Sulaimani to crack down on unauthorized gun ownership

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region – Sulaimani police said on Sunday that those who carry weapons without a proper licence will have it revoked in the latest crackdown on illegal gun ownership.

In a meeting chaired by Kurdistan Region’s Deputy Prime Minister, Qubad Talabani, Sulaimani police spokesperson Sarkawt Ahmed said individuals with firearm licenses not authorized by a provincial authority, independent administration or the Ministry of Interior will be revoked. 

“The permission and documents that the drivers have will be confiscated” at checkpoints if they are unauthorized, Ahmed added. 

Civilians are often given permission to carry firearms through connections or the parties they may be affiliated to.  

“The Ministry of Interior has only authorized officers to carry weapons off-duty, with some other people that also need to have weapons after work. They are authorized and have IDs. Other than that, any interior ministry employee arrested with their own weapons will face the law,” Ahmed added.

Gun ownership is high in the Kurdistan Region and the government has struggled to bring it under control, limiting the number of privately-owned weapons. Firearms, including sniper rifles and machine guns, can be bought on the black market.

In May, Interior Minister Reber Ahmed said that the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) plans to tighten its gun control laws, but cannot promise a complete end to gun markets.

According to Article 6 of the 1993 weapons ownership law, persons over 18 who are permanent residents of the Kurdistan Region, and have no criminal record or mental illness can be authorized to carry a weapon by authorities.

Gun-related deaths in the Kurdistan Region have “increased 50 percent compared to last year,” Shakhawan Rauf Bag, head of the parliament’s Peshmerga, Interior, Security, and Local Councils Committee said in late April. Twelve people were killed between April 1 and April 27, while a total of 25 were killed over the course of last year.

2020 saw an increase in reported gun violence across the Kurdistan Region, a Sulaimani police spokesperson told Rudaw English in November. And this year, the numbers appear to be even higher.