After three men were shot with a rubber bullet gun over a parking spot in Bucharest, the Romanian authorities say they plan to tighten the legislation for non-lethal gun ownership.

Domestic Affairs Minister Radu Stroe recently said the procedures for owning a fire arm for self defense purposes have been re-started, making it harder to get this kind of weapons.

He further explained psychological testing will be more sophisticated, and all those who own fire arms for self defense could be re-tested.

For those who will want to apply for self defense gun ownership, new tests will be introduced, including a practical and theoretical one, which will results in a more serious selection of rubber bullet or gas guns owners.

The most recent street incident over a parking place in the Dristor neighborhood in Bucharest involved four men, three of which were shot with rubber bullets. The fourth sustained a head injury after being beaten with bats. All four were taken to the hospital but they sustained minor injuries, and were all conscious. The Police are currently investigating the incident.

In the beginning of 2013, the Police found 1,500 illegal non-lethal weapons, whose owners did not have the needed permits. The previous year, in 2012, the Police doubled the amount of weapons sent to be scrapped or decommissioned in 2012 on the previous year.

The 1,343 weapons, which include lethal and non-lethal weapons and guns, were taken by the Bucharest Police after licenses to own them expired. The figure was 93 percent up on 2011 and resulted largely from a police crackdown on weapons following a fatal shooting in Bucharest in early 2012.

editor@romania-insider.com