KRG ministry opens 48 centers for registering firearms

ERBIL, Kurdistan Region - The Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) interior ministry on Wednesday said it is opening 48 centers to facilitate the registration of firearms before July 21, with authorities repeatedly calling on citizens to avoid purchasing unlicensed firearms. 

The Kurdistan Region has long maintained a lax firearms black market, where sniper rifles and machine guns are purchased in a region where 70 percent of the population own weapons. 

“We ask citizens to visit one of these weapons registration centers as soon as possible and register your weapons free of charge,” reads a statement by the KRG interior ministry. 

Ten centers in Erbil, eleven in Sulaimani, and seven in Duhok are among the newly opened places where citizens can register their firearms. 

“When registering a weapon, it is returned to the owner with a registration form and he can apply for a weapons license if necessary or sell the weapon in buying and selling communities, which will be opened in the future under the supervision of the interior ministry,” the statement added. 

Last year, Kurdistan Region Prime Minister Masrour Barzani ordered the shutdown of all firearms selling markets and the confiscation of unlicensed weapons, in light of the killing of two university academics by a former student days prior.

In December, the interior ministry urged citizens to register their firearms amid an effort by authorities to contain gun violence.

A 20-year-old woman and her sister were gunned down by her husband, 19, in Erbil on Monday evening. The man emptied “nearly an entire magazine of bullets” on his wife, and according to his father, he was an arms dealer. 

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