Traumatic disarmament: $50 million worth of weapons may become untraceable

It is not yet clear whether Kazakhstan citizens will be able to keep their hands on traumatic weapons or not. The draft law is currently in the Majilis, the Lower Chamber of Kazakhstan Parliament.

Arms experts believe that if the ban is introduced it is not going to be a fair deal for the gun owners Vice-President of Koramsak Kazakhstan Arms Association Sergey Katnov calculated that more than 90 thousand units of non-lethal weaponry had been sold over the past 10 years. In the meantime the Interior Ministry of Kazakhstan is aware of only 43 thousand units of traumatic weapons. According to Mr. Katnov’s calculations the mass withdrawal through purchase of the weapons from the owners would cost the government 7 billion tenge (almost 50 million dollars), but this is in case the owners expenses are reimbursed by the government in full, as set forth in the civil code. He estimated the cheapest gun package (gun, lock box, holster, ammo, license, training) at 120 thousand tenge ($825). But it is not clear how much of this amount the Kazakhstan government would really be willing to reimburse.