10 percent rise in weapons used by civilians in Turkey in first three months of 2017

The number of weapons used by civilians in Turkey rose by 10 percent in the first three months of 2017, according to statistics released by the Interior Ministry. 

The total number of licensed weapons used by civilians reached 338,052 with the increase, the ministry said upon a parliamentary question regarding individual arming by independent lawmaker Aylin Nazlıaka. 

When the number of renewed, newly-bought and transferred licensed weapons is examined for the first three months of 2017, it is seen that there are 71,202 weapons in Istanbul. It was followed by the capital Ankara with 50,084 weapons, the western province of İzmir with 12,574, the Black Sea province of Trabzon with 10,273, the southeastern province of Gaziantep with 10,063, the southern province of Antalya with 8,171, the northwestern province of Kocaeli with 7,918, the Central Anatolian province of Konya with 7,462 and the southeastern province of Diyarbakır with 6,119. 

When submitting her parliamentary question, Nazlıaka referred to statistics released by the Umut (Hope) Foundation, established with the sole purpose of combatting individual armed violence in Turkey, which kills thousands every year.  

Nazlıaka cited the Umut Foundation's report on 2016, which stated that there are nearly 20 million individual weapons in circulation in Turkey, of which 85 percent are unlicensed. The foundation stated that there are 2.5 million licensed weapons and 17 million unlicensed weapons. 

"What was the number of weapons across Turkey at the end of 2011 and what was the number at the end of 2016? What was the number by March 2017?" Nazlıaka asked. 

According to the Interior Ministry, the number of renewed, newly-bought and transferred licensed weapons was 614...