According to the head of the National Police, Ivan Vyhovsky, as of April 1, 2026, there were 812 thousand owners of weapons and special equipment registered in Ukraine, who own 1,166,001 units of firearms and special equipment. But is the state capable of controlling these weapons After all, the main risk is not its turnover, he writes in the article “Hello, weapons! Goodbye monopoly? "

The number above is only the officially registered arsenals. It is impossible to count how many weapons are on hand today. So-called experts can talk about the conditional 2-5 million units, but without any justification.

“At the same time, there is already a constant hidden flow of captured and unaccounted for weapons from the war. Therefore, the issue of free ownership also includes the problem of legalizing weapons already owned by the population. The authorities have already taken a step in this direction - they are registering weapons that fell into the hands of citizens unofficially or that were distributed without proper accounting in the first days of the war,” the author adds.

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In addition, judges, prosecutors, people's deputies and just ordinary citizens can officially own traumatic weapons. The latter just needs to get a “journalist’s credential” somewhere, which is also not a difficult task..

Sergienko adds that in addition to the safety factor, there is also a powerful economic one.. After all, legalization is a huge market in which billions of hryvnias circulate. And if transparent mechanisms for licensing and certification of training centers are not created, then another corruption trough will likely appear in Ukraine.

“If the state, represented by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, turns the issuance of permits into a business for selected (its) firms, then instead of security we will only get a redistribution of shadow flows, where the right to protection is bought, and not acquired through training. This is a complete analogy with a purchased driver’s license, only the consequences can be much more tragic,” the author adds..

Sergienko identifies award weapons as a separate problem. Official statistics do not reflect its volume. And according to the head of the Ukrainian Association of Weapons Owners Georgy Uchaikin, we are talking about tens of thousands of pistols that have been issued for years due to an opaque award system. He is convinced that this has created in Ukraine a virtually closed caste of privileged owners of short guns, which includes officials, deputies, security officials and people close to them. At the same time, for the majority of ordinary citizens, the right to such weapons still remains inaccessible.

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" In such a situation, the discussion about “free weapons” inevitably comes down not only to the issue of security, but also to the issue of equality of rules,” writes Sergienko.

Uchaikin believes that the main risk is not the circulation of weapons, but the fact that the state was unable to create a transparent and equal control system for everyone. Therefore, the discussion about the new law on the circulation of weapons rests not only on the right to self-defense, but also on trust in the state and its institutions.

The bill, which is now in the Verkhovna Rada, is harshly criticized by Georgy Uchaikin for the fact that the document actually preserves the current system. That is, after its adoption in its current form, corruption loopholes will remain in Ukraine, which made it possible to obtain weapons through fictitious journalistic IDs.

At the same time, Sergienko calls the survey in “Diya” under the logo of Defense Minister Mikhail Fedorov, which was conducted against the backdrop of a discussion on the law on weapons, indicative. More than a million respondents chose one of three pre-formulated answer options regarding gun ownership, and the result was called “an unprecedented case of direct electronic democracy.”.

“But this is a classic example of the manipulative nature of this format: without open discussion, without expressing different positions, without the opportunity to ask other questions and give different answers. Real democracy is not the number of clicks, but the quality of discussion,” Sergienko explained.

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Earlier, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky commented on the idea of \u200b\u200blegalizing weapons for Ukrainian civilians, talk about which intensified after the terrorist attack in Kyiv on April 18, during which a man shot seven people. The head of state notes that all changes on this issue must be made at the legislative level.

Opinions on this issue were divided both among Ukrainians and among government officials.

For example, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Igor Klimenko supported the right of citizens to self-defense and possession of firearms, but added that we should talk about the development of the entire infrastructure, including amendments to the Criminal Code of Ukraine. The minister noted that the relevant legislation should contain a classification of weapons, a requirement for mandatory training of people and clearly defined boundaries of self-defense. Meanwhile, the head of the OP Kirill Budanov opposes legalization, which, in his opinion, will lead to even more problems.