Sankt-Peterburg, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
Based on the analysis of the conceptual framework of the Federal Law of the Russian Federation dated December 13, 1996, No. 150-FZ "On Weapons", as well as forensic literature, the opinion is expressed that the concepts of "weapons", "firearms of limited destruction", and "signal weapons" contained therein are incorrect. A proposal has been made to amend Article 1 of the Law of the Russian Federation "On Weapons", for which the words "... to give signals" should be removed from the concept of weapons, and the words "... barreleless weapons" should be removed from the concept of limited firearms. The concept of "signal weapon" should be excluded from the list of concepts in Article 1. It is indicated that it is advisable to build a list of concepts of the Law of the Russian Federation "On Weapons" taking into account the division of weapons production products into the following groups: weapons (firearms, pneumatic, cold and throwing); non-lethal self-defense equipment; non-military, industrial, household and sports products structurally similar to weapons. Using the example of the design analysis of the smoothbore rifle TG-2S cal. 366 TCM The author points out a gap in domestic legislation on weapons, which does not cover the legal response to the installation of external muzzle-loading rifled devices on civilian smoothbore weapons. It is noted that the expert's conclusion based on the results of a forensic ballistic study on the cartridge's belonging to ammunition is of a forensic rather than procedural nature, and does not conflict with the substance of the investigator's (inquirer's) legal assessment of the evidence obtained by expert means.
legislation, arms trafficking, smoothbore shotgun, ammunition, expert research, methodology.
1. Akhanov V. S. Forensic examination of firearms and traces of their use. Text-book for universities of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Volgograd: Higher School of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR; 1979: 232. (In Russ.).
2. Forensic examination of weapons and traces of their use. Textbook. Part 1. Ed. by V. A. Ruchkin, I. A. Chulkov. Volgograd: Volgograd Academy of the Ministry of the Interior of Russia; 2004: 316. (In Russ.).
3. Kokin A. V., Yarmak K. V. Forensic ballistics and forensic ballistic examina-tion. Textbook for university students studying in the specialty "Forensic examina-tion". Moscow: UNITY-DANA: Law and right; 2015: 350. (In Russ.).
4. Mikhailov L. E. Designs of small automatic weapons. Moscow: Central Re-search Institute of Information; 1983: 180. (In Russ.).
5. Babak F. K. Fundamentals of small arms. Saint Petersburg: Polygon; 2003: 256. (In Russ.).
6. Methodology for determining the belonging of an object to firearms. Moscow: Forensic Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia; 2000: 12. (In Russ.).
7. Kokin A. V., Likhachev A. S., Semushkin I. S. Methodology for establishing the name of the cartridge, determining the weapon for which it is intended, and the suit-ability of the cartridge for firing a shot. Moscow: Russian Federal Forensic Center under the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation; 2021: 18. (In Russ.).
8. Dildin Y. M. (et al.) Standard methodology of the expert decision on the as-signment of cartridges to the category of ammunition. Methodological recommenda-tions. Expert practice, 10–16, 2008. (In Russ.).
