After sixteen years, there is talk of carrying weapons in Ecuador again. It was on June 6, 2007, when Ministerial Agreement 619 temporarily suspended the import of weapons and ammunition into the country, and these items were also taxed with a 300% special consumption tax (ICE). Then, in 2012, a reform was implemented for athletes and shooting clubs.

This is how Daniel Zunino remembers it, part of the fourth generation of the Comercial Zunino company, which since 1905 has been dedicated to importing weapons and other goods. Now the issue of the legal carrying of weapons for civilians is back in force with the announcement by the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, on April 1st, of amending the decree to once again allow the legal carrying and possession of weapons for civilian use.

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Those who were engaged in the import of weapons before the 2007 regulation are also on the trail, and some who engaged in other commercial activities do not rule out the continuation of that business. The former arms importer, who does not want to mention his name, notes that he was engaged in this business for about fifteen years and stayed until 2015, when he decided to devote himself to another commercial activity related to the export of products.

The entrepreneur recalls that he imported weapons from the United States, England and Singapore for private, military and police needs.

“Importing weapons into the country had many filters that had to be met. Security filters, control filters for both export and import, the whole process was highly regulated”, notes the former importer, who points out that there were bad times and good times, but everything depended a lot on liquidity. factor..

“Many of my clients were sportsmen, for hunting. These were the most regular clients, some from security companies, but mainly for sports, i.e. for target shooting”, reveals the entrepreneur, who assures that there is always a possibility to continue this business, although he admits that since it is a regulated part of the business, it is necessary to obtain a lot license, and the acquisition of weapons by clients is very delayed due to all the psychological, shooting and other tests they have to pass.

However, regardless of whether he will continue with this activity after 16 years, the entrepreneur agrees that civilians can also carry weapons, considering it a means of deterring crime.

“Obviously, the criminal doesn’t know if he has a house he wants to rob or a business he wants to rob at the moment or if he doesn’t have a weapon. So it becomes quite a deterrent problem in that regard. On the ground, I would tell you that it is also quite positive, because it obviously generates deterrent actions as well,” he comments.

Zunino agrees with him: “At that time (the beginning of Comercial Zunino) it was unimaginable to think that a merchant or a peasant did not have a weapon for his personal defense, it was their tool for work, a weapon was one of the many products that our company in addition to agricultural goods, it also imported chemicals, liquors and other industrial inputs, such as a large wholesale supermarket”, explains the entrepreneur, who points out that after the ban on the import of weapons, the business devoted itself to the sale of hardware products. and other investments.

Zunino also gives a vision of what the business of importing and selling weapons looked like before 2007.

Remember importers had to go through a series of steps to get their license, they had to be of impeccable conduct or they would never qualify. Correctness, honesty and respect were the virtues that a company engaged in this activity should demonstrate. There was to be no ambiguity or other unrelated commercial purposes, closed offices were not allowed, their premises must be open to the public in commercial buildings with infrastructure and building type suitable for the storage of ammunition and explosives, fire permits and patents municipal, belonging to the Chamber of Commerce of Guayaquil, among other requirements.

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“People had the opportunity to visit the warehouse and see what kind of weapons they were interested in for personal safety or work. Negotiations were conducted as long as they met all parameters: psychological examination, tests and practice”. Zunino adds that after going through the process, which could take weeks, even months, they received qualification permits and only then were the weapons delivered to them, all documentation certified and signed, just as it works in many countries that have arms stores.

Since it was such a controlled business, there were also import quotas.

Comercial Zunino’s quota was quite limited, he recalls, revealing that they could import 25 pistols, 25 revolvers and 50 shotguns. “Then the information was presented to confirm and be able to make a new order, everything took time.” His clients were trading, industrial and agricultural companies that equipped their employees with weapons, respecting everything prescribed by law, and the persons who used weapons were recorded.

The company still maintains records of ammunition and weapons in which all commercial movements are recorded. Zunino also shows the documents that made the arms import business possible, letters of thanks and honors like the one that the Joint Command of the Armed Forces gave to Santiago Zunino, the third generation of the business, in the Cenepa War (1995).

Regarding whether the company will continue to import weapons after the announcement on April 1, Zunino believes that important steps have been taken for this, such as the reduction of ICE from 300% to 30% at the beginning of the year, but regrets that there were no new weapons on market, everything is old.

For the entrepreneur, it is necessary to reform the Ministerial Agreement 619 in order to enable the “legitimate” importer to perform its functions, offering the market a new product, with low customs duties and regulated by the competent authorities.

“A security guard cannot bring himself to intervene in an attack that takes place in front of the bank he is guarding”

According to the National Customs Service (Senae), there are 172 foreign trade operators who imported weapons from 2018 to March 2023, subject to prior control by the Joint Command of the Armed Forces. Thus, from 2018 to this year, weapons were imported for $533,859.

The most was imported in 2021 with $225,730, and so far in 2023, from January to March, imports reach $45,364.

As for whether there has been an increase in arms imports this year compared to the same periods in previous years, driven by a drop in ICE from 300% to 30%, Senae indicates that “there is no connection in the drop in ICE with arms imports, since it depends on the approval of the import request from the Joint Command of the Armed Forces”. And from now on, “the increase in the import of weapons will depend on how many permits the Joint Command of the Armed Forces issues, given that the measure came into effect on Saturday, April 1, 2023. year”.