O.K., let's talk guns.
Someone mentioned the shooting sports. The registered sportsmen get the permissions for their guns through the national federation for the sport they practice. The permits for a sport weapon (be it handgun, rifle or shotgun) allows you only to store the weapon, use it on the range, and transport to/from the range. For the young sportspeople the responsibility for the proper handling of the weapons lies on their paents and coaches.
I haven' mentioned he handguns, and it' a curious thing. For a while after 1917, handgun ownership was based on the loyalty principle. That is, ordinary citizens couldn't own handguns, but active members of the Party, especially ones on "Party work", could. They couldn't buy a handgun, but they could keep one they had left over from the Civil War (when everybody had a gun), and have a permit for it from the ChK/GPU/NKVD.
Or they could keep an "awarded gun". The Soveit state didn't have it own military decorations for a while, so it was customary for Redrmy soldiers and officers, in recognition of their bravery or someting, to get, instead of medals, pistols, saberd, and such. Those pistols were often kept until the WW2 (unless the owner was arrested as "people's evemy, of course).
And, the Party members who actually needed a gun, were often issued one. Like my greatgrandfather, who (to avoid possible repressions) volunteered to go to Middle Asia to install collective farming there. When he found out how dangerous the job was, he went to the local NKVD dept. and got himself a Luger complete with a consealed-carry permit. The Luger he never parted with for about 8 years, and the permit, I think, is still in the family somewhere.
After the WW2 a lot of pistols were brought in by soldiers returning from the front. They called them "the awarded ones" - but most of those were soon deactivated or disposed of by their owners. However, the people who were officially awarded with a pistol, and had all the paperwork, could - and often did - keep the guns until their death.
The above-mentiones instances are nothing but exceptions. The rule was - and is - that a regular citizen cannot legally own a handgun.
Yet, in discourd with what seems to be the wrldwide practice, the authorities in this country have been apparently more and more pro-gun since the collapse of the USSR. First of all, the government recognised the right to buy firearms for self-defence (in USSR you ad to pretend you were going to hunt). Then, the citizens are allowed to buy non-letal selfe-defence handguns - it started with "gas guns", which were nothing more than sophisticated devices for spraying the bad guy with tear gas or pepper; now one can get a "gum gun" - and the max/ power of gum-gun ammo is increased every year. The word is that it's the works of domestic producers, who, when they've sold all of a given type they could, lobby something more powerful. I don't know how it's going to turn, but id the existing trend contnues, Rin 2 or 3 years Russians will be able to buy handguns legally for the first time since 1917.
And, the now-almost-customary, joke. An anacdote, really.
A man calls his wife from work and says he's going hunting, so could she please get all his hunting staff, including the rifle, in a heap by the front door, so that he can just grab it and go. She starts on, but in the middle of the process she's got another phone call from a friend. So they have a girlie chat for a while, and then the wife looks out and sees the husband's car pull up. "Oh, wait" she says to her friend - "There's my husband. Just hold on while I get the gun..."
