Citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) own a total of 278,272 pieces of weapons, and every 12thcitizen is legally armed, the country’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said in a report on Friday.
The report notes that the highest number of weapons was registered in 2016 when 341,324 pieces of weapons were owned by citizens of BiH.
“The number of weapons in 2017 was 326,825 pieces, while in 2018, the number fell to 278,272,” was stated in the report adding that citizens mainly possess handguns, automatic handguns and revolvers.
According to the last census done in 2013, there were 3,531,159 permanent residents living in BiH.
Currently, total of 2,196,233 people live in the Federation of BiH, one of the entities in the country, while the number of weapons owned in 2018 was 169,584, which makes every 13thresident of this entity legally armed.
The similar situation is in Republika Srpska, the other entity, where a total of 1,228,423 persons own 104,678 pieces of weapons, hence every 12thcitizen, the report adds.
There are total of 4,010 pieces of weapons legally owned by every 21resident of the Brcko District.
The Ministry of Security of BiH has established and put into function the Central Electronic Record on the Control of the Movement of Arms and Military Equipment in BiH. This system includes the integration of police agencies at the entity level and these records are the foundation for the compilation and analysis of data on the movement of arms and military equipment in BiH.
The Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Relations of BiH has issued 125 licenses for the import of small arms and light weapons and 215 licenses for the export of small arms and light weapons last year, South Eastern and Eastern Europe Clearinghouse for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC) stated in the report earlier.
