Since the beginning of the pandemic in 2020, and especially after the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine, the demand for permits for the acquisition and possession of firearms in the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH)increased.
During 2021, the competent cantonal ministries issued a total of 8,181 permits in the territory of the Federation, and the year after, in 2022, the number increased to 9,959 permits for the acquisition of firearms.
It was checked what the situation is specifically in Canton Sarajevo (CS). The spokesperson of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Mersiha Novalic, says that in the past five years there has been an increase in requests for weapons. In 2018, 900 permits were issued, the year after slightly less, but from 2020 to 2022, the growth is continuous.
“We ended 2022 with more than 2,200 issued approvals for the acquisition of firearms. That trend of demand or need continued in the first quarter of this year, so that more than 500 permits were issued in the area of CS to natural persons for the acquisition of firearms,” Novalic points out.
Getting a permit is not easy. In the Federation, this area is governed by cantonal laws. Category B weapons (semi-automatic short-barreled and long-barreled weapons of certain specifications, combined) can be acquired based on the approval of the competent police department and after meeting all the criteria, the first of which is “justifiable reason for acquiring the weapon”.
It is therefore difficult to obtain a permit, and the story is not over even after that, because the acquired weapon must be stored according to specially prescribed rules. Any deviation that the police notices during routine checks can be a reason to revoke the license.
In the Republika Srpska (RS), in 2022, fewer permits were issued for the acquisition of firearms, compared to the year before.
In 2022, 3933 permits were issued to individuals and legal entities, which is 5.4 percent less than the same period in 2021.
278 permits were issued to carry personal security permits (a decrease of 27 percent), and 36 permits to carry weapons (a decrease of 182 percent).
During 2022, members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the RS recorded 214 violations related to weapons and ammunition, which is 50 percent less than the year before.
In RS, obtaining firearms licenses is a rather complicated and rigorous process.
Persons over the age of 14, legal entities, and entrepreneurs can acquire and hold category D weapons without approval and notification to the competent authorities, such as air weapons with a kinetic energy of less than 10.5, devices for causing electric shocks, gas sprays, cold weapons.
Namely, police sources explained that weapons that citizens possess legally are rarely used in the commission of a crime, it is usually a matter of domestic violence.
The activities of the police to confiscate illegal weapons have also continued. Members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of CS, for example, seized 17 rifles and 69 guns last year, N1 reports.
