More than a Quarter Million Muscovites Now Own One or More Guns, Officials Say

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Feb. 12 – Gun ownership among Russians, increasingly for self-defense rather than hunting or target practice, has risen dramatically since Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine in 2022; and most experts expect it to rise still further as veterans bring back guns from the frontlines.

            These experts suggest that there now may be as many as 30 million guns in private hands, far more than the fraction of that number officials concede; but most attention to has been about guns in federal subjects far from the capital (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/04/illegal-arms-sales-possession-and-use.html).

            But guns are now flooding into Russian cities as well, including Moscow, where they appear more likely to be used for self-defense or for criminal activities than is the case in many other places; and Aleksandr Nazarov of the Nakanune news portal gives an update on the situation there (nakanune.ru/articles/124349/).

            He begins by citing the words of Aleksandr Samoylov, the deputy head of the Russian Guard in that city. According to official data, more than 278,000 residents of the capital have own a total of about 650,000 weapons, although it is likely that the real number of owners and weapons there as elsewhere in Russia is a multiple of these figures. 

            In 2025, Samoylov continues, his agency which is responsible for gun security carried out “more than 66,000” inspections. He says that his officers frequently found guns were being retained even though licenses had expired, were not being safely kept, and discovered ammunition of a different caliber than the guns Muscovites had registered ownership of.

            According to the Russian Guard official, “the overall number of gun owners in Moscow is gradually declining,” given that many have handed in their guns for use by the Russian military in Ukraine or have no use for them. But it seems equally plausible that this decline in official gun ownership may in fact reflect that many who own guns aren’t registering them.

            But however that may be, the fact that a quarter of a million Muscovites own guns they have registered and a larger number own guns they haven’t must be a source of worry not only for police working to enforce the laws but to those in power who fear that these guns may be turned on them or at least make it more difficult for the police to protect them.