Paul Goble
Staunton, Sept. 28 – The FSB reported today that it has arrested 48 illegal gun manufacturers in various cities across the country, a report that is receiving more attention because of recent Columbine-like shootings, events that have prompted some to demand that all guns be confiscated and others to suggest that more Russians should arm themselves.
Most Russians believe the availability of guns makes more likely not only school shootings but family violence and crimes. At the very least, most want to see greater controls imposed on gun ownership (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2021/09/russia-has-yet-another-columbine-and.html).
But the growth of illegal gun manufacturing facilities means that a significant portion of the more than 25 million guns now estimated to be in private hands can’t be registered at points of sale or otherwise; and the security services are playing up their efforts against such producers (stoletie.ru/lenta/fsb_soobshhila_o_zaderzhanii_48_podpolnyh_oruzhejnikov_578.htm).
Many of these underground groups simply modify weapons to make them more lethal, but some of them manufacture guns and bullets from start to finish. And the frequency with which the FSB reports arrests in this area suggests such illegal production is quite large (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/05/fsb-identifies-and-closes-down-seven.html,
windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2020/04/gun-sales-in-russia-down-but-russians.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/12/armed-attack-on-fsb-hq-latest-of-putins.html, windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/12/russians-using-guns-ever-more-often-to.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2019/11/10-percent-of-6000-armed-crimes-in.html).
One hopes that the FSB will divert its attention from posts on the Internet, something it finds easy and profitable to do, to the more serious work of reining in illegal production of arms. If it doesn’t, Russian society and the Russian government will face a far more dangerous threat than any Internet post could ever pose.
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