Shooting clubs: everything is getting more expensive, but customers are being added In June 2022, the law on tightening control of arms turnover came into force in the Russian Federation.
In particular, the age of purchase of hunting weapons has been increased from 18 to 21 years. It is prohibited to issue a license for weapons to citizens with an outstanding or outstanding criminal record for a serious or especially serious crime. As well as the alteration of weapons and the distribution of relevant instructions.
Amendments to the law "On Weapons" come into force on August 25. The conditions for obtaining the right to purchase long-barreled hunting firearms with a rifled barrel are being clarified. It is forbidden to collect weapons if there is no right to purchase them.
The amendments clarified the number of pistols and rifles that are allowed to own. Now you can purchase no more than ten units of hunting firearms smoothbore or rifled weapons.
The amendments also apply to weapons of limited destruction. For example, the Wasp pistols, which are used for self-defense, are allowed to have no more than two pieces.
"PEOPLE DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT GUNS KILL"According to the law, you need to apply for an extension of an expiring license no later than one month before the expiration of the document.
And in some private shooting clubs, it has become more common to require a medical certificate of form 002-O/y "Medical report on the absence of medical contraindications to the possession of weapons."
In state shooting clubs, it is required. To get such a certificate, it is necessary to undergo a medical examination and pass tests for the presence of narcotic, psychotropic substances and their metabolites in the body.
The instructor of one of the shooting clubs Ruslan Fedchenko shared his opinion on the amendments to the law. He believes that this will worsen the situation of young athletes who are engaged in bench shooting. They used to be able to issue a weapon for themselves at the age of 18. Most of the guns that are used in bench shooting are conditionally sports, recalls Fedchenko. Documents for them are issued as hunting and cold weapons.
Despite the amendments, the rules for visiting the shooting club have not been tightened. Some private clubs require you to provide a certificate of non-criminal record. The law says "at discretion", but state shooting clubs require it without fail.
As the instructor explains, the number of clients has increased due to the closure of borders. But most of them are potentially dangerous customers because they are far from weapons.
"The number of shooters, the number of gun owners has increased significantly," says Fedchenko. – And the worst thing is that people come who do not understand what a weapon is and what they bought. They do not understand that weapons kill – and all safety measures and handling rules come from here. When purchasing a traumatic pistol, a person does not realize that this is a weapon, it can kill. That's scary. It would be a note to deprive such people of the right to weapons.
I am a supporter of the fact that people should have weapons: an armed person lives longer. The reason is simple: the fastest arrival of the police is 12 minutes. During this time, a bad person can cut out a family with a knife. If there is at least a traumatic gun in the family, there are chances for everyone to stay alive.
I am a supporter of weapons, but the culture of handling them needs to be instilled from childhood: initial military training and everything else. And American militants teach children here... During the Soviet period, there were military weapons in schools: Kalashnikovs, small guns, pneumatics. Children were taught to assemble and disassemble weapons, went to the firing range to shoot. It's not there now."
"THE PRICE TAG IS JUST A HORSE"Western sanctions against have led to disruption of logistics chains, supplies of weapons, spare parts and ammunition from abroad, as well as to an increase in prices.
This also affected the cost of services in shooting clubs.
"Sanctions will be bypassed," Ruslan Fedchenko promises. – It's a question of time and a question of price. When sanctions were imposed, sniper rifles were still imported, and this is a dual-use product. For the sight, the price tag has simply increased – this is for those who are engaged in "high-precision".
The prices of cartridges and the cost of a shot have increased. The smooth 12th sports cartridge, which is fired at plates, has doubled in a year, now even more. From today, we have a price for a cartridge – 40 rubles. If the cheapest one is taken from the manufacturer, it will cost 26 rubles. 50 kopecks.
Domestic weapons are in demand at the box office, because a contingent comes who served and wants to shoot with what he served with. And in order to acquire the initial skill, "Kalashnikov", SVD and so on are used.
Short-barreled athletes have always purchased, for example, CZ, SIG Sauer, Beretta. They disappeared at one time, and now they have reappeared, but the price tag for some models has risen four times, for some – six times. For spare parts for an imported pistol, the price tag is simply horse... You can shoot from a domestic pistol for sports, practice, tactics, but it comes out better from an imported one.
If you buy an expensive carbine worth 1 million rubles, then the sight on it costs another 300 thousand, and 700 rubles for cartridges, if you take 338 Lapua Magnum. The cost of the shot will be 1500 rubles. Such a weapon will never pay for itself."
LOCAL SPECIFICS May give the impression that shooting clubs will be closed.
But the number of clients of clubs and members of the Federation of Bullet, bench and practical shooting is growing. Because there is a growing interest in weapons, although shooting is not a cheap sport or leisure.
Anna Yants, an instructor at the Russian University of Special Forces (RUS) and the coach of Ramzan Kadyrov's daughters, said that the amendments to the law "On Weapons" had almost no effect on the situation of shooting clubs in Chechnya. The demand for their services has even grown.
"This is due to the fact that active tourist flows to the Caucasus have begun," explains Anna Yants. "Our object is not only a shooting range. RUS is a special forces training center for international tasks. This includes parachute training, buggy, and shooting. We have a tourist package: people can shoot four types of civilian weapons on a buggy during the day. Since RUS is part of the tourist route, and there are a lot of tourists in the Caucasus now, demand has increased in the shooting direction.
After the amendments to the law, there is no tightening in Chechnya, because there is a loyal attitude to weapons. Our facility is close friends with Rosgvardiya. In Moscow, they say, the trend of recent years is tightening. They are trying to strangle the small arms business so that only large shooting ranges, which are easier to control, remain afloat. But this is at the level of rumors – I can't confirm anything."
Here, prices are kept at the same level due to an increase in the flow of customers. Although for the shooting club itself, prices have gone up for everything.
"Prices have increased dramatically," says Anna Yants. – Now we do not have the opportunity to replenish the fleet with foreign weapons due to unrealistic margins. Weapons that were taken for 70 thousand rubles a few years ago, at the beginning of this year they were still trying to buy for 230 thousand, and now they are already 500 thousand. The cartridge is also getting more expensive... But we provide the same price to the client as a year ago, maybe even reduced something. We work on old weapons without being able to buy new ones. We keep prices due to the fact that our turnover has increased... And for other clubs, I can say that there is a price increase there."
Despite the stricter requirements of the law, the rules have not become tougher for the clients of the shooting club. But this is due to a special procedure for verifying the identity of the client.
"Our organization itself is engaged in checking clients, – says Anna Yants. – We do not require a certificate of "psychnark": we work with tourists, they do not have the opportunity to provide a fresh three-day certificate. We have a different system – we work directly with the FSB: we take passport data and transfer it to an authorized organization where identity verification is carried out...
As for those who are engaged in shooting sports, everything depends on the activity of the Federation of Bullet, bench and practical shooting. If the federation works, clients appear. Does not work – clients disappear... I have a growing number of clients now because I am actively working to attract them. But this does not mean that they came from the street, because the special operation has begun. Although, perhaps, interest has increased. Everyone remembered that you need to be able to shoot."
In connection with the sanctions in shooting clubs, the problem of import substitution has worsened. Domestic manufacturers of weapons have begun to work hard, but the question of quality remains open.
"My personal opinion is that by design our weapons may well compete, but there will be no quality until people regain consciousness. Simply put, designers create good weapons, and the locksmith-turner's hands do not grow from there. And you get a raw piece of iron, which if you finish it and finish it, you get a weapon that can quite compete. And you take the foreign weapons out of the box ready-made. Therefore, my personal weapon is foreign. There has never been a time when I took the domestic out of the box and went happy," says Anna Yants. GRANDCHILDREN of VOROSHILOV SHOOTERS</span> Changes in the law have not yet affected traumatic and pneumatic weapons, with which not only adults but also children can engage in shooting clubs.
Two-time world champion, European and Russian champion in practical shooting, head and head coach of the sports Shooting Academy Vera Treskova tells:
"Changes in the law will not affect us much, because the gun was inaccessible, and it will remain. Cartridges have gone up in price – so it's the firearms shooting clubs that will lose shooters. They are coming to us exactly as before. For now, at least."
The interest in shooting has also grown among children. But children are not allowed to use firearms – only pneumatic. Vera Treskova told which categories of parents bring their children to the shooting:
"I have a sports school, parents bring their children to sports. The first category is that parents are afraid of firearms, they do not understand bullet shooting, this is something terrible for them, so they find the safe word "pneumatic". The second category is parents who have not realized their ambitions and are now dragging their children: "And at his age I could hit a squirrel in the eye" or "His grandmother was a Voroshilov shooter."
The third category is the parents of the athletes themselves–shooters. And there is another subcategory: "My boy knocks out all tens in shooting galleries in parks – he definitely needs to shoot." The children are diligent. After three to six months of training, they enter the competition.
Adults also do a lot: who has had enough of firearms and no longer wants to, who combines, who prefers pneumatics as a safer weapon. Adults come after searching the Internet and comparing prices in different clubs. Units come to have fun… The shooters buy the equipment themselves, as well as consumables. For the first two months we rent a pistol and magazines, and then they take their own equipment."
Myaile Machulite Myaile Robertovna Machulite is a journalist.