Estonia has banned Russians living in it from owning weapons

On Wednesday, the Parliament of Estonia adopted a law according to which licenses for the possession of weapons will be issued only to citizens of Estonia itself, as well as countries that are members of the European Union and NATO. Citizens of other countries and stateless persons living in Estonia with a residence permit will have their licenses revoked. Their weapons will be confiscated. This will affect, among others, Russian-speaking residents of Estonia who have not obtained citizenship of the country, and citizens of Russia living in the country.

The law will enter into force on March 15. It is assumed that it will affect the interests of approximately 1,300 Estonian gun owners.

The Minister of Internal Affairs of Estonia, Lauri Läenemets, said that the new law should exclude situations where a foreign citizen, due to his citizenship and loyalty obligation, would be able to take up arms against the Estonian state.

“Citizens of states hostile to Estonia in today’s situation cannot retain the right to have a permit for weapons here and possess weapons,” Läänemets emphasized.

Citizens of Russia must surrender their weapons within a year, and for so-called non-citizens – stateless persons permanently living in Estonia, usually Russian-speaking – the transition period will be longer, up to five years.

Also, the new law expands the list of crimes, after the commission of which a person loses the right to own a weapon for life. In addition, the exam for the “arms” license will be taken only in Estonian.

• According to Postimees, about 1,300 citizens of Russia and Belarus, as well as stateless persons, have weapons permits in Estonia. They have a total of about three thousand weapons in their hands.
• In October last year, a similar law was adopted in Latvia, in December – in Lithuania. There, restrictions on the possession of weapons apply only to citizens of Russia and Belarus, and not to all foreigners.