Armenia has traditionally had strict restrictions on gun ownership. This is a key reason why only a small percentage of its population legally possesses weapons.
The Armenian police have the exclusive right to issue a firearm license. Only members of the national Hunting Association can apply for one.
Under an Armenian law on gun ownership, association members are at first allowed to possess only hunting rifles. They must wait for at least five years to get a permit to buy more potent firearms.
Amendments to the law drafted by the lawmakers representing the ruling Civil Contract party would scrap these requirements.
They also stipulate that a firearm license would be valid for ten years, as opposed to just five years required by the current law. In addition, they would increase from five to ten the maximum number of guns that can be possessed by a single person.
One of the authors of the bill, Vilen Gabrielian, claimed on Thursday that it is meant to improve gun control in the country, rather than loosen the existing restrictions.
“Under our model, you need to pass an exam in order to get firearms,” he told RFE/RL’s Armenian Service. “The current law is much more liberal than what we are proposing.”
Gabrielian said at the same time that the proposed amendments would expand gun ownership in the country by making weapons more affordable for citizens. Rifles and handguns are now mostly owned by wealthy Armenians because they are expensive, he said.
It is not clear when the Armenian parliament will debate the bill. The Armenian government’s position on the proposed changes to the gun law is not known either.
Nina Karapetiants, a human rights activist, questioned the wisdom of those changes, saying that they could increase the country’s violent crime rate that has long been quite low.
“[Gun control] is a complex mechanism,” she said. “I’m not sure the authorities will make it work properly.”
The vast majority of residents of Yerevan randomly interviewed by RFE/RL’s Armenian Service in the streets said they want no guns in their homes.
“We don’t need weapons now,” said one man. “That would create a dangerous situation because we are hot-tempered people.”
“I wouldn’t like my husband or other family members to have guns,” said a young woman.
Ashot Avetisian, another Yerevan resident, has owned a hunting rifle for the last ten years. He believes that “everyone must know well how to use weapons and ammunition.”
“For me, a gun is first of all a means of hunting and also a means of self-defense,” said Avetisian. He admitted, though, that he has never gone hunting since obtaining his rifle.