ST. PETERSBURG, March 9 (RAPSI, Mikhail Telekhov) — A court of appeals has reaffirmed a decision of the St. Petersburg City Court as to the legality of the ban on the transport of weapons in the city’s metro, the Committee for Transport of St. Petersburg informs RAPSI on Tuesday.

The respective decision was passed by the Second Court of Appeals of General Jurisdiction, where several applicants sought to overturn the earlier ruling of the lower instance court, which said that transport of weapons by subway was unlawful under the metro rules.

According to the said regulations, it is forbidden to transport weapons, weapons’ main components, ammunition, explosives or other dangerous devices, objects and substances in the metro, if those are not transported in the interests of state paramilitary organizations by their duly appointed officers.

The applicants argued that the ban on the transport of weapons by civilians was introduced without reservations or clarifications. Their submissions say that inspectors of the Metro Transport Security Service do not allow those who have licenses and official permits to carry weapons, and that inspectors often prohibit passengers with gas canisters and gas pistols from entering the metro, although those devices are not on the ban list.

The City Transport Committee noted that the ban on transporting weapons in the metro does not limit the rights of legal owners of weapons to transport them on the territory of St. Petersburg by other means of transport. Thus, according to the rules for the use of land passenger transport in St. Petersburg, the transport of firearms is allowed in cases, holsters or cases on conditions that weapons are to be unloaded, and the cartridges are kept separately.