INTERNATIONAL AND REGIONAL INSTRUMENTS 31 use, inter alia, handcuffs, rubber and electric sticks, and guns loaded with tear gas or rubber bullets’.82 More recently, however, there has also been a realization that the widespread sale and proliferation of such devices is having an adverse effect on different social issues, in particular, levels of crime. Certain states, including Kazakhstan, are now legislating to curb the civilian possession of certain less-lethal weapons—in particular, launched kinetic-impact (‘traumatic’) weapons, which are commonly manufactured in China, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine, among other countries. According to the Kazakh Interior Ministry, the number of crimes committed with less-lethal weapons more than doubled between 2010 and 2012. A 2013 article highlighting the ways in which the Kazakh Government was aiming to control the numbers of less-lethal weapons in public hands stated: About 36 000 Kazakhstanis own more than 40 000 non-lethal weapons, according to the government. In 2012, Kazakhstanis committed 245 crimes using non-lethal weapons. That number represents more than half of all crimes involving firearms and more than a fourth of crimes involving any kind of weapon, according to the Interior Ministry (MVD).83 The article further states that such devices are attractive because of their relatively low cost combined with the difficulty in obtaining ballistic evidence when they are used in the commission of a crime. Options considered included raising the age criteria for ownership, re-designating such devices as military weapons (thus limiting ownership) and implementing harsher punishments for misuse, rather than a complete prohibition.84 It has subsequently been reported that the Kazakh Government has approved a $13.3-million programme to buy back ‘traumatic’ less-lethal weapons with money allocated from the 2014–16 budgets.85 Other states in the region have also been taking steps to address the wide-scale proliferation of such devices. For example, in 2013 the President of Tajikistan issued a decree prohibiting, until the end of the year, the manufacture, acquisition, possession and use of gas-powered and pneumatic weapons.86 82 Mandakhbat, S., Deputy Director of Legal Policy Department, Ministry of Justice and Home Affairs, Mongolia, Workshop Report (2012), The Montreux Document on Private Military and Security Companies. Proceedings of the Regional Workshop for North East and Central Asia, <http://www.dcaf.ch/Publications/The-Montreux-Document-on-Private-Military-and-SecurityCompanies-Proceedings-of-the-Regional-Workshop-for-North-East-and-Central-Asia>. p. 15. 83 Central Asia Online (2013), ‘Kazakhstan to limit use of non-lethal weapons’, <http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/features/main/2013/04/18/feature-01?mobile=true>. 84 A Russian manufacturer of electric-shock weapons states that certain high-powered versions of their products are only available to the Interior Ministry. See e.g. <http://www.shoker.ru/shop/mvd/>. 85 Central Asia Online (2013), ‘Kazakhstan approves weapons buy-back project’, <http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/newsbriefs/2013/05/29/newsbrief-14?mobile=true>. 86 Central Asia Online (2013), ‘Tajiks ban non-lethal weapons until the end of the year’, <http://centralasiaonline.com/en_GB/articles/caii/newsbriefs/2013/10/04/newsbrief-14?mobile=true>.