Once again on weapons
There are probably few people in our country who do not understand why fuses, TNT charges, grenades, cartridges, pistols, and rifles are needed. Nevertheless, police operational reports are constantly marked by facts of detection and seizure of these dangerous items, unnecessary in peacetime. Moreover, it is not always conscientious people who find them accidentally and do not want them to fall into the wrong hands. More often, police officers discover and seize them against the will of their owners.
Over the past year, internal affairs bodies of the region, in cooperation with state security bodies, detected and seized over 300 units of unregistered weapons and more than 270 units of registered weapons that were stored in violation of established procedures, as well as over 11.9 thousand rounds of ammunition. In the region, 120 crimes were identified for illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, and those found guilty were brought to criminal responsibility.
For example, in October last year, 310 rounds of 5.6 mm caliber were discovered and seized from a resident of Polotsk. In November, a whole arsenal of weapons was seized from a resident of Vitebsk: a Shpagin submachine gun, a Mosin rifle, a Mauser carbine, 70 cartridges, and 15 grenades.
The Criminal Code of the Republic of Belarus provides for criminal liability for illegal actions with firearms, ammunition, and explosives (Article 295 of the Criminal Code, including manufacturing, acquisition, sale, storage, transportation, etc.) – from correctional labor to 12 years of imprisonment. In case of illegal use of firearms or explosives for their intended purpose, depending on the consequences, the liability may be even more severe, but under other articles of the Criminal Code, up to the death penalty. Judicial practice has many sad examples confirming the strength of the legislative prohibition of illegal arms trafficking.
At the same time, the Criminal Code provides that a person who voluntarily surrenders illegally possessed firearms, ammunition, and explosives (regardless of quantity) shall be exempted from criminal liability, except in cases of their sale.
In order to prevent manifestations of extremism and terrorism, and the commission of serious crimes using weapons and explosives, the internal affairs and state security bodies of the Vitebsk region carried out the necessary operational-search activities to counter the illegal trafficking of weapons, ammunition, explosives, and explosive devices. Many of them have already been implemented at the stage of detection and suppression of such facts.
Necessary preventive measures were also taken based on the results of operational-search activities and other work carried out by the internal affairs and state security bodies, which made it possible to suppress or prevent offenses and crimes, including individual extremist manifestations on the Internet.
As in previous years, events were held to check individuals for involvement in the illegal trafficking of weapons, ammunition, and explosives, with performances by law enforcement officers on this topic in educational institutions and work collectives. Law enforcement officers alone conducted over 1900 preventive performances on the voluntary surrender of illegally stored weapons and ammunition.
As a result of the "Arsenal" SCМ operation conducted in April last year, 42 units of illegally stored weapons, over 1380 rounds of ammunition, and more than 6 kg of gunpowder were seized from illegal circulation. 39 people were brought to administrative responsibility.
The sapper-pyrotechnic units of the internal troops of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Belarus, stationed in our region, systematically discovered and destroyed ammunition from the Great Patriotic War era based on information from the internal affairs and state security bodies.
This work of the region's law enforcement agencies will continue in the future, as ensuring
citizen safety is a priority task.
Senior Assistant Prosecutor of the Region
for Supervision of the Enforcement of Legislation
on State Security Vladimir Belous