Moldovan parliament rules to extend term for processing new gun licences

Chisinau, 17 December /MOLDPRES/ - The parliament today adopted a draft law, extending the term for processing new gun licences by two years.

Under the draft, 70 per cent of the gun holders have remained without documents, as on various grounds, including technical ones, they were not able to process new gun licences will late last October. "Although it had two years at its disposal, the Interior Ministry failed to provide all gun holders with new-type identity cards, hence, 20,000 citizens remained without acts. Therefore, a decision was taken to prolong the term of processing these documents by another two years," the head of the parliament's commission for national security, defence and public order, Veaceslav Untila, has said. 

According to Untila, the approval of needed normative acts with delay was also among the reasons which triggered the necessity to extend the period of processing the new gun licences. 

The Communist MPs criticized the law, stressing that they did not see any need to process new documents for gun holders. 

Official statistics shows that there are about 55,000 citizens holding gun licences in Moldova. 

(Reporter A. Zara, editor M. Jantovan)