CHP MP: Individual Armament Increased Sharply in AKP Era

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After Ceren Damar, a research assistant at the Çankaya University Faculty of Law was murdered by one of her students yesterday (December 2), individual armament has again become a topic of discussion.

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Main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) MP and member of Commission on Constitution Ali Mahir Başarır has submitted a bill foreseeing amendments to the Law on Firearms, Knives and Other Tools.

The bill stipulates increased prison sentences and fines for those who possess or carry unlicensed weapons.

Referring to the murder of Ceren Damar, the MP has said that unlicensed weapons are the cause of a significant majority of the crimes committed with firearms.

Başarır has claimed that the current sentences for carrying or possessing unlicensed weapons are not deterrent enough and suggested in the bill that the current prison sentences of 1 to 3 years should be increased to 2 to 5 years and judicial fines of 30 to 100 days should be increased to 120 to 500 days.

"25 million individual guns"

The bill states that especially in the Justice and Development Party (AKP) era, individual armament has increased sharply:

"It is estimated that there are 25 million individual weapons in Turkey, with at least 85 percent of them being unlicensed. In average, 4,500 people are killed in Turkey because of individual weapons. Two thirds of the crimes committed by firearms are carried out with unlicensed weapons.

"Turkey is in the 20th rank in the world in terms of gun ownership. In the era of AKP governments, number of licensed and unlicensed guns have increased 10 times in ten years."

Başarır has also said that the priority should not be reducing individual armament, but individual disarmament and added,

"In the current legislation, the sentence of wounding a person with an unlicensed gun is pretty low. This is where the main problem arises." (AÖ/VK)