Why our people don’t like others who have shotguns? It’s the rhetorical question, which gains popularity nowadays. Ordinary citizens, who know nothing about shooting, don’t like hunters and the official authority treats to them like to enemies, we can judge so according their acts. What is the reason?
Let’s start from the excessively strict actions, which have to regulate the ways of shotgun usage. The shotguns licenses for keeping and bearing arms are issued by tate authorized bodies represented by departments of the Ministry of internal Affairs and Rosgvradiya, for getting it you have to have the hunting ticket, the license and hunting permit. Plus you need to have the license for keeping and bearing arms from Rosgvardiya. But there is one interesting moment! This license doesn’t give you the right to shoot! You can keep and carry your gun! But bearing shotgun doesn’t mean shooting. If we check the meaning of the word “bearing arms” in the Ozhegov's dictionary we won’t find it. According Russian dictionary “bearing arms” is the same like “carrying smth” it means that gun's bearing is the separate action from shooting. To bear, in Russian linguistic, doesn’t mean that you can use what you bear, to shoot in our case. It’s clear but it’s sounds ridiculous. You can bear arms, if you have such license, but you don’t’ have rights to use it. If you have rights to keep and bear arms you should have rights to shoot and nobody could argue it. Does it mean that you can shoot where you want? Does it meant that ROH (license ) don’t limits your rights for firearms usage? Does it mean that if you have such license, issued by the state authority, nobody could limits your shooting rights?
Unfortunately its’ not true. We know about cases when the representatives of the authorities wrote administrative reports for shotgun's testing in the hunting lands. There are several cases of judicial practice when the authority have confiscated hunter’s weapons. We’ve analyzed those cases and the whole pictures looks so as if judges don’t try to get to the bottom of the cases but execute the order of another government agency for charges, penalties and the confiscation of the weapons. Probably it’s a new way of control of hunting or compulsory measures of reduction the numbers of gun’s owners. The friend of mine told me about the cases when the authority confiscated guns by somebody’s order. When one person wanted to have the gun which another hunter had, he paid for special people to organize the forced confiscation. You’ll be surprised when know that the authors of the restriction of testing guns in the hunting lands are the explanations given by the officials from the licensing and permitting department of Rosgvardia, those people, who give permits for having a shotguns. The Deputy head of L&P department of Rosgvardia A. Z. Dishekov wrote in his letter from 14.11.2018 №3/180000094299, that
“ the term Hunting, doesn’t include the testing hunting weapon and shouldn't be organized on the territory of the hunting lands”. But we have to note that this Department is the structural unit of Rosgvardia, belongs to the Federal Executive authority and it doesn’t have rights to give the explanations of the Federal Law, especially which the question doesn’t belong to its responsibility. All questions about hunting are in the responsibility of the Ministry of Natural Resources of RF. It means that all explanations given by the Rosgvardia offices aren’t legal. This is an abuse of authority.
We can’t understand the logic of that letter. According the Law “ Hunting is the activity connected with finding and tracking and chasing of the object of the hunt (which belongs to the hunting resource), taking, primary processing and transportation ( i.5 art.1 FL “ About Hunting and hunting resource conservation…”) and it doesn’t include the words about shotguns’ testing, that’s why it can’t be done on the territory of the hunting lands. A.Z. Dishekov refers shotguns’ testing to the training activity. It’s really surprised. If you want to practice shooting you have to test the gun, to be sure that it works well, test it once again with the sight and to shot for the different distances. After that you can practice shooting. We admit that the link to the item 62.1 The rules of circulation of civilian and service weapons has done on purpose (resolution №814 of RF Government) but it has no connection with the shotguns testing.
Only sportsmen, like pidgeon shooters pentathletes, biathlete can train shooting. Testing guns isn’t the same. For example the hunters wants to check the new gun, how it works and he has the right to do in during twelve days after the purchase. Where will he do it, if there is not the shooting gallery in the village or the town where he lives? We want to refer to the " Standard rules for safety when handling hunting weapons... on the territory of the RSFSR” from 05.05.1983. There we can find the definition of gun’s testing “ Gun’s testing has to be done in the special places or organized in the area enclosed by the natural ravines or shafts, in some cases it can be done on the open area but the hunter has to see the whole distance” . Why we ignore the experience of the previous generation of specialists?
Why do we destroy everything to the ground and create the new acts which don’t reflect the objective processes in the society and are not logical at all. Why don’t we use the experience which we alreday have? It looks like somebody want to pressure and to influence the hunters. These people forget about historical reality.
The Civil code of the Russian Federation obligations must be fulfilled properly in accordance with the requirements of the law or legal acts, if there are not equal conditions or demands, they have to be fulfilled in accordance with the traditions or usually imposed requirements. The definition of the tradition in such case is, the usual rule of conduct established and widely applied in any field of business or other activity, not provided for by law. It’s no matter is it fixed in the law or not. Let’s ask ourselves, who were the best snipers during the World War II? The right answer is Hunters who helped to neutralize the whole enemy units. How do you think, have the Siberian hunters had the special places for testing guns? They still don’t exist in the most villages of Siberia and Far East. Where do the small nations of the North test their guns, though their lives depends on their skill to use hunting weapon. There are not special shooting galleries in Taiga or Tundra but the locals check their guns in any case. If something is wrong with the gun’s sight when the hunter is in hundreds km from the nearest settlement of people, will he need to drop everything and to drive back to the special place to test it? It sounds absurdly! Does it meant that all Siberian and Yakutsk hunters are lawbreakers. Hunters always tested weapons in forests, ravines and swamps in the Imperial Russia and in the USSR too. There were not any problems with it. This process was logically and legally justified.
One more question. Why do we destroy it? I don’t talk about the Siberia but nowadays our State don’t provide the normal conditions for hunters and other shooters to test the shotguns. There are not enough numbers of special places, shooting galleries in each settlement or each town. The todays’ legislation don’t take into account existing realities and don’t make the condition for the implementation of legal provisions. Where are new shooting galleries or special places? The classical hunting writers pointed to the fact that we have to take into account the historical customs of the locals. We all agree that hunting land is the area for hunting. It means that there we can shoot. If the hunter misses, does it meant that shot is illegal because he doesn’t have the trophy. It can be so, according to the logic of officers who treat to shotguns’ testing like to the separate kind of activity but not hunting.
When USSR existed all hunting question were controlled by the Soviet power. I’ll show some examples of normative-legal acts established in the Soviet Union which have regulated the connection of hunting and shotgun testing. The model hunting rules of RSFSR have been validated by the Order 66 of the Main Department of hunting and nature reserves from March 1st, 1974. “According to those rules it was prohibited to bear with loaded guns, shooting in the populated areas, shooting to the invisible or unclear target, shooting to the sounds and rustles, under the height of human beings, shooting birds with the usage of the smoothbore rifles in more than 35 meters, shooting when being drunk. There was a remark to this point: Testing shotguns had to be done in the special places or in the places with natural barriers such as ravines and ditches, to prevent accidents, far from the people’s settlement. Somebody had to control the process while the gun’s testing. The shotgun’s testing was prohibited when organized in not special places or when the hunting season was over”. It means that hunters could check their weapon in the shooting galleries and other places too. The new model hunting rules were ratified on January 4th, 1988. They allowed to test hunting weapon in the special shooting galleries, hunting lands when the hunting season was opened and the hunter had all necessary permits from Gosokhotnadzor. The hunter should have to comply all security measures to prevent any accident with humans or animals. Unfortunately all these rules had been cancelled. What did we get in return?
The book, written by E.V Sheingold “ All about hunting weapons” was published in 1978. There is the chapter “ The Verification of shotguns in accuracy, sharpness and stable operation”. There we can find the detailed description of shotguns’ testing process and concrete recommendations. The author tells about the situation when shotgun’s testing is obligatory: after the purchase when you have to compare the factual results with data in the gun’s papers, cases when the hunter has to define the actual hitting results relative to the aiming point, when you test different types of cartridges, after the gun’s repair, if you change thy type of the cartridges, when you change the shooting buckshot to bullets. The test has to be done in the windless weather but in the season when you are going to hunt. If it’s windy you need to test the weapon the special fenced place or in the ravine. There are not any word about training shooting. The shotguns’ testing depends on the hunting season. It’s a technical reason. The testing process connects with the shotgun production and hunting. All these documents describes the testing hunting weapons. There is a remark in the edition, published in 1988, that shotgun test can be done only by hunter, not trainer or trainee. It is an independent type of shooting, and does not refer to training shooting.
The new “Hunting rules” had been verified on November 16th, 2010 by the Order 512 of Ministry of Natural Resources. These rules don’t have the reference or the definition of the shotgun’s testing. But there we can find the restrictions, listed in the p.16 of the Section I “Generalities” and in the p. 53, of the Section VII. We don’t find there the prohibition to test guns in the hunting lands during the hunting trip or season. According our legislation, the shotgun testing isn’t prohibited and even officially provided and allowed. "Standard safety rules for handling hunting weapons and conducting hunts using hunting firearms on the territory of the RSFSR" 1983. It means that the given information about the illegality of the shotgun’s testing in the hunting lands does not comply with current legislation and existing customs of Russia. According to the well-known decree #288 from April 12th, 1999, Ministry of Internal Affair, about administrative regulations of the provision of state services for issuing a license to a legal entity for the purchase of civil, service weapons and ammunition, ratified on May 11th, 2012. And the addition #5 to the current Order , established form 2019, there are seven kinds of shooting: training shooting, training shooting, control shooting of firearms with a rifled barrel, checking the combat of weapons and their shooting, shooting competitions, performance of official tasks. Six kinds of shooting stipulates by the Order of the Ministry of Natural Recourses #19 from February 25th,2019. The instruction to the Order describes of accounting, storage, issue, use and transportation of weapon including hunting shotguns used as the service weapon, and special means. These kinds includes training shootings, studies, control shooting of firearms with a rifled barrel, shooting of weapons, checking how it works, performing official tasks in the departments of the territorial authorities of Rosrybolov (p. 2. 15 of the instruction). The instruction has lots of links to the Order #288 of Ministry of Internal Affairs of RF. It means that it helps to execute this Order #288. We also want to write how the another State Authority Rosleskhoz of RF treats to that situation, we can find this information in its Order #98 from June 17th, 1996. It’s written in the Chapter 7, about the procedure of testing barreled rifles, that all training shootings have to be done after technical checking and testing shooting. Thus it means that all explanatory information which equate testing shotguns as training shooting contrary to the norms Chapter XII and pp. 62 and 62 (1) of the Resolution #814. Hunting is separate from training shooting. The statement, that shotguns’ testing is regulated by p. 62(1) and has to be done only in the shooting galleries, is not true. This p. 62(1) doesn’t regulate the usage of hunting weapons. All these sections 62 and the Statement #814 is about the usage of hunting weapon on the hunt. It’s strange that “Rostec” is involved in resolving contradictions in the legislation. The specialists from the State corporation “Rostec” reported on the meeting, which took place on April 18th, 2019, that there are several problem areas but their correction doesn’t’ affect public safety, but can make life much easier for market participants. They pointed to the problem that shotguns testing before a hunt is illegal equated to illegal shooting. It was decided to make the special commission under the leadership of M. M. Khubutiya to define all problem questions in the weapon legislation, to prepare the proposals and to transfer the Government of RF. We can't say who had initiated such decision. What does Rostec have to do with shotgun testing? The citizen has two weeks to register the new weapon. He has two weeks to be sure that it works well, to check it, to identify hidden defects, to test it. After that he has to make the decision to register it or to give back to the shop or to replace it. The citizen should have to have the right to test the gun apart from time of the year and a hunting season. He mustn’t depend on the existence or the absence of shooting gallery in his settlement. He can use the special place somewhere on the nature but need to follow safety rules. We insist that the Ministry of Natural Resources has to reflect the information about shotguns testing in the Hunting Rules or better in the Law about “Hunting and conservation of hunting resources…” Why don’t they use the rules accepted in USSR? They still actual and reasonable. There have to be special places for gun’s testing in each hunting land. These place should be fenced by natural ravines or earthen shafts. We want to analogy with other implementations of legislative acts and responsibility for violations by citizens in other areas of daily life. It is necessary to correlate responsibility for violations of the administrative Code and the criminal code of the Russian Federation committed by both hunters and all other categories of citizens, including drivers. According to the statistic, there are from 23K to 25K traffic accidents per year. But no one has thought to deprive a driver of a car for a offence. We know about 24K cases of domestic violence when people use household utensils to make damage but we don’t treat to irons, pans and kitchen knives like to weapon. Why is there such discrimination to the hunters?
