Estonia to ban firearm licenses for foreigners

November 3, BPN. The Estonian government has approved a bill to strip third-country nationals who reside in Estonia of firearm permits. Estonian MPs are still to vote on the bill.

Estonian interior ministry noted that Russian and Belarusian nationals residing in Estonia are going to be affected by the ban.

Currently, 1,325 Estonia’s aliens have firearm licenses, owning a total of 3,080 guns, it added. The status of aliens is given to former USSR citizens remaining in Estonia without any voting rights.

Estonia cannot risk that nationals of another hostile state have a permit to own and carry weapons, because they can use them for reasons of “ideology or civic loyalty” to protect the interests of their country, Interior Minister Lauri Läänemets said.

If the bill is adopted as it stands, firearms licenses issued to non-EU and non-NATO states’ nationals would expire in one year and would not be extended. Owners would have one year to surrender their weapons to police, or otherwise they would be forced to sell their guns at average market prices.