Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library

Print Close

Dressler, Matteo, Nils Duquet & Julia Eckelmann. 2021 ‘Scope of Non-regularised Firearms in EU Member States. Poland.’ Forgotten Weapons? Non-regularised firearms in the European Union, p. 33-34. Brussels: Flemish Peace Institute. 28 April

Relevant contents

Poland, for example, combines a variety of non-regularisation sources with one particularly relevant source: authorities reported that black digging was responsible for 40% of all weapons seized in 2009(1). Besides, citizens obtained Soviet military weapons during the peaceful transition. The combination of post-Soviet and World War legacy firearms makes it seem likely that non-regularisation is one of Poland's most prominent diversion methods. This has to be seen against the background of other important strategies to acquire illicit weapons in the country, such as cross-border trafficking and the reactivation of firearms.

1) The others being reactivation, thefts, smuggling and dark web trade.

["Black digging". The term refers to various activities embarked on to "find" legacy weapons lost during a conflict or left behind during the fighting to help the erstwhile combatants be more mobile or not to be identified as soldiers. To hide them from plain sight, these firearms were often disposed of by digging them into the soil or throwing them into water. The serviceability of these "found" firearms varies widely. Some are ready for use, and some can be refurbished by experts. Others may never be able to live-fire again.]

ID: Q15473

As many publishers change their links and archive their pages, the full-text version of this article may no longer be available from the original link. In this case, please go to the publisher's web site or use a search engine.

Array
(
    [type] => 8
    [message] => Trying to get property 'websource' of non-object
    [file] => /home/gpo/public_html/components/com_gpo/helpers/citation.php
    [line] => 153
)