Ensuring human rights by law enforcement officers while using firearms: comparative legal analysis

Currently, the legislation of the Russian Federation contains fairly extensive and diverse legal norms for the use of firearms by law enforcement officers. The right to use firearms takes a special place among the powers that law enforcement officers are entitled to. On the one hand, this authority, like no other, deeply invades the sphere of the fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens and is associated with a high risk of serious and irreversible consequences, including deprivation of life; on the other, it is an effective means of protecting the rights and lawful interests of law-abiding citizens and the employees themselves from socially dangerous encroachments on the part of persons who knowingly and rudely violate the law. Based on the analysis of legislation and practice of its application, the author justifies the necessity and the possibility of supplementing and amending certain norms of federal laws regulating the use of firearms by law enforcement officers. It is proposed to unify similar legal norms of various legislative acts that deal with exceptions to the general rules of the ban on the use of firearms. As the main condition for further improvement of legal regulation in this area of public relations, the author proposes the harmonization of the provisions of federal laws with the criminal legislation of the Russian Federation and finding the optimal balance in using the achievements of domestic legal science and law enforcement practice.