MORE THAN 100 FIREARMS PERMITS WERE WITHDRAWN AFTER INSPECTION BY THE PROSECUTOR’S OFFICE (update)

Convicted persons, mentally ill and persons dependent on drugs legally possess firearms, the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s Office said on 20th of July based on results from an inspection carried out in the Ministry of Interior.

According to the Prosecutor’s Office, the absence of a police firearms and permits register is the main reason such persons continue to lawfully possess firearms.

Asya Petrova, the Deputy of the Chief Prosecutor in the Supreme Administrative Prosecutor’s Office said that the Ministry of Interior casually issued firearms permits. She gave an example with one person who had been issued permits for more than 10 firearms including machine guns and automatic pistols, for the purposes of self- protection.

The police withdrew 112 permits in the first half of the year after the inspection assigned by the Prosecutor’s Office.

The results of the check show that from a total of 210,000 firms and individuals authorised to possess firearms, the Ministry of Interior checked only 100,000 of them. The Prosecutor’s Office criticised the Ministry of Interior that it lowered the control over the persons who possessed them as a result of which there were incidents dangerous for the public.

Roumyana Arnaudova, the spokesperson of the Chief Prosecutor says that persons later diagnosed with mental illnesses retained their permits to possess firearms.

The inspection also showed that people, against whom there were pre-trial proceedings and even people with convictions continue to possess firearms. One reason is that the Ministry of Interior cannot withdraw the permit of a person in pre-trial proceedings if that person resides in a town other than the town in which the person has a registered address. Also, the police do not have information about the convicted persons and therefore cannot withdraw their permits.

Petrova said that there was no mechanism under which a Regional police station can inform another police station, or if there was such mechanism it did not work. If there was a firearms register, there would not have been any obstacle for it to be connected with the Criminal Record Office or with the Prosecutor’s Office.

The Prosecutor’s Office said that the Ministry of Interior promised to complete that register by 2018.

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