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Venezuela Bans the Commercial Sale of Firearms and Ammunition

Bob the Super Hamste writes "The BBC is reporting on a new law in Venezuela that effectively bans the commercial sale of firearms and ammunition to private citizens. Previously anyone with a permit could purchase a firearm from any commercial vendor but now only the police, military, and security firms will be able to purchase firearms or ammunition from only state-owned manufactures or importers. Hugo Chavez's government states that the goal is to eventually disarm the citizenry. The law, which went into effect today, was passed on February 29th, and up to this point the government has been running an amnesty program allowing citizens to turn in their illegal firearms. Since the law was first passed, 805,000 rounds of ammunition have been recovered from gun dealers. The measure is intended to curb violent crime in Venezuela, where 78% of homicides are linked to firearms."

4 of 828 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah.... sure... by jittles · · Score: 5, Informative

    LOL! I Lived in Venezuela for a year and I don't believe that this is to prevent street crime. When I lived there, it was dangerous to ride a nice bike in certain areas because street criminals would stab you and take your bike. They wouldn't ask, they would just take it before you had the chance to do anything. Was that common? No. But it happened. I think this has more to do with keeping Hugo in command, especially with his failing health. Most people there can't afford guns, or ammo. They have armed security guards at Wendy's. They give them a shotgun with a couple of shells, or an old beat-up revolver with just a couple of bullets. Why? Because they don't want the guards selling the guns/ammo for cash.

    I was there for the infamous 11 de Abril, in 2002 when Hugo was temporarily replaced in a military coup. I don't think he has forgotten that day, and never will.

  2. Re:So.... by interkin3tic · · Score: 5, Informative
    And that's not a trivial number either. MOST gun deaths are suicides.

    7,352 (55.6%) of the total 31,224 firearm-related deaths in 2007 due to suicide, while 12,632 (40.5%) were homicide deaths.[6]

    Disclaimer: I'd probably be labeled as a gun-control extremist and enemy of freedom by the NRA and plenty of slashdotters, but a massively flawed study is a massively flawed study.

  3. Re:So.... by geekoid · · Score: 5, Informative

    Wrong.

    The numbers come from w32-w34 statistics which don't include suicide.
    There is very specific and clearly spelled out metrics.

    Example:
    Firearm deaths:
                                                                                    99 00 01 02
    Unintentional (W32–W34) 824 776 802 762
    Suicide . . . . (X72–X74) 16,599 16,586 16,869 17,108

    Clearly the are broken out.

    http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/nvsr/nvsr54/nvsr54_10.pdf

    When I saw w23-w34 and you DON"T know what I am talking about, then you aren't qualified to have an opinion with any real weight behind it.

    Also:
    According to the CDC, a child dies every 3 days from an unintentional gun shot.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  4. Re:So.... by bigkahunah · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think you are missing a 1 in front of that 7,352...