Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) interior ministry formed 12 committees to register unlicensed weapons. The Director General of Diwan at the interior ministry said the committees will not seize the weapons from citizens, only registering them.

Dr. Hemin Mirany, the Director General of Diwan at the Ministry of Interior said “12 committees have been formed to remove weapons of war, meaning people who have these weapons have to hand them over to the committees. The Council of Ministers will estimate the compensation of those who hand over the weapons and 40 committees have been registered to register firearms (pistols, Kalashnikovs, and similar weapons). The committees have started their work and we will later announce their location through the Media and Information Department and the interior ministry.”

“An important point is that citizens fear that when they go to register their weapons with one of these committees, the government will know that they have illegal weapons and will take it from their homes. However, the laws and regulations clearly state that the first step is weapon registration and that is aimed at obtaining data on how many weapons exist in the community of Kurdistan. When a weapon is registered within a year (July 2022 to July 2023), any citizen who goes to these committees will register their weapon and take it home, no one will take it from them. But the government will have the data of that weapon and if that person asks for license after that year, we will give them the license. But if they don’t ask for a license then the gun will not be taken from them provided that they don’t use it, do not take it out and do not sell it,” Dr. Mirany said.

Dr. Mirany says “when we say not to sell the gun, that means selling it without informing the institution that is being established with the assistance of the private sector in a modern way to sell and buy weapons under the supervision of the interior ministry, meaning the selling and buying of weapons cannot be dealt with in the markets and online. It has to be done at an assigned and modern place controlled by the interior ministry and Asayish.”

The message of the Director General of the Diwan at the Ministry of Interior clearly states that citizens should not have any fear and that they should visit the committees to register their weapons and take them back. Weapons are available in communities all around the world, but how they are handled is what matters. For example, Switzerland has the highest number of weapons but there have not been any incidents or acts of terror there. Weapons are not used to solve problems. The interior ministry aims to organize, register, and license weapons. “We will later publish the new regulations of licensing a gun,” Dr. Mirany said.

He called on citizens and religious figures to encourage people to resort to the law when they have problems, instead of resolving them through violence and weapons. Small neighborhood problems often become big problems because of the use of weapons. Weapons are to protect everyone and they should be in the hands of state, not in the hands of people to solve their problems.