I might write about what other countries do involving guns, but it’s not like I have any interest in what happens there. It’s not my circus, not my monkeys. I only care about it in the context of how it might impact anti-gun efforts here in the United States.
But Ukraine is a little different.
While I have no ties to the country, I’m not a huge fan of Russia, and I don’t like invaders, regardless of what anyone says to excuse why Russia crossed the border. The fact that the big former Soviet bear can’t actually win is kind of funny to me, though much of it is because Russia is facing Western weapons, and we actually build ours to do what we say it will, and then some, as opposed to Russia that does the opposite.
One thing that is on Ukraine’s agenda, though, is a measure to recognize the right to bear arms.
It’s been there since right before the invasion, and Ukraine still hasn’t addressed it.
The legislature passed a law expanding gun ownership possibilities and enshrining a right to bear arms in its first reading on the day before the Russian invasion in 2022 but failed to proceed to a required second reading. If it does eventually pass, Ukrainians with prior firearm ownership would be permitted to legally purchase handguns and other currently banned firearms.
Advocates, led by Zelenskyy-aligned parliamentarian Maryan Zablotskiy, attempted to pass it again in December 2023 and March 2024. But those efforts failed to get the proposal over the finish line. The law remains on the parliamentary agenda, but it’s unclear when it might get another vote.
Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko announced on Telegram that he was creating a working group to analyze ways forward for Ukrainian gun policy on June 11, local outlets reported. The decision was widely seen as a good sign for gun-rights advocates, but the working group has not released any proposals as of August 26.
Several estimates have concluded that the vast majority of firearms in Ukraine are illegally held outside of their formal gun registry. One Ukrainian gun-rights group recently put the number of legally owned guns at about two million and illegally owned ones at three million. Legislation introduced in June sought to buy back guns from Ukrainians for military use. Like pro-gun legislation, the legislature failed to pass that proposal.
This is a country that has seen two invasions by its large, expansionist neighbor, who is trying to gobble the country up one bite at a time. It’s clear that Russia has no respect for Ukrainian sovereignty, so it’s also clear that even if the fighting stops, it’ll just be a matter of time before Russia comes back for another bite.
At this point, failure to recognize the right to bear arms and to recognize that military arms must be considered arms seems obvious to me. I see what happened in Ukraine, and what happened in Israel on October 7th, and it’s clear that an armed population is the only real bulwark possible against foreign aggression.
Unfortunately for everyone in Europe, while having to worry about Russia to some extent or another, they have also decided that guns are scary and icky, and therefore everyone must be disarmed in the face of a very real threat.
Ukraine has faced that threat more than anyone else, and I actually find the idea that not only have they not preserved the right legally, but they can’t seem to find time to do so almost offensive. Couple that with people recovering weapons to fight the Russians on their own, only to be forced to hand those over to the state, and it’s clear that Ukraine isn’t that different from the rest of Europe and they might just deserve what they get.
Good. And. Hard.
Read the full article here
