Zambia,Uganda,Tanzania,Senegal,Congo (DRC),Pakistan,Nigeria,Niger,Namibia,Morocco,Mauritania,Malawi,Madagascar,Côte d'Ivoire,Burkina Faso,Botswana,Egypt,Angola,Algeria,South Africa,Ghana,China,United States,Austria,Russia,Israel,Bahrain,Asia,Africa,Brazil
Brazil Arms Exports: Country Preaches Peace, Sells Tons of Arms
28 February 2012
Huffington Post (USA)
A small, scratched metal can thrown on the ground created Brazil's first diplomatic embarrassment of 2012. The canister of tear gas had been collected by pro-democracy activists in Bahrain. Stamped across the can in blue was a Brazilian flag and the words 'MADE IN BRAZIL.'
One year had passed since Bahrain became the stage for pro-democracy protests by the majority Shiites against the Sunni monarchy commanded by king Hamad bin-Isa Khalifa. The protesters had been... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Huffington Post (USA)
35870
Germany,Chad,Yemen,Egypt,Libya,France,United Kingdom,United States,Sudan,Belarus,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa,Syria,Russia
Towards an International Control of Arms Trade, NGOs Concerned [FR]
19 February 2012
Le Monde (France)
[Translated summary: As negotiations were launched this week in New York on the Arms Trade Treaty, Amnesty International, CCFD-Terre Solidaire and Oxfam France are concerned about the risk of a "Treaty at a discount ".]
La vente d'armes à un régime qui réprime sa population, comme le fait aujourd'hui la Russie à l'Etat syrien, sera-t-elle bientôt illégale ? C'est l'enjeu des négociations qui devraient aboutir, en juillet, à New York, à la signature d'un... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Le Monde (France)
35854
Southern Africa,South Africa,Swaziland,Angola,Congo (DRC),Mozambique,Namibia,Zimbabwe,Central America,South America,Caribbean,Central Africa,Europe,Asia,Africa,Americas,Oceania,Botswana,China,Czech Republic,Germany,Russia,United States,Philippines,Italy
High Gun Death Risk for Young African Men, Women at Home - UN Study
19 February 2012
Southern Times (Southern Africa)
WINDHOEK - Young men in Southern Africa are at the greatest risk of cold-blooded murder, while women in the region are more likely than others from around the world to be killed in domestic violence, a UN agency says.
The statistics from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) come as the region battles to contain the proliferation of gun-related crimes.
Experts have said gun-related crime is a major problem in South Africa and Swaziland, and is on the rise in... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Southern Times (Southern Africa)
35844
Egypt,Mexico,Iran,United States,Syria,Russia,China,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa
Collapse of UN Arms Trade Treaty Talks Narrowly Averted - Reuters
17 February 2012
Reuters
UNITED NATIONS - Negotiators on Friday narrowly averted the collapse of talks on a world arms trade treaty to regulate the $55 billion global weapons market, agreeing on ground rules for negotiations after days of procedural wrangling.
Delegates and advocates for tougher oversight of global arms sales said the agreement set the stage for a monthlong conference in July to draft the treaty.
Arms control campaigners say one person every minute dies as a result of armed... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Reuters
35841
Sudan,China,Egypt,Bahrain,Libya,Germany,United Kingdom,Russia,United States,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa
At Last, the World Acts to Control Global Arms Trade, UN Talks Begin this Week
12 February 2012
Independent (Dublin)
The global arms trade, which produces two bullets for every person on the planet every year and the weapons that kill 1,500 people each day, is facing the first worldwide effort to control it. An unprecedented treaty that would attempt to restrict arms sales is expected to be drawn up at talks in the United Nations this week.
A campaign for such an agreement, begun six years ago by Nobel laureates, faces attempts by the United States and Russia to water the treaty... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Independent (Dublin)
35825
Syria,Russia,China,Sudan
Russia, China Provide Guns to Violate Human Rights in Darfur - Amnesty
9 February 2012
Reuters
LONDON - Russian and Chinese arms are being used to violate human rights in Darfur region in breach of an "ineffectual" United Nations embargo, Amnesty International said on Thursday.
Amnesty said Russia and China are supplying weapons to Sudan's government despite evidence they are being used against civilians in Darfur, where the U.N. estimates as many as 300,000 people have died since 2003 from violence, hunger or disease.
"China and Russia are selling arms to the... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Reuters
35812
Thailand,Malaysia,Indonesia,Kuwait,Qatar,Mexico,Peru,Venezuela,Colombia,Bolivia,Somalia,Nepal,Oman,Latvia,Mauritius,Guyana,Congo (DRC),Bosnia & Herzegovina,Saudi Arabia,Liberia,Kazakhstan,Singapore,Dominican Republic,Jordan,Trinidad & Tobago,United Arab Emirates,Guatemala,Honduras,Chile,Ecuador,Argentina,Zimbabwe,Zambia,Uganda,Tanzania,Senegal,Congo (ROC),Nigeria,Niger,Namibia,Morocco,Mauritania,Malawi,Côte d'Ivoire,Egypt,Burkina Faso,Brazil,Tunisia,Sri Lanka,Pakistan,Philippines,Yemen,United States,Italy,Germany,Israel,Austria,Russia,Africa,Americas,Asia,Europe,South Africa,Algeria,Angola,Botswana,Ghana,Guinea,Madagascar
Brazilian Gun Industry Seeks New Markets: Africa and Asia [PT]
27 January 2012
Publica (Brazil)
[Translated summary: With the support of the Ministries of Defence and Foreign Affairs, Brazilian gun manufacturers seek new markets in countries with a history of human rights violations: Tunisia, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Philippines and Yemen. Brazil is among the six countries in the world with annual exports exceeding $ 100 million, according to recent research from Small Arms Survey. According to the Army, responsible for supervising and controlling exports from 2005 to... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Publica (Brazil)
35794
Russia
Russia Touts 20 New Kalashnikov Variants, Holds 17 Million Surplus
25 January 2012
RIA Novosti (Russia)
IZHEVSK - Izhmash, the manufacturer of Kalashnikov AK assault rifles, said its sales were up 57.4 percent last year at 5.73 billion rubles (about $190 million).
Civilian weapon sales rose 25 percent and a similar increase is expected this year, Izhmash press secretary Yelena Filatova said.
Production is to increase 30 percent this year, to 5.1 billion rubles, she added.
In September 2011, Chief of the Russian General Staff Nikolai Makarov said the Defense Ministry... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
35777
Russia
Police Seized 227 Guns from Passengers at Russian Airports in 2011
23 January 2012
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW - Police seized 227 firearms, thousands of rounds of ammunition and several kilograms of explosives at airports around Russia in 2011, a spokesperson for the Russian transport police said on Monday.
Russia has tightened security measures at airports and railway stations following a terrorist attack at the Domodedovo airport near Moscow in January 2011 which killed 37 and injured 120 people.
"During passenger preflight checks at Russian airports last year,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
35764
Russia
Russia's Kalashnikov Factory Dumped Assault Rifle Parts in Public Tip
16 January 2012
RIA Novosti (Russia)
IZHEVSK - Police have found functional gun parts at a dumping ground for destroyed Kalashnikov automatic rifles in the Urals republic of Udmurtia, local Interior Minister Alexander Pervukhin said on Monday.
"I regret to report we've discovered many firearms parts and details that can still be used," Pervukhin told the republic's head, Alexander Volkov. He did not elaborate on how the rifle parts ended up as waste.
The local Kalashnikov recycling facility already... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
35737
Russia
Siberian Truck Driver Takes Crates of Army AK-47s, Sells for Firewood
13 January 2012
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW - A retiree in the Udmurtia region of the western Urals has alerted police after finding scores of Ak-47 assault rifles in crates he bought for firewood, police said.
The Udmurtian man contacted the police after he found "an object similar to a Kalashnikov assault rifle" in one of the wooden cases, a police source said.
Another 78 rifles and munitions were later found in the crates which the man bought for firewood from a Kamaz truck driver who was supposed to... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
35731
Slovakia,Austria,Azerbaijan,Serbia,Russia,Armenia,Turkey,Romania,Czech Republic,Croatia,United States,Bulgaria,Ukraine,Southern Europe,Georgia,Eastern Europe
South Caucasian Republics Purchased 107,324 Small Arms in 2005-2010
4 January 2012
Milaz.info (Azerbaïdjan)
The South Caucasian republics purchased 107 324 small arms from various countries of the world in 2005-2010.
APA reports quoting the UN Register of Conventional Arms that Georgia takes the first place among the South Caucasian republics on purchase of small arms during this period.
Georgia bought 76 377 small arms from 7 countries. The submachine guns, short rifles, pistols, automatic rifles, pistol-machineguns, heavy machineguns, grenade launchers as well as the... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Milaz.info (Azerbaïdjan)
35704
Thailand,Colombia,Russia,United States,Uganda,Rwanda,South Africa,United Arab Emirates,Belgium,Sudan,Somalia,Côte d'Ivoire,Liberia,Angola,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa,Congo (DRC)
Stopping the Trade in Death, Gun Trafficking, Smuggling - Opinion
6 December 2011
New York Times, Opinion
On a dark November morning in 2004, I woke up in my bungalow overlooking Lake Kivu, tense with anticipation. Our small United Nations team was about to undertake a surprise inspection of three airfields in eastern Congo, notorious for smuggling operations.
With the backing of U.N. peacekeeping forces and a U.N. Security Council mandate, we searched almost every incoming and outgoing aircraft that day. By evening, we had the evidence to link several aviation front... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: New York Times
35632
Africa,Americas,Asia,Europe,Oceania,Eastern Europe,East Africa,Australia,India,Nigeria,Mozambique,Russia
Global: Unplanned Explosions at Munitions Dumps Increasing - IRIN / SAS
5 December 2011
IRIN (UN News)
JOHANNESBURG - The rate of accidents at munitions storage sites has risen to unprecedented levels in 2011, despite a growing international commitment to assist countries in managing their weapons and ammunition stockpiles.
"During the first ten months of 2011, the average number of explosions has increased to more than three per month - the highest rate recorded in a calendar year," said the Small Arms Survey (SAS), a Geneva-based NGO monitoring small arms and armed... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: IRIN (UN News)
35622
Russia
Moscow Bans Airgun Ammo in Attempt to Enforce Firearm Registration
13 November 2011
Moscow Times
Ammunition for air guns has disappeared from the city's specialized stores, apparently on verbal orders from a police force that has long frowned upon people buying — and often abusing — non-lethal firearms.
Although officially blamed on red tape, the disappearance of the ammunition is actually part of an Interior Ministry campaign to ban air guns across the country, Izvestia reported Friday.
Such an unofficial ban would amount to abuse of power, a pro-gun... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Moscow Times
35533
United States,Russia,Europe,North Africa,West Asia,Bahrain,Egypt,Libya,Syria,Yemen,Austria,Belgium,Bulgaria,Czech Republic,France,Germany,Italy,United Kingdom,Spain,India
Major Arms Exporters Accused of Mideast Gun Sales Before Human Rights
24 October 2011
al Jazeera
According to an Amnesty International report, the US, Russia and a number of European countries supplied large quantities of weapons to repressive governments in the Middle East and North Africa before this year's uprisings.
The report says that these arms deals were signed despite evidence of a substantial risk that they could be used to commit serious human rights violations.
The human rights group reports that in the five years preceding the Arab spring $2.4bn... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: al Jazeera
35448
European Union,China,Germany,South Korea,Switzerland,Serbia,France,United Kingdom,Syria,Yemen,Bulgaria,Belgium,Libya,Italy,Bahrain,Egypt,United States,Russia,West Asia,North Africa,Finland,Austria,Sudan,North Korea,Spain
Tracing the Middle East Weapons Flow
19 October 2011
al Jazeera
Earlier this year, as mass popular uprisings spread through the Middle East and audiences across the world sat transfixed by images of unarmed citizens confronting iron-fisted security forces in the streets of Arab capitals, powerful governments from Russia to the United States were forced to begin accounting for the weapons they had for decades sold to the very rulers they now found themselves abandoning.
In Egypt and Bahrain, protesters held up tear gas canisters... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: al Jazeera
35436
Germany,France,Czech Republic,Bulgaria,United Kingdom,Belgium,Austria,Yemen,Syria,Libya,Egypt,Bahrain,North America,West Asia,North Africa,Europe,United States,Russia,Italy,Spain
Arab Spring Abuses Show Need for Arms Trade Curb - Amnesty
18 October 2011
Reuters (Africa)
LONDON - Russia, the United States and European countries ignored fears over human rights abuses and sold large numbers of weapons to governments in the Middle East and North Africa in recent years, Amnesty International said in a report on Wednesday.
Rights group Amnesty said the failings showed the need for a meaningful international arms trade treaty to choke off the supply of weapons to countries seen at risk of turning them on their own people.
"The Arab Spring... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Reuters (Africa)
35431
United States,Germany,Russia,India
India's Unlicensed Gun Market Thrives on Smuggled, Home Made Firearms
5 October 2011
First Post (Mumbai)
A 10-year-old boy was accidentally shot dead by his 12-year-old neighbour while they were playing cop and thief in West Delhi earlier this week. On 24 September, 23-year-old toll attendant, Umeshkant Pandey, was shot dead by the driver of a white Bolero. His crime: he asked the driver to pay Rs 27 as toll tax.
Gun crime has consistently been on the rise in India, and every few weeks, there is a new tragedy. An armed gang shoots a woman over a small piece of jewellery,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: First Post (Mumbai)
35375
Russia,Peru,Colombia,Greece
Russian Accused of Gun-Running Beats Extradition and Leaves Greece
1 October 2011
RIA Novosti (Russia)
ATHENS - Vladimir Gavrilov, a Russian accused of gun-running to Colombia's FARC rebels in the 1990's has been released from custody in Greece, where he had been detained for a month on an extradition request from Peru, his lawyer Georgy Gurovanidis told RIA Novosti.
Gavrilov returned to Moscow on Saturday morning after his release.
Vladimir Gavrilov had spent a month in detention in Salonika, Greece, after being detained at the end of August on an international arrest... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
35347
Venezuela,Libya,Russia
Russia Defence Ministry Orders an Update of the Kalashnikov Rifle
28 September 2011
Moscow Times
The Defense Ministry said Tuesday that it has suspended purchases of the legendary Kalashnikov rifle and is expecting the manufacturer, Izhevsk machinery plant, to present it with a new model of the weapon.
Mobilization reserves of Kalashnikov assault rifles, which the Soviet armed forces began using in 1949, are too big, and the ministry is not satisfied with the quality of the current firearms arsenal, General Staff chief Nikolai Makarov said.
The current reserves... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Moscow Times
35334
Russia
Boy Injures 2 Students with Unattended Police Assault Rifle in Russia
17 September 2011
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MAKHACHKALA - A high school student in Russia's North Caucasus republic of Dagestan accidentally wounded two other students after he made a shot from an assault rifle in a school, a local police spokesman said on Saturday.
He said several policemen were invited to a school in the Tarumovsky district of Dagestan to deliver a lecture for children.
"A senior class student was examining an assault rifle that was left unattended for some time by one of the policemen after... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
35287
Burundi,Africa,Americas,Asia,Europe,Oceania,Belgium,European Union,United States,Russia
Development, Security Require a World Without Small Arms [Fr]
9 August 2011
Pax Christi Wallonie Bruxelles (Brussels)
[Translated summary: In Burundi, the authorities spend each year an average of 5 dollars per person for health care. Each gun injury costs 163 dollars to the health care system. Three quarters of the global budget for health care is thus spent on these injuries!]
Au Burundi, les autorités consacrent en moyenne 5 dollars par habitant aux soins de santé chaque année. Chaque blessure causée par une arme à feu coûte 163 dollars au système des soins de santé. Trois... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Pax Christi Wallonie Bruxelles (Brussels)
35176
Kyrgyzstan,Czech Republic,Pakistan,Afghanistan,Central Asia,Russia,Uzbekistan,China,Kazakhstan,European Union,United States,Colombia,Iran
Smuggling of Small Arms in Central Asia Is Endemic - British Expert
2 August 2011
Journal of Turkish Weekly (Turkey), Transcript
British intelligence analyst and journalist Richard M. Bennett says the Fergana Valley is extremely vulnerable to the covert smuggling of arms and drugs, despite the official reports of Central Asian governments denying its highlighted status. Mr. Bennett told JTW that Russia has been responsible for an overwhelming amount of illegal arms circulating in ex-Soviet Central Asia. In his view, Russia's military intelligence (GRU) is the mastermind of major trafficking... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Journal of Turkish Weekly (Turkey)
35152
Russia
3 Civilians Killed in a Restive Russian Province in North Caucasus
28 July 2011
San Francisco Chronicle / AP
MAKHACHKALA, Russia -- Police say a village leader and an elderly couple have been killed in a restive Russian province in the North Caucasus.
Vyacheslav Gasanov, a police spokesman in the republic of Dagestan, said village chief Rabadan Omarov in central Dagestan was killed late Thursday night when an unidentified man stormed his house and gunned him down with an assault rifle.
In southern Dagestan, a married couple in their 60s known, for having conservative Muslim... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: San Francisco Chronicle / AP
35136
France,Qatar,United Kingdom,Libya,Russia,Italy
Small Arms Seized by Italy Gone Missing, Libya Likely Destination
20 July 2011
Scotsman (Edinburgh)
A shipment of weapons seized by the Italian navy following a tip-off from British secret agents has gone missing - most likely ending up in the hands of Libya's rebels.
The haul, which was described by one military expert as "enough to start and win a small war", included 400 anti-tank missiles and 50 launchers for them; 30,000 AK47s; 5,000 Katusha rockets; 11,000 anti-tank rockets and 32 million rounds of small arms ammunition.
All of the Russian-made weapons were... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Scotsman (Edinburgh)
35083
Israel,United Kingdom,Russia,France,Oceania,Europe,Asia,Americas,Africa,China,United States
Productive Negotiations at the UN on Arms Trade Treaty [Fr]
18 July 2011
Courrier du Vietnam / AFP
[Translated summary: Member States of the UN "made significant progress" during the week of negotiations in New York for the adoption in July 2012 of the Arms Trade Treaty, said on July 15 Eric Danon, representative of France in the negotiations.]
Les États membres de l'ONU ont "beaucoup progressé" pendant une semaine de négociations à New York en vue de l'adoption en juillet 2012 d'un traité sur le commerce des armes, a déclaré le 15 juillet Eric Danon,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Courrier du Vietnam / AFP
35078
Russia
Tensions on Moscow Roads, Reports of Multiple Clashes with Firearms
18 July 2011
Moscow Times
Tensions on Moscow roads have flared with a prominent blogger and an opposition activist reporting separate clashes with firearm-wielding motorists accused of driving violations.
Photographer-blogger Dmitry Ternovsky said a 24-year-old ethnic Gypsy from Latvia pulled out an air gun and fired multiple shots at his car on Volgogradsky Prospekt on Thursday.
Ternovsky had angered the man by photographing the black, emergency siren-equipped Mercedes S500 that he was riding... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Moscow Times
35071
European Union,Bulgaria,Russia,West Africa,Pakistan,France,Australia,United Kingdom,Canada,Germany,Italy,United States,Haiti,Côte d'Ivoire,Madagascar
Study Finds Small Arms Have Serious Impact on Fragile States
6 July 2011
Voice of America
A new study finds the global authorized trade in small arms, light weapons, and their ammunition is worth nearly $7.1 billion a year. In its annual report, the independent think tank, the Geneva Forum, also examines the serious impact small arms proliferation is having upon three so-called fragile states-Madagascar, Ivory Coast and Haiti.
Arms exporters
The survey finds in 2008, the United States, Italy and Germany topped the list of 14 top exporters of small arms... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Voice of America
35022
United Kingdom,United States,Europe,India,China,Russia,Libya,France
France Air-dropped Guns to Libyan Civilians: In Breach of Arms Embargo?
30 June 2011
Le Point (France) / Reuters
[Translated summary: France acknowledged that it airlifted small arms to Libyan civilians fighting Moammar Gadhafi's forces in a besieged mountain region south of Tripoli. Critics say that this is against the UN arms embargo].
NEW YORK, PARIS - La France a défendu sa décision de parachuter des armes aux insurgés libyens, une opération à laquelle l'Otan n'a pas été associée et qui suscite jeudi une controverse, les Nations unies ayant imposé en février un... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Le Point (France) / Reuters
35000
United States,Africa,Russia
Russian Arms Dealer's Trial Resumes Amid Calls for Global Arms Treaty
21 January 2011
Voice of America
Alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout makes a second appearance in a New York court Friday, where he is accused of offering to supply arms to terrorists and rebels in Africa. Oxfam, an International non-governmental organization fighting poverty and injustice, says the Bout case shows why there is an urgent need for global rules on arms trade.
The charges against Viktor Bout stem from a 2008 U.S. sting operation in which authorities say Bout tried to sell weapons to... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Voice of America
34235
United Kingdom,Switzerland,Russia,Norway,Mexico,Japan,Italy,Germany,Austria,Czech Republic,India,China,Canada,Brazil,Australia,United States
How Gun Control Laws Vary in 16 Countries Around the World
10 January 2011
Guardian (UK)
Australia
Ownership is strictly prohibited unless there are "genuine reasons" such as licensed sport, animal control or employment requirements.
Brazil
If you are over 25 and have registered a weapon, you are free to keep it indoors. The country has the second-highest gun-related death rate after the US.
Canada
Significantly stricter than the neighbouring US. To acquire a licence, applicants must undertake a safety course, pass a criminal records check and be... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Guardian (UK)
34020
United States,Russia
Accused Russian Gun Runner Viktor Bout Tells of His Life in New York Jail
3 January 2011
RIA Novosti (Russia)
Suspected Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, extradited from Thailand to the United States in mid-November, has given an interview to RIA Novosti.
Former Russian armed forces officer Bout was arrested in Thailand in March 2008 during a sting operation led by U.S. agents and extradited to the United States after spending more than two and half years in Thai prisons. The charges against him include conspiring to supply arms to terrorist groups and kill U.S. nationals. Bout... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
33948
Russia
Russian Kalashnikov Maker Near Bankrupcty, AK-47 Industry Under Threat
20 December 2010
Lenta (Russia)
Izhmash will continue to produce the basic range of small arms and advanced weapons models. On this, as reported by Interfax , said deputy director general of the state corporation Russian Technologies Nikolai Volobuyev. Previously reported that the production of weapons will suffer from Izhmash on IMZ in connection with the forthcoming bankruptcy of the enterprise.
According Volobuyeva, currently being worked out a program of financial recovery Izhmash that does not... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Lenta (Russia)
33888
Russia,Venezuela
Kalashnikov Factory Makes Assault Rifles, Ammo in Venezuela [Es]
3 December 2010
Agencia EFE
[Translated summary: From May 2011, a new Russian-built factory in Venezuela will produce Kalashnikov assault rifles, Model 101 to 105, with ammunition, for both Warsaw Pact and NATO calibres.]
MOSCÚ/MOSCOW -- Venezuela comenzará a fabricar fusiles Kaláshnikov y sus municiones antes de lo previsto y las primeras partidas se producirán en mayo de 2011, informó hoy la corporación estatal rusa para la exportación de armamento, Rosoboronexport.
"Tenemos previsto... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Agencia EFE
33876
Africa,Russia,Thailand,United States
Heavy Price to Pay for Dealing With Viktor Bout, Lord of War
18 November 2010
Herald (Scotland), Opinion
He's been dubbed the Merchant of Death.
Viktor Bout, former Russian army officer turned international arms dealer extraordinaire, was this week extradited to the US from Thailand, accused of trying to sell weapons to Colombian rebels as well as supplying many of the guns, bombs and bullets used in conflicts across Africa and the Middle East.
Bout – pronounced "boot" – is very much a man who epitomises the dangerous and mercenary times we live in. Here we have a... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Herald (Scotland)
33711
United States,Russia,Thailand
Who Is the 'Merchant of Death?' Global Gun Runner Viktor Bout - CNN
17 November 2010
CNN
He's known as the "Merchant of Death" and the "Lord of War," -- an alleged international arms dealer straight out of a cloak-and-dagger spy novel who eluded authorities for years and inspired Hollywood villains.
But in reality, according to those who have seen or met Viktor Bout, he is a somber man, sometimes nattily dressed, a wheeler-dealer who has insisted he is innocent of the allegations leveled against him.
Bout, a Russian citizen and former military officer,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: CNN
33663
Thailand,Russia,United States
Russia Claims US Pressure, Pressures US to Free 'Merchant of Death' Bout
17 November 2010
BBC News
Russia has described as a "blatant injustice" Thailand's decision to extradite alleged Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout to the US to face charges of conspiring to sell weapons.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said it was the result of unprecedented American pressure on Thailand.
Mr Bout arrived in New York late on Tuesday after Thailand backed the US request following a long legal battle.
He was arrested in Bangkok in 2008 in a US-led operation.
The former... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: BBC News
33654
Bulgaria,Russia
Russia, Bulgaria Address Illegal Production of Kalashnikov Assault Rifles
14 November 2010
RIA Novosti (Russia)
SOFIA - Russia and Bulgaria have agreed to resolve issues related to unlicensed production of Soviet-era weaponry and equipment by Bulgarian companies, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said.
"We spoke about bilateral military-technical cooperation. There are some problems in this area that we must resolve together," Putin said after talks with his Bulgarian counterpart Boiko Borisov in Sofia on Saturday.
"They are related to unlicensed production of Soviet-era special... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
33884
Russia,Afghanistan
Russia Once Again Airlifts Planeloads of Assault Weapons to Afghanistan
9 November 2010
Voice of Russia (Moscow)
Power structures in any country should be well-armed: otherwise, what we are talking about can't be called power structures. This rule is of great importance for all countries, including Afghanistan in the first place. And still, till recently the power structures in Afghanistan were practically unarmed. Now the situation has begun changing – among other things, thanks to supplies from Russia.
The transport planes of the Russian Interior Ministry have begun... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Voice of Russia (Moscow)
33622
Russia,United States
How the AK-47 Rewrote the Rules of Modern Warfare
1 November 2010
Wired (San Francisco)
Part 1: Origins
The compact automatic rifle that Stalin's engineers unveiled in 1947 didn't look like much of a gun. The result of a secret design contest, its components were simple, inelegant, workmanlike. Its ammunition lacked the stopping power of other rifle cartridges. Its barrel was too short to achieve the range of standard infantry rifles. When the Pentagon finally got its hands on a few of the weapons in the 1950s, officials scoffed. But from this unheralded... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Wired (San Francisco)
33926
Thailand,United States,Russia
Infamous Russian Gun Runner Still at Center of US-Russia Tug of War
19 August 2010
Associated Press
THAILAND - The suspected Russian arms dealer known as "The Merchant of Death" is tired of prison life but optimistic a Thai appeals court will rule in his favor Friday and refuse to extradite him to the United States, his lawyer said.
Viktor Bout, a 43-year-old former Soviet air force officer, is reputed to be one of the world's most prolific arms dealers. He has been linked to some of modern history's most notorious conflicts, allegedly supplying weapons that fueled... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Associated Press
33207
Russia
Venezuela Launches Mass Production of Russian Kalashnikov Assault Rifle
17 July 2010
Pravda (Moscow)
Venezuela has become the first nation in the world to make the iconic Kalashnikov third generation assault rifle on Russia's official license. The first batch of the legendary small arms that conquered the whole world has already been assembled at a Venezuelan enterprise, RIA Novosti reports with reference to Rosoboronexport official Alexander Yemelyanov.
Russian specialists simultaneously participate in the construction of a new factory in Venezuela, which would be... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Pravda (Moscow)
33184
Russia,Venezuela
Venezuela Plant Can Make 50 Million Kalashnikov Rounds Every Year
25 May 2010
RIA Novosti (Russia)
An ammunition plant being built by Russia in Venezuela will have the capacity to produce over 50 million rounds for Kalashnikov assault rifles per year, a Russian defense industry official said on Tuesday.
The Urals-based Izhevsk Mechanical Plant (IMP) supplied 100,000 AK-103 assault rifles to Venezuela, and signed a new contract in 2007 licensing production of Kalashnikov rifles in the Latin American country.
Under the contract, Russia is building an assembly line... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
33179
Russia
Moscow Police Officer Dies While 'Scratching Nose With Loaded Gun'
11 May 2010
Herald Sun (Melbourne)
Investigators believe a young Moscow cop died after scratching his nose with his loaded gun.
The Moskovsky Komsomolets reports the 23-year-old policeman, who was not named, was found under a desk with a head wound. The investigation ruled out a murder and there was no note that would indicate suicide, the paper said.
The alarm was raised when a supervisor couldn't reach the policeman by phone. A locked door was broken down and the man's body was located, the paper... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Herald Sun (Melbourne)
32645
Russia,Italy
Italian Gun Maker Beretta Rescues Russian Weapon Plant in Joint Venture
7 May 2010
RIA Novosti (Russia)
MOSCOW - State Technology Corporation Rostekhnologii plans to embark on a joint small arms production venture with Italian firearms company Beretta, Kommersant business daily reported on Friday.
Director General of Rostehnologii Sergei Chemezov told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin on Thursday the state corporation is negotiating with the Italian company on the production of "hunting and sporting arms, and handguns for the special services and police."
A source... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: RIA Novosti (Russia)
32644
Russia
Demand for Guns, Insurance Tipped to Surge After Russia Terror Attacks
30 March 2010
Gazeta (Russia)
Terrorism has staged a comeback in Moscow. After a six-year interval, blasts hit the Moscow metro again, this time killing 38 people. Experts observe that following each terrorist attack, people show an increased interest in life insurance and in buying cars and small arms.
Irina Vorobyeva, of 2K Audit Business Consultations, says that faced with such a situation people begin buying cars, afraid to travel on public transport. "We may well see a rise in car purchases,"... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Gazeta (Russia)
32466
North Korea,Russia
President Bans All North Korea Gun Purchases, Transport to, from Russia
30 March 2010
Itar-Tass (Moscow)
MOSCOW - President Dmitry Medvedev prohibited all state structures, Russian legal and physical persons to purchase all types of weapons in North Korea. The appropriate decree on measures for implementing UN Security Council resolution 1874 of June 12, 2009, is placed at the Kremlin's official site.
"All state institutions, industrial, commercial, financial, transport and other enterprises, banks, organisations, other legal and physical persons, under Russian... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Itar-Tass (Moscow)
32437
Russia
Moscow Wedding Guest Severely Injured in Russian Roulette Prank
24 March 2010
Associated Press
MOSCOW, Russia - Russian television has aired a video of a wedding guest shooting himself in the head with a rubber bullet in a game of Russian roulette.
An excerpt from a wedding video airing on NTV television shows a man addressing the groom, then whipping out a pistol, pointing it to his head and pulling the trigger with a click.
The man gives the gun to another man who then shoots himself in the temple and falls to the ground.
The Komsomolskaya Pravda daily... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Associated Press
32402
Russia
Policeman Gets Life for Shooting 7, Killing 2 in Moscow Supermarket
19 February 2010
Associated Press
MOSCOW, Russia - A Moscow court sentenced a police precinct chief to life in prison Friday for a drunken shooting spree that killed two people and wounded seven.
Maj. Denis Yevsyukov opened fire last April inside and outside a Moscow supermarket. He killed a cab driver and wounded several passers-by in the street, then gunned down a cashier and a customer in the market. He then held two dozen people hostage for several hours and shot at police officers before they... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Associated Press
32170
United States,Russia,Thailand
New Charges in US Battle to Deport Russian Gun Runner from Thai Jail
17 February 2010
Associated Press
WASHINGTON, DC - U.S. prosecutors filed new charges Wednesday in their global pursuit of a suspected arms dealer, hoping to convince reluctant officials in Thailand to extradite him over objections from Russia.
An updated indictment charges that Viktor Bout and his former business associate, Richard Chichakli, conspired to violate United Nations sanctions aimed at stopping bloody fighting in Africa.
The new charges appear aimed at helping U.S. authorities overcome a... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Associated Press
32156
Ukraine,Thailand,Russia,Serbia,Kazakhstan,North Korea,Belarus
Ex-Soviet Pilots, Aircraft Ship Weapons for Global Gun Running Networks
17 December 2009
Time (USA)
KIEV -- It was no ordinary smuggling bust. On Dec. 11, an old Russian plane landed in Thailand to refuel after taking off hours earlier from Pyongyang, North Korea. In its hull, police found 35 tons of explosives, rocket-propelled grenades and components for surface-to-air missiles, all being transported from North Korea in breach of U.N. sanctions. The captain and his crew were promptly arrested and charged with illegally transporting arms. But according to experts,... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Time (USA)
31690
Russia,North Korea,Serbia,Thailand
North Korean Arms Plane Cargo Linked to East European Gun Traffickers
15 December 2009
Times (UK)
The weapons laden plane seized in Bangkok en route from North Korea at the weekend has been linked to two renowned East European arms traffickers by a respected Swedish think-tank in the latest twist in the mysterious saga.
The Ilyushin-76 aircraft, which was found to be carrying 35 tons of weapons including rockets and grenades, was most recently registered under a company called Beibars, linked to Serbian arms dealer Tomislav Dmanjanovic. It had previously been... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Times (UK)
31658
India,United Nations,Russia,China
UN Gun Trade Treaty 'Likely Very Weak' as India, Russia, China Abstain
2 November 2009
Times of India / TNN
NEW DELHI — Even as the crucial global arms trade and transfers (ATT) treaty, which seeks to regulate the $55 billion arms trade and promote democracy, found overwhelming support from 153 member countries at the UN on Friday, India was among the 19 who abstained from the meet.
These 153 countries — including top arms suppliers like US, Britain, Germany and France — supported a UN disarmament committee resolution which will lead into negotiations for the treaty... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Times of India / TNN
31433
Germany,United Nations,Russia,China
Germany Backs Global Arms Trade Treaty, China and Russia Abstain
31 October 2009
Deutsche Welle
Germany, along with other key United Nations members, has backed talks on a global treaty to regulate the global trade of weapons. Two major arms suppliers, Russia and China, refused to support the measure.
The United Nations resolution calls for talks aimed at agreeing a treaty to police the world's $55-billion (37-billion-euro) arms trade.
The UN General Assembly's first committee on disarmament and peace passed the resolution calling for a treaty by 153 votes to... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Deutsche Welle
31432
United Nations,United States,Russia
US on Board, Russia Abstains in UN Global Gun Trade Treaty Talks
30 October 2009
Reuters
UNITED NATIONS — The world's top weapons exporters agreed to back negotiations on a global treaty to regulate the world's $55 billion arms trade, but Russia refused to show support, diplomats said on Thursday.
The deal came after negotiators from four of the top arms traders — the United States, Britain, France and Germany overcame sharp disagreements on the wording of a U.N. General Assembly resolution that will guide negotiations on a treaty, which were to begin... (GunPolicy.org)
Read More: Reuters
31336
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