Part 1. The practical side of using foreign shockers in Russia.
To answer this question in detail, which is of great concern to the audience of ProShoker magazine, we invited several experts in this field, each of whom presented us with their informed point of view. Alexey Dmitrievich Pakhomov, for 7 years, has held the post of Head of the International Logistics Department of Alfa Shoker, the largest company selling stun guns in Russia and the largest importer of these products, has extensive experience in purchasing stun products for large commercial companies and private security companies. According to Alexey Dmitrievich, the use of foreign stun guns in Russia has been in practice for about 12 (twelve) years, companies and the population have been using them, and quite actively. “If they were illegal, then our clients, large companies, would not be able to purchase these products and it is unlikely that our company would be a leader in the sale of stun guns in Russia. In addition, Russian legislation does not contain prohibitions on foreign products or their import(!) from other countries. In the same way, any citizen or company can purchase stun guns abroad and freely transport them across the border. If there were laws prohibiting doing this, none of our clients, including us, would be able to import a single stun gun. Therefore, the answer lies on the surface. Another thing is that it is unprofitable for the domestic manufacturer, but this is a completely different question; if domestic products were successful, no one would be importing stun guns. Everything, as you can see, is very simple.” Alexey Dmitrievich confirms our hypothesis and the opinion of other, uninterested professionals. As for practice, indeed, according to our magazine’s estimates, 80% of stun guns in our country are foreign-made. Surely, our reader is wondering why we use the term “foreign shockers” and not Chinese, as everyone is used to hearing, later in this article the answer to this question is contained, and yet, continuing the topic of our article, we ask the question to the next interlocutor :
Protection in any way possible
Everyone has the right to defend themselves in ways that do not contradict the law. According to the criminal code, if violence is used against you that is dangerous to life and health, you can cause any harm to the attacker. It's not a crime. Self-defense in such a situation does not entail any responsibility.
You write that they are trying to touch a girl on public transport. I understand that the situation is extremely unpleasant, but judging by your description, there is no threat to her life in this case.
From the point of view of the law, a girl can defend herself - but only if the defense corresponds to the danger of assault. The only exception is when the victim cannot assess the degree of reality of the threat due to the surprise of the attack. The easiest way to explain how this works is with examples.
Let's say the victim feels the touch of a stranger on the bus. She pushes him away and makes a fuss. In this case, everything is in order: no one exceeded the limits of necessary defense, the actions correspond to the nature of the attack. If the harassing person continues his actions and they really threaten life or health, the victim has the right to protection with a gas spray, a stun gun, and even a pistol.
Another situation. The girl, in response to the touch, discharges a shocker at the man. Perhaps he will just get scared and run away. But there is a possibility that he will call the police and testify that an inadequate aggressive girl used a stun gun on him for no apparent reason. If there are no witnesses to the man's attack, the girl may be prosecuted for hooliganism.
Another situation: a man runs up to a girl, throws her over his shoulder and runs towards the nearest forest, while muttering something about sacrifices to the gods of darkness. In this case, the victim can use a spray can, a stun gun, a knife or a firearm - of his choice. The attack happened unexpectedly, and it was impossible to determine what the attacker wanted.
Part 2. How legal are foreign and Chinese stun guns in Russia?
Answered by Mikhail Valentinovich Starostin - lawyer, associate professor of the Department of Civil Law at Moscow State Law Academy, a professional with extensive experience, including in the Moscow prosecutor's office. “In the Russian Federation, this issue is regulated by the Law “On Weapons” in the latest edition of 2014, I propose to consider it in detail, namely all the provisions that relate to stun guns:
“Article 3 “Civilian weapons are divided into:
..electric shock devices and spark gaps of domestic production, having output parameters that meet the mandatory requirements established in accordance with the legislation of the Russian Federation on technical regulation;
— With this article, the legislator singles out this type of weapon and does not directly ban foreign stun guns, and what is not prohibited is permitted. Regarding technical characteristics, foreign stun guns fully comply with them; the output power of 3 W fully fits into the “mandatory requirements”. Thus, there is no ban on the use of foreign stun guns. Let's look further:
“Article 6 On the territory of the Russian Federation the following is prohibited:
1) circulation as civilian and service weapons:
electroshock devices and spark gaps having output parameters exceeding the values established by state standards.”
- Again, no prohibition. Firstly, by definition, the turnover does not provide for any use and use by owners of stun guns, and the limitation on technical characteristics also does not impose any restrictions. So it's allowed again.
“Article 13. The right to purchase weapons” ..electric shock devices and spark gaps can be purchased by citizens of the Russian Federation who have reached the age of 18 years, have the right to purchase them without obtaining a license.”
— This article specifies the right to purchase weapons by persons over 18 years of age and refers to the very fact of acquisition, and not as a gift or import from abroad. The transfer of property into ownership is considered, without consideration of the right of ownership and disposal. If you follow this article, you can reach the point of absurdity, if a person under 18 years of age did not purchase a stun gun, but was given it as a gift or the stun gun was imported from another country, can also use it on a general basis.
And finally
“Article 14. Acquisition on the territory of the Russian Federation by foreign citizens.”
Allows foreigners to purchase stun guns in Russia (for export), which does not apply to Russians in general. Therefore, no bans on foreign shockers are established by law. And in general, for example, take the classic foreign POLICE stun gun in the shape of a flashlight, the word stun gun is not written anywhere on it, moreover, in the entire history there has not been a single case when the owner of a foreign stun gun was fined. In legal practice, there have been numerous cases of self-defense by Russians using foreign shockers. Do you think that when a woman was attacked by a bandit, can they even theoretically charge her a fine if she defended herself and did not harm the attacker’s health? Of course not, and law enforcement agencies in this case will and are on the side of the defenders. However, there is another point, some police representatives take advantage of legal illiteracy and extort money from the population for the possession of foreign stun guns, or illegally confiscate them. Unfortunately, in our country a citizen does not feel protected in relation to the law and to law enforcement agencies, often for them they are more dangerous than those against whom a shocker is purchased, in such cases I have heard more than once that it is better to still have a shocker with you and protect yourself in a dangerous situation, even despite all the moments, since your own life is more valuable.”
Varieties and selection criteria
Yana-5 stun gun for protection against stray animals
When choosing an ESA for yourself or a member of your family, you should take into account many factors: from the characteristics and features of a particular model to personal preferences.
Before purchasing a stun gun for self-defense, you should pay attention to a number of parameters:
- Dimensions. The weight and parameters of the shocker may vary, and therefore you should proceed from how comfortable the device “fits” in your hand. There are very small models, weighing about 200 g, which can easily fit into a woman’s handbag. But for a man's hand they will be too small. There are also impressive flashlight shockers, usually used by security guards as a baton. This option will be inconvenient for the average user.
- Battery. There are ECUs with a built-in or removable battery. The first one requires recharging from once a month to once a year (depending on the model), but such a battery may fail due to wear and tear, and then you will have to buy a new shocker. Removable batteries are more practical in this regard.
- Variety. ESAs are divided into contact and contact-remote. To hit an enemy with the first type of device, you need to approach him at arm's length and only then turn it on. Such models come in the form of a baton or a rectangle.
Part 3. Chinese stun guns versus Russian certified ones.
Anton Igorevich Malkin – Head of the Department of Scientific and Technical Innovations of the Association of Experts in Electroshock Technologies.
“The situation is very simple, on the Internet there are a lot of custom-made articles and comments that foreign or Chinese stun guns are prohibited by law. Who benefits from this and who is the customer of this information? — the answer suggests itself, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, the situation with shockers in Russia is approximately the same as with cars or household appliances. Manufacturers can be counted on the fingers of one hand and the quality is Russian... Our people immediately realized that Chinese shockers, which, by the way, are not really Chinese, the Chinese themselves do not invent anything, they only produce them as cheap labor, but projects and orders come from the USA, Australia, Canada, Mexico, Israel, almost all of Europe, etc., and so they are more effective. Speaking in more detail about Chinese shockers, which are produced in Hong Kong, a special region of China, which, by the way, is already superior in development to New York, their quality meets the highest standards, since the main customers are the USA and Europe. As for certificates and certified shockers, believe me, they are still certified and their certificate will be better than the Russian one. It is not for nothing that if we compare medicine, in the USA a significant part of the drugs that are freely used in Russia are prohibited for sale. Yes, there are counterfeits of stun guns in China itself, but they can be easily identified by the price and appearance of the store on the Internet. Therefore, the entire soap bubble regarding the ban on foreign shockers, and supposedly the legality of only Russian ones, is nothing more than a marketing ploy and an artificial escalation of the situation. Foreign stun guns cannot be banned even because government officials themselves are regular users of everything foreign, and the American Taser X2 for $2,000 is a mandatory component of the arsenal of any self-respecting businessman. Therefore, foreign stun guns have been and will be allowed, there is no escape from this, and in terms of quality and efficiency they are about thirty years ahead of Russian ones. Yes, of course, it is worth paying tribute to the Russian scientists who invented all this, and subsequently everything went to the West, but it is also worth recognizing that Russia has a large lag in this industry. Therefore, the issue is far from being a matter of certification. Or else, imagine a woman who will constantly carry with her a bulky Russian “effective” stun gun, which she will eventually get tired of and leave it at home, or protect herself from a rapist with a compact, powerful foreign Jaguar stun gun, in which situation will she be more right? Probably in the second. Therefore, I consider all the disputes about certificates and permits pointless, better listen to the owners of foreign stun guns, read the laws yourself(!) and use what you really like and bring greater effect.”
Limits of Necessary Defense
If you own a legal weapon for self-defense, you should definitely know that its use must be correlated with the magnitude of the real threat. If the limits of necessary self-defense are exceeded, criminal liability may arise for the use of a stun gun. To prevent this from happening, you must always remember that:
- To use the device there must be a real threat to your health and life from another person;
- the use of a stun gun must be expressed in a volume equivalent to the actions of the attacker;
- You can protect not only yourself, but also other people.
If you are threatened with knives or firearms
, you have the right to use a shocker without waiting for the first blow or shot. But, if you were attacked with bare hands, then violence must take place, and not be expressed only in words.
Part 4. Is it necessary to carry a certificate for a stun gun? (into Russian or foreign)
Answer: Vitaly Pavlovich Arkhipov - police colonel, associate professor, candidate of legal sciences and member of the Moscow City Bar Association, deputy director of the law firm Pravozashchita - Nikolai Valentinovich Vinnik.
So, do you still need to carry a certificate for a stun gun with you?
V.P.: According to the law, there are no rules obliging you to carry various certificates with you, not only for stun guns. The same applies to stun guns. You don’t need to have anything with you either for Russian or foreign stun guns. Yes, shockers must be certified and this must be done by the organization selling these devices. That is, even if a situation arises with a question about certification, which in principle is quite a rare occurrence, even if the device was used, not even for the purposes of self-defense, then in practice the question about the certificate is the very last question for the owner. If it does arise, the owner needs to draw the attention of law enforcement officers to the absence of an obligation to carry certificates with them by law, and also, just in case, provide the name of the store where this shocker was purchased. In 100% of cases, all questions will disappear after this.
N.V.: I completely agree and want to complement my colleague, to emphasize that this also applies to foreign stun guns, since users sometimes have questions about them. Firstly, if a foreign stun gun exceeded the established values, then the selling organization could not sell it, and it would also be impossible to introduce them into the territory of the Russian Federation, since our country has strict border controls and large sanctions for its violation, moreover, stun guns , exceeding the established values are simply not produced in the world, since Russia has the highest current characteristics and even in the United States this figure is lower, so any foreign shocker will by default fit into our legally approved conditions. Therefore, I want to emphasize once again that you do NOT need to carry any certificates, no technical passports, or any additional papers with or without stamps! Indeed, there are many companies on the stun gun market, mostly Russian, who benefit from promoting the postulate that you need to carry all these papers, all this to intimidate buyers in order to attract them, while all these horror stories are nothing more than an advertising ploy. If it were necessary to have these papers, it would reach the point of absurdity; in this case, it would be necessary to carry these certificates, including for gas cartridges and other means of self-defense. No, the only restriction on shockers is age (that the owner must be over 18 years old) and even in the absence of a passport, even if the owner looks young, there are no sanctions for violating the provisions on the owner’s age, that is, he They will simply issue a warning and, in everyday language, nothing will happen to the owner.
Why do you need an ESA?
To protect the health and life of oneself or loved ones from criminal attacks, the law allows the use of any means - from a primitive club to some types of firearms.
The main rule, the violation of which turns the defender into the accused, is compliance with the principle of proportionality and adequacy of the defense to the degree of threat that has arisen. No court will acquit a man who shot a saleswoman who was rude to him. A stun gun is a non-lethal self-defense weapon. They use the device for self-defense when attacked by hooligans, robbers, street dogs and in other conflict situations. The motivation for using ESA is the presence of a clear threat to the health or life of the defender. Although an electroshock device (ESD) is not classified as lethal, it is still a weapon. Therefore, every owner of such a device, or a person planning to purchase it, thinks about whether a permit is needed for a stun gun - for purchase, storage and carrying. Official documents provide a detailed answer to these questions, and also detail the related nuances. On the territory of Russia, the rules for the circulation and use of weapons of all types are regulated by Law No. 150-FZ “On Weapons”, which was adopted on November 13, 1996.
Judicial practice in cases of self-defense
In self-defense cases, the attacker often becomes the victim, and the defender becomes the accused. Proceedings take years, and the costs of lawyers are difficult to calculate.
The advantage of stun guns and gas cartridges is that their use rarely leads to serious harm to the health of the attacker. At least I couldn't find any case law where someone was convicted after using a stun gun or pepper spray in self-defense.
If, as a result of self-defense, you intentionally inflict moderate or minor bodily harm on the attacker, inflict beatings, or inflict any harm through negligence, you will not be subject to criminal liability.
Resolution of the Plenum of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation dated September 27, 2012 No. 19
The same cannot be said about self-defense with a traumatic pistol or knife. It is very easy for them to cause serious bodily harm or even kill an attacker.
One of the most famous examples is the case of Alexandra Ivannikova, who killed a rapist with a knife. While defending herself, she hit him in the thigh, and he died from blood loss. For several years, the case was considered in the courts, he was reclassified under various articles of the criminal code, and even a guilty verdict was handed down. Then it was canceled, and the girl was acquitted. But this took a lot of time; losses in this case are very difficult to estimate.
conclusions
A stun gun is a powerful universal self-defense weapon that can be bought without a license or certificates from the manufacturer or in gun stores. The rules for carrying and transporting ESAs are defined in the Law “On Weapons”, as well as in the regulations of transport organizations. The owner of the ESA only needs to have a certificate of conformity certified by the manufacturer’s seal. The certificate is included as standard with each device.
Sources
- https://top-shoker.ru/blog/zakony-o-primenenii-elektroshokerov-v-rossii-otvetstvennost-za-ispolzovanie-shokerov/
- https://tir-99.ru/oruzhie/trebuetsya-li-razreshenie-na-elektroshoker.html
- https://oberon-alpha.ru/blog/selfdefense/rules
- https://journal.tinkoff.ru/ask/stun-gun/
- https://ElectroShokery24.ru/blog/nuzhno-li-razreshenie-na-pokupku-elektroshokera-o-noshenii-shokerov-v-rossii/
Price
The average price for a stun gun of the lowest, third category is $40-60. At the same time, we do not take into account the cost of Chinese cheap, often low-quality models. We are talking about high-quality both Russian and Western versions of shockers. For example, Police, Flashlight. So, the second and first class devices will cost $100-200, plus or minus 10-15 dollars. Remote stun guns also fall into this price category, but it must be taken into account that each cartridge costs about $15 more, and the case for the device costs $5-10.
Many will think: is it worth spending money on this? But life and health are much more valuable than a hundred dollars. Don’t you really want to feel a little more confident when walking down a dark street or entering an unlit entrance?
Device device
Based on the above, it is clear how to choose a stun gun. To do this, the device must have a decent voltage at the electrodes that can penetrate clothing, as well as electrical components that can generate significant current.
However, GOST indicates that the average power of a stun gun should not exceed 3 W. Therefore, most manufacturers put the internal “filling” in such a way that it does not show greater results.
