Lithuanians given chance to hand in illegal guns

May 11, 2000

The law stipulates that persons who have guns and explosives without a proper license will have to either surrender them or receive a license legalizing the ownership.

The amnesty will be in effect for six months from the day it comes into effect.

The head of the parliamentary Centre Union faction, Egidijus Bickauskas, questioned the exigency of the law saying that hardened criminals would not part with weapons anyway, and for those who had decided to discontinue criminal activities, the laws currently in effect provide the necessary conditions for surrendering weapons.

His opponents maintained that currently existing laws created a lengthy and complex legal procedure for those who had decided to surrender their guns.

It cannot be ruled out, they said, that such persons would have their resumes formally tarnished. The currently adopted provisional law is similar to that which was in effect from June to September 1999 when 1,255 guns, over 42,000 items of ammunition and 23 explosive devices had been surrendered to the police.

The opportunity for voluntary handing in weapons and explosives or legalizing them has been provided three times previously in this decade.

The police frequently discover illegal weapons and confiscate them.

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