Other events in Baltic States

The headquarters of the Estonian voluntary defence organisation Defence League are trying to reverse the trend that the League members give up having firearms at home; now a number weapons cupboards have been bought and a target has been set that the majority of Defence League members who have weapons permits, would store their weapons and ammunition at home in the future, LETA/Postimees writes.

Keeping weapons at home is nothing new, the law has allowed the Defence League members to do that for 20 years. It has a deep national defence point, namely, the weapons are this way dispersed across the land and even when the opponent conquers or destroys some weapons storage, the Defence League fighting ability would be preserved.

"In recent years, more and more weapons have been brought back to units. This is due to human causes – a weapon is always accompanied by responsibility and people did not consider it necessary since the security situation seemed to be very stable," said the Commander of the Defence League, Brigadier General Meelis Kiili.

The Defence League cannot reveal, for security reasons, how many firearms are kept in the homes of Defence League members, but Kiili has set an aim to his staff that in the future, 75 percent of those who have received a weapons permit from the Defence League, would keep their weapons home.

The plan covers Defence Forces or Defence League-owned machine guns Galil and AK-4, which are assigned to each member of the Defence League fighting unit. Additionally, certain officers can use a handgun. The set includes a certain amount of ammunition, for example, 60 for a machine gun, while bigger weapons and hand grenades are not held in homes.