Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the control of arms and ammunition in the context of criminal law and criminalistics

The Criminal Code of the Republic of Lithuania (CC) entered into force on 1 May 2003. A notion of a firearm is referred to in the new Criminal Code establishing criminal liability aggravating circumstances, qualifying such criminal acts as robbery, contraband, being a party to the offence, seizure of aircraft. Furthermore, the notion of a firearm is also implied in the Articles establishing liability for illegal disposal of firearms, their seizure as well as laying down the violation of rules of firearms' keeping. There are presented some elucidations concerning the notions in the Criminal Code of the Re- public of Lithuania; however, the elucidation of the notion of a firearm is not provided in the Code. Naturally, the Lithuanian Criminal Law along with Criminal Law of other countries is not analysing the notion of a firearm. Thus, the notion of a firearm was first introduced in the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Control of Arms and Ammunition in 1996. The notion has not contradicted recent the notion of a firearm in decades already settled in Criminal Law and society. The new notion of a firearm was established in the new Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Control of Arms and Ammunition that came into force on 1 July 2003. Besides, that new notion, actually, differs from the previous notion. Firearms include pneumatic arms, gas pistols and revolvers as well as arms with strings and even signal arms in the new Law.The question on how to approach these arms arise while they are being used in committing criminal acts such as robbery, seizure of aircraft, the organization or provocation of riots, etc. Thus, the handling of the firearm is a qualifying feature of the crime or an aggravating circumstance (CC Article 60, Subsection 10). It is reckoned that the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Control of Arms and Ammunition needs a more thorough analysis and comments of the specialists of Criminal Law and Criminalistics. In any case, criminalistic evaluation of the firearms is necessary to accomplish in both regulating civil circulation of the firearms and legally evaluating crimes related to the illegal circulation of the firearms and their handling. At present, some new amendments to the Law of the Republic of Lithuania on the Control of Arms and Ammunition are being prepared. Thus, it is a good opportunity to amend some of the most obvious gaps that have occurred in the Law as mentioned above and the best way to do it is by pooling the efforts of the representatives of Criminalistics