It is not possible for ordinary civilians to buy and hold military weapons in modern Russia, but for self-defense, ordinary citizens are allowed to acquire special non-lethal traumatic weapons. The exception is hunters, who can acquire hunting rifles, and the sale of pneumatic weapons is not limited in any way. Another thing is that all these products can only be sold in specially equipped places for this - in specialized arms stores.
The organization of such a outlet can be a good start, as in large cities the demand for weapons is only growing, and there are not always a lot of players on the market. This is due to quite serious requirements for the maintenance of the premises, obtaining the relevant permits and careful supervision by the state of their activities. But you can’t say that the government is trying to limit the conduct of this business or somehow hinder its development, so if you wish, you can go through all the tiring procedures and take its place in this promising market.
To do this, you will first need to register as a business entity. It is best to register a limited liability company (LLC) - this is a legal entity, and there is always more trust on the part of licensing authorities, but this form allows you to use a simplified tax system. Depending on the expected revenue, you should choose either a deduction on income (6%), which is more profitable for high rates of simple profitability, or a deduction on operating profit (15%) for a business with low profitability. Such a decision can be made only after drawing up a detailed business plan, which takes into account all the features of doing business and has preliminary calculations. To start your activity, you should also specify the code (OKPD 2) 47.78 Other retail trade services in specialized stores. When all bureaucratic issues have been resolved, you can begin to obtain a license.
However, you must first prepare. First, you need an appropriate room in which you can store weapons. As you might guess, the room should be constantly guarded, and access to weapons in case of hacking should be difficult. Next, you should agree with a private security company to ensure the constant protection of the facility, the establishment of an alarm and constant watch on the brigade, which can leave at the first request or when an alarm occurs. It is not bad if the PSC office is located nearby, because the team must respond immediately and intercept intruders at the facility. The same organization may also issue a conclusion that weapons and ammunition are contained in accordance with established rules. After this, you should contact all other instances - Rospotrebnadzor, the Architectural Department and the Fire Service. All of their findings will also be required by the licensing authority subsequently. In addition to the generally established requirements, this includes protection on windows and a specially equipped weapons room, into which access is strictly restricted even to personnel. To obtain a license, you also need to hire people who have the right to use weapons, and for the entrepreneur himself it is not profitable to hire employees who do not understand anything in such a matter. Special requirements are presented to the store director, and here you need to be especially careful.
To obtain a license, you need to contact the Department of Internal Affairs, where employees will not only check the submitted documents, but will also independently check, almost certainly visiting the store. Consideration of a license may take several months, and in this case, if you do not have your own connections, you can contact special licensing firms. They will require a lot of money for their services, but for a person who does not have friends in the relevant authorities, this is perhaps the fastest way to get a license. Because if you want, you can always find the shortcomings of the premises, security complex, in the staff or something else. Entering this market without having any connections or serious money is quite difficult, and only the most patient can pass this test.
In large cities, arms stores try to place, for the most part, in the city center, although it would be nice to open a point of sale near enterprises that arrange shooting ranges and organize a shooting range. If possible, you can open next to the representative of the hunting organization, but this cooperation, again, is possible in the case of friendly relations. Moreover, it is necessary to take into account the assortment of which products will prevail, because people of several different categories enter the arms store, and only untwisted and large stores can cover the interests of all. Therefore, a hunter-oriented store is likely to lose customers from ordinary residents. In small cities, this is somewhat easier, because not every city has a gun shop, which means there are no competitors, but in the countryside there are sometimes even more kinds of hunters who will appreciate a gun shop in their city. At the same time, if hunters were purchased earlier, leaving their province to a larger city, then when they see a store that has opened, they will contact it here. A rare buyer will remain committed to a remote outlet.
After all, you need to consider that many of the buyers become regular customers. A person rarely buys small arms, but is constantly forced to acquire ammunition for him, repair it and carry out scheduled maintenance. Experienced gunsmiths, of course, clean and lubricate their weapons on their own, but they have to buy cartridges all the time (and together with the best price they choose a place that is just closer), and they won’t always be able to make repairs themselves. All this allows us to open a weapons service workshop on the basis of the weapons store, which will not receive too many orders (far from every person has such weapons), but it can bring a small income and increase the attractiveness of the outlet, providing a good service.
Some entrepreneurs, opening an arms store, open their own shooting range or are located close to an existing one, as noted above. This is a completely justified step, because there are many potential customers at the shooting ranges, and some of the buyers of hunters prefer to immediately try out the acquired gun. Masters who make their own crossbows and even bows can also sell their products in the weapons store, open at their own expense. Thus, the conduct of this business involves the organization of any additional services or even enterprises, this increases the interest of the end consumer and allows a good increase in income due to non-core activities. And even despite the fact that weapons are bought relatively often, and ammunition even more often, sometimes their own shooting range can bring even more money.
Now you need to dwell in more detail on the internal equipment of the store. Firstly, it should be a fairly spacious room, from about 100 m2, although some already-developed networks in large cities open their offices in different areas of the city and in smaller areas. However, they can afford to send the client to the main store, and in the case of a rare order, bring him to the representative office, because the client in this case will be ready to wait. In small arms stores, as a rule, they sell only the most popular goods, and very rarely there they directly sell the weapons themselves — more often just cartridges and consumables. A novice entrepreneur must provide the visitor with a huge choice, and hiding products under the counter or constantly taking them out of the gun room will not work - sales will be very small at a point where there is no representation of copies on stands and racks.
Such large spaces are usually engaged in demonstration of airguns, which are represented by rifles, and guns, and even machine guns (meaning the appearance copied from a real firearm rather than the principle of operation), closed windows with traumatic pistols and civilian weapons in general, as well as mannequins that are dressed in a hunting uniform, entourage elements, and even firearms (but, of course, not loaded) weapons that are mounted on a stand or rack with a special chain on the castle. Shop windows are often equipped with bulletproof glass, the cost of which per one m2 can reach 18 thousand rubles. After all, theft from such a store is not only a loss for an entrepreneur, but also a responsibility for negligence resulting in the receipt of weapons by a person who does not have this permission. Security is a very important point in organizing an arms store, and here you need to invest as much as possible. Yes, any dangerous weapon in one way or another (that is, for the acquisition of which you need a license) is registered with law enforcement agencies, and the store must report on its sales, providing data on customers. The sellers, buyers, and societies in which buyers-hunters are members are registered with the ATS.
The assortment of the weapons store is quite extensive, and includes all kinds of products for self-defense and hunting. These include the following products:
I. Small arms manual, individual use directly. It is divided, in turn, into three components (this group does not conditionally include crossbows and bows):
a. Pneumatic The safest weapon, which operates on the principle of compressed gas (usually CO 2 ) and shoots with small steel balls. It is suitable for shooting at sparrows and empty cans, although it can cause significant harm to humans (however, the same damage can be done with a simple stick, and edged weapons are even more dangerous in experienced hands). Neither for sale, nor for the use of "pneumatics" requires special permission, so it is sold to all adult citizens. There is no serious danger.
b. Traumatic, civil defense weapons. For its implementation, purchase and maintenance, an appropriate license is needed. The buyers of this category of goods are, perhaps, the most disadvantageous customers, because they buy a gun once for several years ahead, and cartridges (which, by the way, rubber) are rarely purchased, because buying a “trauma” is insurance in case of self-defense. Recently, however, more and more people are thinking about personal protection, so the sale of such products will probably only increase. With due desire and perseverance, you can severely cripple and even kill a person from a traumatic gun. The products of this and the previous group are often made similar to real guns.
c. Hunting This includes full-fledged firearms, pump-action shotguns for professional hunting, and the like. To sell such a product, the buyer must be required not only a license, but also a hunting ticket. Reporting on these products is the most serious, and maintaining an entire arms depot can be quite dangerous. However, it differs from combat firearms in its focus on shooting at animals.
II. Ammunition for the above categories. Rubber bullets, steel balls, rifle cartridges, pellets and even idle charges.
III. Adaptations to all the same guns. First of all, these are professional optics (night and thermal vision), individual NVD devices and thermal imagers; this includes laser pointers, underbarrel flashlights, even bayonets and the like. Silencers and PBCs cannot be sold, although this ban only applies to civilian and service weapons.
IV. Throwing weapons with the exception of grenades. This includes crossbows, bows, slingshots and even boomerangs. In fact, the legislation is not clearly defined with these weapons; since boomerangs can’t be practically used, crossbows and bows must have a pulling force of up to a certain parameter (with an excess, however, products for sale are not made), but hunting with such products is rather difficult due to legal difficulties. In fact, they are mostly bought for sports and training shooting. No license needed.
V. Stun guns, batons, gas cans and other devices for self-defense. Sold freely.
VI. Holsters and covers, belts for weapons and more. Sold not only for firearms, but even for pneumatic weapons.
VII. Special clothes. This includes all kinds of camouflage and hunting practical clothes. The main thing is that their appearance does not correspond to the form of the form of any state structures.
Viii. Steel arms. First of all, these are hunting knives, but there may also be more serious products. You can sell it without a license, but the buyer has no right to use it everywhere.
IX. Souvenir products, as well as all kinds of accessories.
Currently, there are a large number of suppliers of all these products, which offer products from different companies and even countries. Recently, fairly high-quality products have been manufactured by Russian enterprises, and the quality of direct firearms of Russian gunsmiths has never been satisfactory, so Russian rifles and rifles for hunting are more in demand than their foreign counterparts. Moreover, it is worth noting that the margin in stores for such products is quite large for relatively rarely purchased and expensive products, and can reach 60%. For a product of 5 thousand rubles, this is a fairly serious economic indicator. For ammunition, the mark-up can be even higher, because they are cheaper than the weapon itself, and they are bought much more often. Cartridges, especially in hunter-oriented stores, are becoming a very important source of income. If there is a shooting range nearby, then not only visitors, but also the organizers of the shooting gallery will buy up ammunition, but they will probably have to agree on wholesale sales.
Specific goods (such as pneumatic pistols, souvenirs, clothes and stun guns) that do not require a license will be sold well - the population is also interested in (especially men, of course) weapons, and you can buy such products only in specialized stores. Professional hunters, as a rule, do not buy a gun often (every few years), but they bring a lot of money when buying, because a comfortable hunt is possible not only with a good rifle, but also with auxiliary tools and related equipment. However, here, as elsewhere, the main source of income is consumables and inexpensive general goods.
Opening your own weapons store is a complex, long and tedious undertaking, which, in overcoming all the initial difficulties, can bring a very substantial income to the entrepreneur.
Matthias Laudanum
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08/18/2019