You're reading: Ukraine not ready to legalize firearms, says National Police deputy head

Deputy Head of the National Police of Ukraine Oleksandr Fatsevych believes today it is impermissible to allow Ukrainian citizens to own weapons.

“My personal opinion is that now it is inadmissible to allow people to use arms,” he said in the Right to Power program on 1+1 TV Channel.

He noted he had studied the level of crime and police experience in several developed countries. In particular, many residents in the U.S. city of Houston (Texas) have legal firearms. The local police register 40-50 robberies per day, often with the use of the registered weapons. At the same time, 12-15 robberies are recorded throughout Ukraine per day. In the UK only 7,000 out of the 140,000 policemen serve with weapons. All the requirements of the police are performed and the level of crime in the country is lower than in the United States.

“Here we need to start with ourselves and draw conclusions. Obey the law. We [the police] do not need more powers, just what is granted us by law – obey it,” he said.