The number of registered guns in Bulgaria is half a million – weapons, gas weapons and hunting rifles. No matter the purpose – hunting, self-defense or collecting, the police starts to tighten the regime, while prosecutors have began to look for irregularities with licenses. It turns out that the interior ministry controls the guns, but not the shooters.

124 000 Bulgarians have their own gas pistols. Experts say these guns are safe. At the same time 250 000 citizens have some real gun – those are more than 350 000 rifles, pistols, revolvers etc. The discrepancies are due to the fact that a person can have more than one gun. A comforting fact is that over 50 percent of these people are huntsmen. Most of them are retired military or police personnel, or former security servicemen. Barely 50 000 ordinary people have guns for the purposes of personal protection. Security firms have registered some 40 000 weapons, or more than two pistols per bodyguard.

Bulgaria is ranked 88^th in the world in terms of weapons per capita. 6 out of every 100 citizens here have a rifle or a pistol. Ten times more people own guns in neighboring Serbia, which ranks it second after the USA. Gun owners in France, Germany and Austria outnumber the Bulgarian ones 5 times.

You are afraid for your family’s safety, you want to be a huntsman, or arms collecting is your passion? It is a long and tough path towards gun ownership, but practically there is no control afterwards. That became clear after an incident, when special police officer was killed. Due to institutional discrepancies the interior ministry controls guns only, not the owners. At the same time we have strict laws, but on paper only. After one gets the necessary medical papers /which is quite easy here/, the ministry issues the permit. No one controls your actions afterwards. Another case of lost life will cause the tightening of the regime. However, this will affect weapon traders, huntsmen and regular gun owners. Experts comment on the 2010 law that it is a well-working one, complying with EU legislation. One can get a pistol or a rifle in 4 cases: self-defense, hunting, sports purposes and some weapon, received as an award.

The police have started to refuse the issuing of permits more often, while prosecutors have launched large-scale inspections after an order of the prosecutor general. The papers of all gun owners are being reviewed, no matter the reason for the ownership. A full list will be prepared of all Bulgarians having licenses, as well as of the gun models and number of pistols, revolvers, rifles etc. No real gun control can exist without control over gun owners. The inspections are to be completed by April 25.

Editor: Tanya Harizanova

English version: Zhivko Stanchev