Hunting with a machine gun
Carabiners from Kalashnikov assault rifles and PPSh, Mosin rifle, and for those who wish - the Maxim machine gun, firing single. Market of the so-called martial weapons has grown in recent years by half, but the State Duma intends to ban fencing in the near future.
MARIA CHER
Small, on 30 thousand people, the town of Vyatskiye Polyany in the Kirov region may lose its two city-forming enterprises. The fact is that the Molot-Arms plant, the successor of the PCA (Shpagin submachine gun), famous for the Vyatsko-Polyansky machine-building plant in the war years, and the Hammer Armz (an enterprise founded just five years ago) are the largest in Russia sellers of weapons, converted from combat to civilian. And at the autumn session as part of the package of "antiterrorist" amendments, the State Duma is going to adopt a law prohibiting enterprises from "fencing off" military weapons, in May the bill was passed in first reading.
“We will lose jobs,” the leadership of Hammer Weapon scares. The company employs more than 2 thousand people, about half of all products - civilian weapons.
“For us, this law will actually mean collapse,” laments Ravil Nurgaleev, the director of Hammer Armz, lamenting that there are more weapons produced at his weapons factory than combat weapons. The former veterinarian and head of the design bureau of sports and hunting weapons, Ravil Nurgaleev founded the company in 2011, not far from the old “Hammer”; last year, he tried to ban the Nurgaleev plant from using his name in the title, terminated the dealership agreement with the younger namesake and complained about it to the FAS. However, according to Ravil Nurgaleev, "this was the work of some employees who did not coordinate their actions with the management," and today Hammer Armz sells its own products and Hammer Weapons.
Now two players occupy half of the market for unarmed weapons: according to expert estimates, this market is about 150-180 thousand units per year, Vyatka-Polyansky factories, according to their management, sell 3-3,5 thousand units per month.
The control package "Hammer-Arms" belongs to the state corporation "Rostec", and it also owns the third player of a specific market - the plant named after Degtyarev (ZiD), one of the oldest (opened in 1916 year) weapons and the largest industrial enterprise of the city of Kovrov in the Vladimir region. "Our plant in 2012 received a shipment of outdated military small arms to the Ministry of Defense free of charge. We incurred considerable expenses for the organization of specially equipped warehouses and the delivery of tens of thousands of weapons, developed design documentation for converting weapons to civilians, and issued certificates. At the enterprise additional jobs have been created where workers are currently undergoing training. The adoption of the amendment will lead to a reduction in jobs and will deprive the plant of both income and to cover losses incurred ", - say in the marketing service ZiDa.
Swords on plowshares
Photo: RIA News
For weapons factories, the conversion of military weapons into civilian is a profitable business. Worn out, obsolete and defective weapons that can be used as "raw materials" in military warehouses millions of units, it is much easier and more profitable to protect them than to produce civilian weapons from scratch - 90% products are ready, you just need to cut off a few parts and brew a number of holes: remove the ability to conduct automatic fire, leaving only a single, and the capacity of the store is limited to ten rounds.
For weapons factories, the conversion of military weapons into civilian is a profitable business.
Since the beginning of the 2010s, the production and sale of such weapons has grown significantly due to the fact that in addition to traditional alterations from the Kalashnikov assault rifle (hunting carbines of the Vepr series manufactured by the Hammer-Weapons, self-loading carbines MA-136 Hammer Armz) rarities of the pre-revolutionary and Soviet era appeared on sale. Since 2012, ZiD has been making the SVT-O carbine based on the Tokarev rifle of 1940, a year later the Hammer-Weapon and ZiD released the carbine from the Shpagin submachine gun. The Hammer-Weapon began to make a three-line Mosin rifle (it was used in the Russian and then in the Red Army from 1891 until the end of World War II) as multiple-shot carbines KO 91/30, KO 91 / 30M and OP-SKS from a self-loading carbine Simonov (adopted by the end of World War II, was used by the Soviet army in most wars of the XX century). It is also produced by ZiD. And since 2014 you can buy - and they’re buying! - a civilian version of the Degtyarev machine gun of 1927 (ZiD production) and even the legendary Maxim machine gun (it is produced by ZiD and Hammer-Weapon). At Hammer-Weapons, we were informed that the sale of weapons having historical value, are growing steadily, and from 15% to 20% of tainted products is exported, mainly to the United States and Germany.
Cheap and shoots
Photo: RIA Novosti
The reason for the popularity of alterations is that such weapons are significantly cheaper than models of the new assembly. Hobby citizens can talk about it for hours. “See: Saiga 9 carbine (Kalashnikov concern. ——“ Money ”) costs 28-40 thousand rubles in the basic configuration. And Zidovsky PCA-41 for the same cartridge (9х19 Luger) - 23-27 thousand. RUB. ", - explains the chairman of the board of the All-Russian public organization" The Right to Arms "Igor Shmelev. "I have 80% of weapons - converted from combat," said Vladimir Demidko, amateur collector, municipal deputy of the Mitino district. "This is a weapon for a standard cheap cartridge that is produced in large quantities, and high-quality - good samples can be found even up to 10 thousand. rub.".
Amateurs claim that the weapon, which was originally produced as a combat one, is higher in the production requirements: as a rule, there is an employee at the plant who reports not to the enterprise, but to a military unit of the Ministry of Defense and is responsible for quality control of the weapons produced. “The trunks with the army’s past get more accurate, but they shoot further - I’m telling you, as a hunter,” says Yevgeny Petrenko, a hunter from the Pavlovo-Posad district of the Moscow region.
Sales of weapons of historical value are growing steadily, and from 15% to 20% of foreign products are exported, mainly to the USA and Germany
Since most of the alterations of military weapons fall on rifled specimens, and it is allowed to acquire it only to people who have experience with possessing smooth-bore weapons from five years, their main consumer is hunters. "At first, I wanted to buy a Czech rifle for 30 thousand rubles. However, because of the fall of the ruble, the weapon became more expensive, and now it costs at least 70 thousand, not to mention the prices of imported ammunition for rifled weapons, the price of which has completely taken off to Heaven, "- says Dmitry Alekseev from Novgorod. Now a suitable option for Alekseev is the Russian carbine "Tiger", a civilian version of the legendary Soviet SVD rifle.
Sellers of weapons of nationality claim that it enjoys special demand in remote areas of Siberia and the North, because there hunting is often not so much a hobby as work: people hunt for food or are engaged in commercial hunting, for example, they get furs to sell it to furriers.
Dear shooting
Photo: Yury Martyanov, Kommersant
According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, on 1 January 2016, the 4,5 million Russian owners of weapons 6,6 million units of equipment are in the hands of 2011. Before 5,2, there were more gun owners - XNUMX million people, but with the tightening of requirements for the acquisition of traumatics, the number of people decreased, but the weapons on their hands became more: hunters and collectors continue to acquire it. The ban on fencing will affect many buyers: according to the PNO chairman Igor Shmelev, the majority of Russian civilian and service weapons are designed and manufactured using a base or components of military weapons. “We don’t have imported weapons of this category, there’s nothing to replace it. Because of this, prices will rise not only for civilian weapons produced from combat, but also for other types of weapons of similar caliber, and even for used weapons,” Shmelev predicts .
Among the "victims" along with hunters and collectors will be athletes, for example, fans of practical shooting. This discipline, including shooting from a pistol, a smooth-bore gun and a carbine, appeared, by the standards of sport, quite recently - the first world championship was held in 1975 year. In Russia, the sport is very popular - today in the country 72 regional federations and 150 practice shooting clubs are registered. According to estimates of the Ministry of Sports, active athletes are about 24 thousand people, and there are several times more citizens who are fond of practical shooting at the amateur level. The anti-armament initiative may hinder the development of this sport, Igor Nemov, deputy chairman of the Moscow Region Practical Shooting Federation, said: “Although the shooters use only new weapons, mainly imported ones, cheap cheap samples are used for primary training and instilling the skills of safe weapons handling. Russia's first program to re-equip shooting sports, to provide it with high-quality weapons, ammunition and equipment for the Russian . But the present-day roduction deputies initiatives go against it - because we simply deprive them of inventory. "
Trunks with an army past get more accurate, and shoot further - I tell you, as a hunter,
Private security companies will also get away from the ban - most of their weapons are also made on the basis of combat or of its components. “There will be a shortage of armaments in the market, and many private security firms simply cannot rent a weapon from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Interior Ministry’s problems may begin with the issue of service weapons for rent. Naturally, we will suffer losses,” explains the commercial director of AKM Group "Alexey Shchedrin.
Explaining the ban on the protection of weapons by the fight against terrorism is rather stupid, said Vladimir Gutenev, Deputy Chairman of the State Duma Committee on Industry. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia, 6,6, that is, 589%, was involved in the commission of crimes in the last year from 0,009 million, in the overwhelming majority of cases, it was poaching. “Moreover, the law does not specify what will happen to the converted weapons that are already in their hands,” says Gutenev. “The law does not regulate withdrawing it from the population, so I don’t see any direct consequences in the fight against terrorism.” However, according to Gutenev, complete freedom in acquiring and carrying weapons, such as, for example, in most US states, cannot be introduced in Russia. “We all remember numerous tragedies with shooting in American schools,” explains the deputy.
Strangely enough, even among citizens close to the weapons environment there are supporters of a certain restriction on the sale of weapons, for example, Mikhail Degtyarev, the editor-in-chief of the Kalashnikov magazine. "I think that it’s safe on the streets not where everything is with pistols, but where there are no pistols. Take, for example, American statistics - this year in Chicago alone six people died from firearms on Veterans Day last year “Fourteen,” he says. Opponents of the weapon cite the case of Russian school shooting as an argument - February 2014, Moscow school N263. The 15-year-old tenth-grader, waiting for his parents to go to work, pulled out a Browning sports carbine and Tikka rifle from his father’s safe, went to school with them, killed a geography teacher and took a classmate 21 hostage. During the detention, the teenager also shot one policeman and wounded the second. The student was recognized mentally insane - he was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia.
And yet, despite the thickening atmosphere, enterprises engaged in arms protection rely on the lobbying capabilities of the powerful Rostec: the conversion of military weapons into civilian is beneficial to both the Ministry of Defense and Rostekhovsky enterprises.
“Millions, and in the case of some items, tens of millions of weapons of decommissioned weapons have been stored in military warehouses for decades without losing their properties,” says Mikhail Degtyarev. “Their protection and maintenance in proper technical condition are not cheap. Periodically, during some the technical inspection of the weapon is re-sorted and falls into the category to be destroyed - it is she who goes into civilian rework, and the Ministry of Defense receives money, since the interested enterprises are ready for pons to pay in the case of recycling pays the state itself -. and, moreover, much as arms must be protected, to take the place of utilization and any movement of weapons -. it is very expensive and it is difficult not to carry the potatoes. " Excluding logistics and security, the disposal of a single weapon under pressure costs 250-300 rubles, the destruction of one cartridge costs 15 rubles. The figures are small, but in terms of lots of tens and hundreds of thousands of expenses are tangible.
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