“Eastern Europe is still probably the easiest place on Earth to obtain cheap handguns illegally,” complains Peter Kovacs,”

Now wait a sec, I thought the US had that title… nh

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INTERNATIONAL HEADLINES
Hungary cracks down on gun ownership, but industry fires back

By THOMAS ORSZAG-LAND
London Observer Service
May 29, 2000

BUDAPEST, Hungary – Hungary’s plans to introduce Europe’s toughest gun control legislation, strictly curtailing the possession of legally
held firearms, has outraged many local special interest groups, including private
security firms, the insurance industry and sportsmen.

“Eastern Europe is still probably the easiest place on Earth to obtain
cheap
handguns illegally,” complains Peter Kovacs, 47, a security officer
and
father of four. “A lot of kids have them, and old ladies get shot at
point-blank range for their little savings. But if I lose my license
to carry my
legally obtained firearm, I would face ruin.”

Many thousands of small arms and other military weapons were sold,
abandoned or just traded for food by Red Army soldiers when they
retreated from the region after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The
Russian mafia replaced them in this respect and now is involved in
massive
arms smuggling.

The recent Balkan wars as well as the continuing violent ethnic
conflicts in
Kosovo have also produced a constant flow of weapons through the
region’s porous frontiers.

The private security industry throughout Eastern Europe have
experienced
a surge in business in the wake of the uncontrolled proliferation of
small
arms ownership.

Several of Hungary’s neighbors are now expected to follow suit,
introducing
similarly strict gun controls, which is a precondition to eventual
membership
to the European Union for many of these nations.

Two-thirds of the 250,000 licensed weapons in civilian ownership in
Hungary
are held by sportsmen and their clubs. The rest are mainly for
self-defense,
used by private security guards and members of highly privileged
groups of
civilians such as members of parliament, judges, state prosecutors,
tax
investigators and top civil servants.

“In future, a gun license for self-defense will be issued only in
response to a
specific personal threat,” said Bela Ring of the Interior Ministry
legal
department. “And it will have to be carefully investigated and
proven.”

Zoltan Trombitas, chairman of the Association of Gun License Holders,
thinks that legally owned weapons have not been used for a criminal
purpose in Hungary for many years. “The authorities should concentrate

their resources on collecting unlicensed weapons,” he said. “… Can’t
they
understand that lawfully armed civilians constitute a powerful
deterrent
against violent crime?”

The government counters that it’s not the task of civilians to fight
armed
criminals and that, in a moment of deadly confrontation, guns in
civilian
hands could prove a threat to innocent bystanders.

Heti Vilaggazdasag, an influential weekly journal, has welcomed the
proposals to deprive private security companies of their gun licenses.
The
journal observes that many bank robberies begin when security guards
are
disarmed and their guns are turned against them by criminals.

Mihaly Vorosmarty, chairman of the Society of Private Investigators
and
Security Agencies, also favors tighter gun control legislation. But he
fears
that the legislative proposals in their present form would threaten
the
existence of many member companies engaged in protecting banks and
security vans used in large cash transfers.

“Security agents would become easy target for violent attack if they
were
unarmed,” he insists. “They face a special threat that must be
recognized
through continued permission to carry arms.”

The Association of Hungarian Insurers also fears that the proposed new
law
could make many high-value transactions uninsurable. “Insurance is
about
risk,” said association spokesman Gyorgy Lam. “Insurance contracts
covering transfers of cash, jewelry, works of art and other treasures
now
prescribe the deployment of armed security agents to cut risk factors.

“If clients were prevented by the law from providing sufficient
security
cover, their contracts would need to be renegotiated. And the
consequent
rise of premiums could well escalate beyond the means of many
individuals
and even some financial institutions.”

Lawmakers also propose limiting the number of hunting rifles and
shotguns
allowed per person for sporting purposes. Members of gun clubs would
have
to store their weapons in secure communal facilities and practice
shooting
only at their clubs’ ranges. This alone would have a widespread
restrictive
effect because many clubs have neither secure storerooms nor shooting
ranges.

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service. For more Observer news
go
to http://www.guardian.co.uk/.)

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