After Mass Shooting, Many Ukrainians Demand Fewer Restrictions on Firearms

Despite the Ukrainian government putting rifles in the hands of some civilians in the early days of the country’s defense against Russia’s invasion, Ukraine’s gun laws remain awfully restrictive. Those laws, however, didn’t prevent a mass shooting at a grocery store in Kyiv last Saturday, where a man killed seven shoppers and took several others hostage before he was shot and killed by police. 

In the wake of the attack, a growing number of Ukrainians are calling on the government to loosen the country’s tight gun controls and allow individuals to carry in self-defense. 

 “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.

After Russia’s invasion began in 2022, a bill that would expand the opportunities for armed self-defense passed its first reading, but the legislation has been stalled in the country’s parliament ever since. The architect of that measure, though, tells Reuters that the bill is expected to start moving once again in the wake of the mass shooting. 

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.

I’d be curious to see how those numbers have changed over the past four years as Russian aggression has continued. My guess is that, if anything, support for the right to keep and bear arms has only increased since the survey was conducted, even if Russia is largely dependent on using missiles and drones to attack beyond the front lines. 

If Russia succeeds in taking large swathes of territory, an armed populace could make that land ungovernable. Even if the war continues on its current trajectory, with Ukraine and Russia largely fighting over the same ground in Eastern Ukraine that’s served as the front line since 2022, Ukrainians may feel more secure knowing they have the means to fight back if necessary. 

And as last weekend’s attack shows, it’s not just tanks and missiles that Ukrainians need to be concerned about. According to Ukrainian authorities, the man who carried out the attack was born in Russia in 1958, and had previously lived in the Donbas region that Russia considers its territory. Ukrainian officials have called the shooting an act of terrorism, and it’s entirely possible that there will be more attacks like this in the future; either carried out independently by figures sympathetic to Russia’s war aims or even aided and directed by the Russian government. 

It’s terrible that it took an attack that claimed seven lives for the Ukrainian government to renew the push to allow citizens to carry firearms in self-defense, but it would be even worse if that effort once again stalls out before decisive action is taken. Ukraine’s restrictive gun laws are no impediment to those who are willing to commit mass murder, but they are preventing hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of Ukrainians from being able to protect themselves, loved ones, and even strangers from those monsters willing to murder them in cold blood. 

Editor’s Note: Self-defense is a human right, and one that’s aided by the right to keep and bear arms. 

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