The commission working on the bill convened yesterday at a meeting chaired by Interior Minister Beşir Atalay. Deputies in general emphasized changes that would discourage personal ownership of firearms, while gun manufacturers who were also called to the commission unsurprisingly asked for a law that encourages gun ownership. Minister Atalay said they wanted a “system that did not encourage individual gun ownership; that minimized it and also introduced effective control over the ownership of firearms.”
Republican People’s Party’s (CHP) deputy Hulusi Güvel stated that individual ownership of firearms was growing at a frightening rate, saying there was a gun in one out of every three households in the country. “Gun violence has become a part of daily life. Society should be saved from the obsession with individual firearm ownership.” Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) Gaziantep deputy Hasan Özdemir blamed television series that praise the mafia for encouraging youth to carry arms, while Justice and Development Party (AK Party) Yozgat deputy Mehmet Çiçek said there has been a recent tendency to resort to even fire rockets and Molotov cocktails; noting these also should be treated as firearms.
The anti-gun Umut Foundation’s Ayhan Akcan called for making obtaining handguns and permits more difficult. Cuma İçten, head of the Weapons Manufacturers and Sellers Association, stated that banning firearms ownership would encourage illegal ownership of guns and called for making it easier to obtain firearms licenses, arguing that individual arms ownership was a liberty of self defense. Other industry representatives argued that guns owned by individuals played a great role in the liberation of Turkey during the War of Independence.
