Gun sales surge in Lviv amid Ukraine war

(23 Mar 2022) The rush for guns and gun training continued in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Wednesday, with the queue at one gun range including one man who hadn't fired a gun since serving in the Soviet army.
"I bought a gun to see how it feels. To (know how to) shoot nowadays is very important, you need to know about everything," Ihor Oprysk said.
The gun shop owner, Zakhar Sluzhalyy, said they offered 700 kinds of weapons before Russia's invasion and were now down to 40.
"The gun (sales) boom started 3 or 4 weeks before the war began," Sluzhalyy said.
He acknowledged how difficult it would be for new gun owners without experience to successfully shoot a target, but added they "understood that they needed something for self-defence."
All guns are best-sellers now, he said, pulling an $800 Kalashnikov adapted for civilian use from behind the counter.
The supply of rifles and other such hunting weapons from abroad has become more difficult because logistics have been disrupted by the war, Sluzhalyy said.
The state of the war has meant gun purchasing in Ukraine has been streamlined, with a monthlong permit procedure now simplified down to two days, he added.
He's seeing ten-times the visitors at his and says almost all the new clients are coming for self-defence.

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