The number of weapons permits withdrawn in the Community by the Civil Guard has increased considerably in recent years to reach an average of 1,700 per year, which represents 1.5 percent of the total awarded. The activation of files in the Comprehensive Monitoring System for Cases of Gender Violence (Viogen) is the main reason why the license to use a weapon is lost, followed by the accumulation of criminal records, in addition to judicial resolutions , serious infractions, hunting offenses or judicial resolutions or even a history of behavior that lead the authorities to the conviction that the possession of weapons presents a risk to the rest of the citizens.
Lieutenant Colonel Santiago García Martínez, specialist in armed intervention and member of the staff of the Civil Guard Zone of Castilla y León, explains that in recent years the withdrawal of licenses has increased significantly due to the increase in the number of cases integrated into the Viogen system .
At the same time, García Martínez also explains that the effectiveness of arms control has improved exponentially thanks to the use of databases that alert each command when a person in possession of a license commits an offense Or crime that results in a criminal record or when you test positive on an alcohol test. In this case, the license is not withdrawn for the first positive case, but in the event of a repeat occurrence.
Despite this increase in the number of licenses withdrawn, the main cause which causes each year gun permits are reduced, it’s the lack of generational change in hunting. In this sense, García Martínez points out that while permits for hunting rifles have decreased by approximately 8 percent in the last five years, permits for shooting with weapons have increased by more than 15 percent. In addition, he also claims that more than 62 percent of licenses belong to people over 50 years old, so more and more elderly people are coming to lay down their weapons due to lack of use.
In 2012, Castilla y León reached the record number of 142,909 licenses. Since then, a decline of 20.2 percent has been recorded, to 114,003 this year, although since 2020, when 115,173 were counted, the declines have continued.
By provincesLeón leads with 27,706 licenses, followed closely by Salamanca (17,279), Burgos (14,383), Valladolid (12,190) and Zamora (11,620). At the opposite end is Segovia, with 6,681 licenses, followed by Soria (7,079), Palencia (7,224) and Ávila (9,849).
Regarding the type of weapon, the small game hunting rifles represent 60.8 percentwith 69,364, while big game rifles, with 37,496 licenses, account for 32.9 percent. In third place, but accounting for only 1.8 percent, are licenses granted to private security personnel, which total 2,041, ahead of sporting weapons shooting, with 1,822 (1.6 percent).
