Kurdistan
Sulaimani police display weapons seized in two days of a crackdown on gun ownership, on July 26, 2021. Photo: handout/Sulaimani police
ERBIL, Kurdistan Region — Sulaimani police said on Monday they confiscated eleven firearms in the first two days of their campaign to crackdown on illegal gun ownership and unregistered vehicles.
Eleven firearms, including two Kalashnikovs and nine pistols, were confiscated in two days, as well as seven unregistered vehicles. Police also seized 150 screens installed to blackout vehicle windows.
Under the law, vehicles with blacked-out windows can be fined 1 million dinars. “After the screens are removed, [the owner] will be given a ticket, visit the traffic directorate and will be fined 1 million,” Bahman Abdullah, spokesperson for Sulaimani Traffic Police Directorate told Rudaw’s Horvan Rafaat on Sunday.
Unregistered vehicles and those with fake license plates may also be fined a million dinars and required to fill out an undertaking “not to use this car again or take it out of the Region,” said Abdullah.
He said their campaign has received positive reaction from citizens “and there is good commitment.”
Earlier this month, in a meeting chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Qubad Talabani, Sulaimani authorities decided to limit gun ownership by revoking licenses not authorized by the Ministry of Interior, provincial authorities, or district administrations.
Gun ownership is high in the Kurdistan Region and the government has struggled to bring it under control. Civilians are often given permission to carry firearms through connections or the parties they may be affiliated to. Weapons, including sniper rifles and machine guns, can also be bought on the black market.
In May, Interior Minister Reber Ahmed said the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) plans to tighten its gun control laws, but cannot promise a complete end to gun markets.
2020 saw an increase in reported gun violence across the Kurdistan Region, a Sulaimani police spokesperson told Rudaw English in November. And this year, the numbers appear to be even higher. Gun-related deaths have “increased 50 percent compared to last year,” Shakhawan Rauf Bag, head of the parliament’s Peshmerga, Interior, Security, and Local Councils Committee said in late April.
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