With the onset of a full-scale invasion, many sporting ranges and hunting stands opened their doors for defense training. The Armed Forces of Ukraine defeated the enemy from Kyiv and other cities, and the authorization system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs took over. Many people were not extended permits to open or operate shooting ranges for various formal reasons. One of them is that the land under the shooting range or the shooting range should be for recreation, and not just for construction or reserve land (if it is a ravine).
At the same time, the law "On the foundations of national resistance" clearly encourages the expansion of educational centers, including private ones. In practice, everything rests on the illegal permit system of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which has its own post-Soviet legislation, which does not foresee shooting ranges other than sports or hunting.
For example, in January 2024, the Ministry of Internal Affairs closed the shooting range of the Civil Safety Academy (CSA) in Kapitanivka due to the lack of a permit, despite the fact that the institution tried to obtain it four times, facing constant refusals. The last "basis" was the purposeful designation of the land, which, according to the requirements of the permit, should be for recreation, and not public development or reserve land.
The OK LEGAL team and Pravotvorets managed to unblock the work of the CSA in court, proving the illegality of closing the shooting range. However, the lawyers went further: they filed a pro bono lawsuit to challenge the provisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Instruction No. 622, which gives law enforcement officers excessive powers to stop shooting ranges. Although the court left these points in the Instruction of force, at the same time it adopted an unprecedented decision - a separate resolution. From now on, during martial law, shooting ranges can work on the basis of a declaration in accordance with the Resolution of the CMU No. 314 dated 03/18/2022.
In the court's decision, it was established that during martial law, instead of a permit for the shooting range to operate, a declaration may be submitted in accordance with the resolution of the CMU 314 dated 18.03.2022 (we wrote about this position earlier https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1K3K9C9Hb9/_
By the way, the norms of Resolution No. 314 can be useful for manufacturers of weapons and armaments for the Armed Forces.
The state should encourage the opening of private shooting training centers primarily for the needs of defense and improvement of self-defense skills. Wartime dictates new needs: farm pickups become military, and hunting shooting ranges become defensive shooting ranges.
Ps who is being pressured by the "permissive" for the activity of shooting ranges for the needs of defense, contact us, let's share the position. There are also mechanisms to create private defense ranges/shooting ranges.
