Gun ownership among Russians, increasingly for self-defense rather than hunting or target practice, has risen dramatically since Putin launched his expanded war in Ukraine in 2022; and most experts expect it to rise still further as veterans bring back guns from the frontlines.

 These experts suggest that there now may be as many as 30 million guns in private hands, far more than the fraction of that number officials concede; but most attention to has been about guns in federal subjects far from the capital........

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