People believe they must protect themselves. For those Russians who want to stack the odds in their favour, the legal options are on display at the Kalchuga Gun Shop, a huge firearm emporium located barely a block from the Kremlin. It sells a wide range of shotguns and hunting rifles, available to any customer who can prove to his local police department that he is in good health and has no criminal record. These are perfect replicas of real weapons, capable of firing a high-velocity stream of tear gas that can knock a person unconscious at 5 metres. Ladies get small ones to carry in their purses.
Men prefer big ones, with holsters slung under their arms.
Basically they all want the self-confidence a weapon provides. We sell them faster than we can get them in. Also, what people are choosing to carry around with them is growing more frightening all the time. Private ownership of military-style firearms is unlawful in Russia. The daily Komsomolskaya Pravda recently surveyed the illegal arms bazaar, and found much of the vast array of death-dealing hardware being offered is the former property of Russia's impoverished and demoralized armed forces.