The author spends his childhood in USSR. There, he learns to disassemble and reassemble a Kalashnikov AK- 74 with his eyes closed. In today’s independent Ukraine, it is only judges and members of the parliament who have a legal right to own weapons for self-defense. Nevertheless, everyone is able to buy a non-automatic hunting weapon. Weapon purchases from Ukrainian people have increased signifi cantly after the series of tragic events in 2014 – the Euromaidan, the Crimea annexation by the Russian Federation, the war in Donbass. The number of owners of rifl es and fi rearms reaches from 560 thousand in 2014 to nearly 890 thousand in March 2016. Russia’s persistent aggressive role against Ukraine has turned weapons into an amulet-like thing for every family.