ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Iraqi authorities have ramped up efforts to monitor gun ownership by drafting strict new regulations on the buying and selling of firearms – the first of their kind in decades. After the regime of Saddam Hussein was toppled in 2003, guns looted from military bases and police stations were sold in public areas to residents desperate to protect themselves in the largely lawless society. The new law allows citizens to buy and carry “handguns, semi-automatic rifles and other assault weapons” once they receive official authorization and an ID card that details their private information along with the types of weapons they own, Reuters reported on Sunday Firearms were previously only sold for sport and hunting. Receiving approval from the Interior Ministry, businessman Hamza Maher opened a gun shop in the busy commercial Karrada district of Baghdad. He says there is a “growing demand” for the firearms. “Customers are mainly men, but the number of women buyers is growing,” Maher told Reuters from his shop, where a variety of assault rifles and pistols are on display. “The reason for buying is self-defense, and it’s safer for citizens to buy a weapon from an authorized store instead of from an unknown source,” he explained. Prices in Maher’s shop range from $1,000 to $4,000 for pistols, while Kalashnikov assault rifles sell for as little as $400 up to $2,000 depending on where the firearm was made and the brand. A tribal sheikh from Baghdad, Haider al Suhair, welcomed the legalization of gun sales in Iraq. “It will reduce crime,” he said, while purchasing rifles for his ranch guards at Maher’s shop. “The criminal who plans to attack others will understand that he will pay a heavy price.” Unlicensed gun ownership is one of the main causes of murder in the Kurdistan Region, according to the Kurdistan Region’s Independent Body for Human Rights. Around 3,150 gun owners in the Kurdistan Region have permits for their firearms, according to the interior ministry, which issues licenses in coordination with provincial authorities. There is no official data on the actual number of guns or how many people carry them, but the ministry acknowledges the vast majority of gun owners are breaking the law. The Kurdistan Region’s legal system deals out heavy penalties for unlicensed gun ownership, including relatively long jail sentences — up to one year in prison in addition to weighty fines.
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