By Yuliia Dysa
KYIV, April 21 (Reuters) - A deadly shooting in Ukraine's capital at the weekend has fuelled calls for the loosening of restrictions on the right to own and carry handguns for self-defence in a country scarred by years of war against Russia.
Hours after a gunman took hostages in a Kyiv supermarket on Saturday, shooting seven people dead, many Ukrainians turned to social media to demand the right to bear handguns for their own protection. Many others condemned the idea, in alarm.
"If the
people who encountered the terrorist today had been armed, there wouldn't have been so many victims," Deputy Commander of the 3rd Army Corps, Maksym Zhorin, said on the Telegram app.
"Legalising handguns is the only correct conclusion to draw from this tragic event."
Civilians in Ukraine are not allowed to carry firearms, and there is no comprehensive law regulating armed self-defence.
But in the wake of Russia's invasion in 2022, civilians lined up as the military and police handed out weapons to repel the invaders, on the condition that they should be returned when the war ended.
DRAFT LEGISLATION BEING PREPARED
Ihor Fris, co-author of a draft law on civilian firearm circulation that passed its first reading in 2022, argues that while criminals will find ways to get weapons, civilians in Ukraine are left with no means of defending themselves.
Fris, from the ruling Servant of the People party, told Reuters that lawmakers, the interior ministry, and experts will discuss preparing the draft for a second reading in the near future.
"In my view, today we could allow Ukrainians to own short-barrelled firearms – weapons for self-defence at home," he said, adding that the law should come into force in a year once passed.
Under pressure over the police's mishandling of the shooting, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko has voiced his support for the measure: "I believe that people should have the right to armed self-defence," Klymenko said.
While historically most Ukrainians have not backed firearms liberalisation, attitudes appear to have shifted since the war. The largest poll to date was run by the state in mid-2022 and showed that 59% of Ukrainians supported the right to carry a handgun in public places, while 22% categorically rejected the idea.
Over 1.7 million people took part in the survey, with 19% saying they are for gun rights but are against carrying them in public.
SHOOTING RAMPAGES RARE IN UKRAINE
"I'm actually very much against the call for firearms for people," said Daryna, a 31-year-old resident of the Holosiivskyi district, where the shooting took place. "Because we see what's happening in the U.S. Firearms are allowed there and there are many more such situations there."
In the latest mass shooting event in the U.S., a gunman killed seven of his children and an eighth minor in a domestic violence incident on Sunday in Louisiana, before police shot him dead during a vehicle chase.
Unlike in the U.S., shooting rampages have remained extremely rare in Ukraine. In 2021, according to the interior ministry, 273 cases of weapons-related violence were registered, including incidents and accidents with explosives. By 2023, the figure had risen to over 11,000.
Some of those opposed to gun liberalisation say it is unclear how the right to carry guns will prevent more victims during mass shootings.
"I see many arguments in favour from people who have never been in a situation where they had to decide whether to use one, let alone actually use one and understand the consequences," Roman Kostenko, a member of the parliamentary defence and security committee from the Holos party, said.
According to Kostenko, who has extensive battlefield experience, there is a lack of understanding of how ill-suited Ukraine's legal system is to ruling on cases of armed self-defence.
Many opponents say expanding access to firearms would make them more easily available to those intending to do harm.
The Kyiv shooter had a registered weapon.
"The system has given a weapon to this man. Why do we assume that, in the future, only good people will be given arms to protect us from the bad ones?" Inna Sovsun, another lawmaker from Holos, said.
Fris argues that a tightly regulated system of checks for gun permit applicants and gun schools, akin to licensed driving academies, would minimise such risks.
A transitional period of at least one year would be required to build such a system, he said, adding that it is even more critical to amend Ukraine's criminal code to define the rights and limits of self-defence.
MILLIONS OF GUNS IN CIRCULATION
The consequences of allowing handguns to circulate widely in a society with an extremely high level of war-related trauma, including post-traumatic stress disorder, are a major concern voiced by many people.
But supporters argue that guns are already in wide circulation, following the state's distribution of weapons in the early days of war and millions used in the fight against Russia.
Ukrainians may hold up to 7 million undeclared small arms, Heorhiy Uchaykin, who chairs the Ukrainian Gun Owners' Association, told Reuters. Ukraine's interior ministry did not respond to Reuters' request for statistics on gun ownership.
"If the constitution guarantees me the right to defend my own life, I must have the means to do so," said Uchaykin, who supports the right to carry handguns and has been lobbying for it for years.
He criticised local police for failing to protect residents in Saturday's shooting. Several officers were filmed running away from the scene, prompting the resignation of a police chief and criminal cases.
Many lawmakers, however, are cautious about any liberalisation of gun laws and urge against any rapid changes.
"We must not legalise guns based on emotions after tragedies," said Olha Vasylevska-Smahliuk, a lawmaker from the ruling party.
(Reporting by Yuliia Dysa; Editing by Daniel Flynn and Keith Weir)
