All those who possess firearms and also air guns with a force higher than 0.5 Joules are obliged to declare and register them with the police by October 25, 2018. Those who will not do this will be penalized and will lose the right to hold guns for a period of five years. For the first time, all the gun holders will be obliged to attend a gun handling course. In case of ordinary checks, they will also be obliged to take the breath test.
The announcement was made by the head of the General Public Security Division of the General Police Inspectorate Marin Maxian in a news conference, where this presented the amendments and supplements to the law on the regime of civil arms and munitions, IPN reports.
“All those who want to obtain the right to own a gun or to extend this right must submit a set of documents to any police station near their domicile. The list of required documents is available on the website politie.md. Those who will not pass the psychological test or committed violations will be unable to regain the right to possess arms and munitions and will thus have to yield up the arms or they will be held accountable for illegal possession of guns,” stated Marin Maxian.
In 2017, the police seized almost 1 400 illegally held weapons and started 141 criminal cases. About 790 arms and over 2,000 cartridges were yielded up voluntarily.
Under the made changes, the holders of guns once in ten years will present each arm for being tested and the information will be included in an official register. This will enable the police to identity the owner if this committed an offense. Also, the owners are not allowed to change particular parts of the gun and to shorten the barrel. Those who lose the guns out of negligence or do not keep them in safes will be deprived of the right to hold firearms. An owner can possess only two sets of cartridges. Cold weapons must not be thicker than 2.6 mm and longer than 95 mm.
In the course of 2017, there were recorded 135 offenses with the use of guns and 337 incidents with guns used illegally.
