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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."
Who will they blame when gun violence goes up?
---- Fight to protect your right to keep and arm bears! ummmm... ya I think that's right....
While I think this is a good law in theory, I'm worried that it's merely a way to prevent the populace from fighting back against an increasingly autocratic regime.
Disarming the citizenry in a dictatorship is SOP. Isn't Hugo running behind on that?
"The measure is intended to curb violent crime in Venezuela, where 78% of homicides are linked to firearms."
That's what Venezuela claims. In reality, the government prefers a citizenry armed with sticks and rocks when the inevitable revolt comes to pass.
The only time you'll need the second amendment is when they try to take it away.
The United States has more guns than people. If the guns were causing the crime, we'd live in a post-apocalypse already.
And forks make people fat.
The only people who will voluntarily give up firearms (or refrain from buying them on the black market) are by definition law abiding persons. It is amazingly stupid to disarm the good guys. We have some of the same stupidity legislated some places here in the USA.
Breaking news. Full story at eleven...
...badly! If you live in Venezuela, GTFO now! But then again, the election of Hugo Chavez should have been your first clue. Isn't that right comrade?
Life is not for the lazy.
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.
100% of Homicides are linked to humans killing each other, regardless of implement.
Seriously, this is all about cementing a communist regime and preventing armed rebellion by the people.
Only the army, military, mercs, and criminals will have guns. Average Jose/Josefina Citizen will be stuck in the middle unable to defend themselves from gangs or oppression.
...are condemned to repeat it.
Past tyrants are, I'm sure, cheering from the grave.
Is he planning on coming back as a zombie to rule? Their constitution will have nothing to do with him keeping him out of office, his death from cancer will though.
If the end goal is to reduce homicide, why don't they just make homicide illegal? This reminds me of the "ban large sodas" article form the other day... Politicians like to think they can influence human behavior by passing clever laws... (The collective brainpower of the masses will eventually outwit/underwit/circumvent any genius plan small groups of politicians create)
You really think criminals give a SHIT about the Law?
Well done, Hugo, you might as well just put up a sign reading: "Welcome to Venezuela, our citizens are unarmed; please rob, rape and murder at leisure."
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
"The measure is intended to curb violent crime in Venezuela, where 78% of homicides are linked to firearms."
That's what Venezuela claims. In reality, the government prefers a citizenry armed with sticks and rocks when the inevitable revolt comes to pass.
I might have a slightly different perspective (given that I come from Nicaragua, a country that used to be plagued by civil wars and tyrannical regimes.) There is a lot of truth that violent crime is up to levels never seen before in Venezuela's history (same in other countries, like Honduras and Mexico.)
Violent crimes are simply too much for the government (tyrannical or not) to handle. A general dissarmament (coupled with other social changes) can curb violent crime in poor countries with poorly developed (or unmaintained) social institutions. And by social changes I mean more pluralistic participation, increased professionalization of the police and armed forces, an opening of markets, however poor the country might be, and an atmosphere devoid of continuous civil strife.
I do not believe the Venezuelan government is simply trying to disarm the civilian population just to remain in power. I'm not a Chavez-sympathizer, au contrair, I loathe everything he stands for. However, this is just too simplistic an explanation, one well suited for playing arm-chair conspiracy theories. It also neglects to acknowledge that a substantial % of the population supports him (populism sells for the simple, destitute masses.)
They Venezuelan authorities have a substantial criminal violence problem in their hands, and this is one necessary (but not sufficient) step to curb it. It will fall short given that all the other necessary ingredients to make it work.
And that is the sad mark of incompetent regimes: to take uneducated, incomplete shortcuts to solve extremelly complex socio-economic problems.
...and highly misleading. Chavez is dying of cancer and I'd be willing to bet that they are trying to prevent a revolution following the death of their dictator.
There's Washington DC. They have some of the toughest gun laws in the US, yet also one of the highest violent crime and murder rates.
So you have to ask is it really the gun laws doing it, or do the places have lower crime for other reasons?
You have to realize that there are many different conditions in different countries that lead to different crime rates. One example is Canada, quite a low homicide rate. Now they aren't nearly as gun friendly as the US (but then pretty much nobody is) but civilians can get firearms up to things like AR-15s. Also guns could easily be illegally smuggled from the US, since the border security is very, very lax.
It isn't as easy as just saying "Oh well this European country doesn't allow guns and they have less crime." Ok sure, but maybe they just have less crime period. The guns don't make much difference.
There is no constitutional right to own firearms or any kind of weapon in Venezuela. But there are weapons everywhere. Convicts in our prisons have firearms, and in the last big mutiny in “La Planta” jail in the capital city Caracas, they confronted the military with pistols and automatic rifles for several days with several casualties among the civilian population living nearby. Our vice-president in a government meeting asked the commander in chief of the Venezuelan army, why the jail interns have ammunition belonging to the Venezuelan army. That ended in a quarrel, of course.
From the beginning of this year, at least seventeen policemen in Caracas have been killed by criminals to steal their weapons. So, in Venezuela we can not buy legally firearms, foreign currency, maize oil, etc. But we can acquire those good illegally from the government party members and officials through unemployed street sellers (buhoneros).
The reason for forbidding the legal purchase of firearms is just public relations in face of a presidential election. But the government uses mobs named “colectivos”, armed by the government itself, to harass the opposition parties and media.
On one side we have the "Pry my gun out of cold dead hand" coalition, on the other "let's arm everyone with daises and sing Kumbaya" brotherhood. Both believe they have the moral high ground and both are offended the other won't stop being ignorant and change their point of view. Jeeze, let's just agree to disagree. Guns are tools. They are tools specifically designed to kill. There are societies with lots of guns and societies with none at all. There are societies which have evolved in the presence of guns, and therefore have incorporated guns into their social fabric so making blanket statements pro or con is just being ignorant and ill informed and you can't compare societies with guns and ones without.
The folks who think we need guns to fight our government are deluded. I'm sorry but your gun in the face of air to ground laser guided missiles is fighting a samarai katana with a wet noodle... good luck with that. Get a reality check, if your government turns on you, you will be out gunned, out manned, and at the mercy of technology over which you have no hope of beating. WAKE UP. For those of you who think arming yourself against street crime is stupid, you clearly aren't paying attention to the state of street gangs and the violent mentally ill wandering our streets. That said, the best experts I've ever heard on the subject all say the best answer by far is to learn critical self defense techniques including basic knife fighting and defense with and against guns. Trained self defense is always with you (you'll never discover you left it at home when you need it) and any way the most effective defense technology available is "Run Fu" or don't be there when the schist and the fan collide.
So please enough of the Rambo thinking, its a fantasy, and my darlings on the other side, please man up, its a scary world and being prepared for bad news before its bad news about you is a very intelligent way to get to a ripe old age.
... including Chavez supporters and ALL THE OPOSITION. In fact, this is the ONLY issue, after 13 years, where both sides agree completely.
(sorry, posted as anonymous by mistake. this is not redundant)
It's very easy to have an opinion when you live in a first world country. But when you have experienced the level of violence on the streets (regardless of your support or not for the regime), this measure is like a (small) breath of air.
Our situation is very different than in other countries. In all my life I've seen, while walking on the street, 4 people get killed by gunshots. All of them robberies. How many people can claim to have witnessed that much crime while simply walking on the street? And the first one was when I was 10 years old ... long before Chavez.
Violence runs on the blood of the people here. It's a really sad state of affairs. You can be shot for not letting a car pass, or just looking at the wrong woman on the street.
I'm not saying that this is a perfect solution, or that this will solve all of our problems. This will not solve the deep problems that cause people to kill each other like nothing happened. But for once EVERYONE is at least trying, regardless of political views. And I really hope they succeed.
Life isn't like a box of chocolates. It's more like a jar of jalapenos. What you do today, might burn your ass tomorrow.