Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library

Print Close

Florquin, Nicolas, Dauren Aben and Takhmina Karimova. 2012 ‘Control Measures: Enforcement and Weapons Collection.’ Blue Skies and Dark Clouds: Kazakhstan and Small Arms; Occasional Paper No. 29, pp. 26-27. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva and the Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 1 May

Relevant contents

Enforcement and weapons collection

The Kazakh government has collected significant quantities of small arms and light weapons in the past ten years. Information reported in Kazakhstan's national reports on the implementation of the UN Programme of Action reveals that authorities collected some 60,000 and destroyed more than 20,000 firearms between 2003 and 2009 (see Table 4). These are considerable numbers given the country's low level of civilian firearm ownership; they represent about one-third of the estimated total weapons held by civilians in 2010.

Weapons are collected through a combination of voluntary and more forceful schemes. The MIA, as the agency that implements Kazakhstan's firearms legislation, regularly inspects firearms at their places of storage and use, and can seize and destroy unauthorized weapons without compensation (RoK, 1998, art. 30).

Table 5 provides a breakdown of the different types of weapon-related crimes as recorded in the databases of the MIA and, since 2008, the Prosecutor General's Office.

A 2007 decree established a compensation system for people who surrender arms and ammunition voluntarily to the MIA, with different cash amounts given depending on the type of weapon recovered (RoK, 2007b).

All surrendered weapons must be destroyed or dismantled. In 2010, Kazakhstan reported that the government had allocated more than KZT 500 million (USD 3.4 million) in 2008 for the implementation of this legislation, resulting in more than 13,000 firearms being collected (RoK, 2010a, p. 37).

As Table 5 illustrates, more than 20,000 firearms were also surrendered voluntarily before the adoption of the decree, presumably without any compensation…

[MIA = Ministry of Internal Affairs; RoK = Republic of Kazakhstan]

Sources cited:

RoK (Republic of Kazakhstan). 1998. Law No. 339 on State Control over Circulation of Certain Type of Weapons. Assented to 30 December.

RoK (Republic of Kazakhstan). 2007b. Decree of the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 1299 on Regulations Governing Voluntary Compensated Surrender of Illegally Held Firearms, Ammunition, and Explosives by Citizens. Assented to 26 December.

RoK (Republic of Kazakhstan). 2010a. National Report on the Implementation of the UN Small Arms Programme of Action. http://www.poa-iss.org/CASACountryProfile/PoANationalReports/2010@100@PoA-Kazakhstan-2010-E.pdf

ID: Q6554

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
)