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Friday, June 1, 2012

Private gun ownership banned in Venezuela

A worker destroys a weapon confiscated by the police during a news conference in Caracas May 18 2012.

Venezuela has brought a new gun law into effect which bans the commercial sale of firearms and ammunition.
Until now, anyone with a gun permit could buy arms from a private company.
Under the new law, only the army, police and certain groups like security companies will be able to buy arms from the state-owned weapons manufacturer and importer.
The ban is the latest attempt by the government to improve security and cut crime ahead of elections in October
Venezuela saw more than 18,000 murders last year and the capital, Caracas, is thought to be one of the most dangerous cities in Latin America.

‘Must do more’

The government has been running a gun amnesty in the run-up to the introduction of the new law to try to encourage people to give up their illegal arms without fear of consequences.
One member of the public in Caracas told the BBC: “They’re killing people every day. This law is important but they need to do more, they’re not doing enough now.”
Hugo Chavez’s government says the ultimate aim is to disarm all civilians…. (Read the rest of the story)
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I know a civilian firearms instructor from Venezuela who wont be pleased with this. He was wounded once during a mugging attempt but managed to kill both attackers because he was armed (and he shoots like a machine, amazing speed and accuracy). I suppose he will move to Argentina now.
People, what’s happening in Venezuela goes to show that freedom and the right to own firearms are strongly connected.
Only authoritarian dictators disarm law abiding people.
FerFAL

17 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sadly, if you do a poll most people in Latin American countries would agree the gun control is the solution.

Jose

Joseph said...

I don't imagine disarming citizens is going to be very popular...and my guess is there are so many illegal guns that this isn't going to make a bit of difference.

Butoeskor said...

Venezuela is going to hell in a handbasket.

But I'm glad that FerFal has the cojones to say the truth: Only dictators ban firearms.

Maldek said...

@gaga and others

It is a common flaw in your logic to assume a ban on guns would in any way affect the criminals arsenal.

Lets look at the different types of attackers.

Type 1: The professional criminal.
He will always have weapons. Good ones. Even such strict laws as in London/GB will not prevent this.

The effect of a ban is, that he still has his guns and you have a club/knife.

Type 2: The poor guy from next door. Well this sort - in S.A. often an indio type guy - is sometimes armed with a gun, sometimes with machete and sometimes with a screwdriver or a stone.

These are the people who support Mr. Chavez. These are the people Mr. Chavez feels bound to and (besides himself) tries to protect.

Well normaly if you catch them you can eighter arrest them at gun point, or you shoot.
Your house, your land, your right and you normaly have the advantage of the better weapon.

The drawback is, that these guys dont come alone. They normaly come in packs. 3-4 if you are lucky. 6-8 is not uncommon.

Without the advantage of better weapons to keep them in check it just became harder for the middle class/upper class (mostly caucasian people) to defend themselfs against the masses of the poor (mostly natives).

Thats the intention behind the law. Everything else is just brainwash for the stupid white men.

Anonymous said...

If anyone believes banning guns will work, please stop being such idiots. Criminals will not care; they'll go right on with whatever they are doing now. If there is a demand for any commodity, prohibition will not work.

k said...

Would he be better off moving to Uraguay instead of Argentina?

351wsl said...

If it has any affect on crime rates, it will be the reverse of the governments intent.

SurvivalAndProsperity.com said...

The 99% of people in Venezuela who don't 'shoot like machine' and are living in a criminal hell hole won't be happy for long when they realize the bad guys didn't feel like turning in their guns- and that hole of theirs remains hellish. What's the saying? "If you outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns."

Butoeskor said...

Think about the implications that a gun ban has on the notion of self-defense: You are no longer allowed the right to defend yourself, and your property, with the same force that the criminals will use to attack you.

This will only bolster the criminal's confidence, they will say "Hooray! Now nobody but the bad guys are armed. I can rob whoever I like without fear of deadly repercussions! Maybe I'll land in jail, but who cares? I get three square meals a day in there!"

Now, if everyone and their mother were armed, the criminals would be quite apprehensive about robbing people.

Beretta_al390 said...

Zapatero tried to ban semiauto rifles in Spain, I don't remember the main reason for it, but socialist oriented people were very happy because their beloved ZP was going to remove 800 thousand rifles from Spain. Luckily the ban wasn't approved in the end.

lemmiwinks said...

"No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms." Thomas Jefferson.

And this, which is often incorrectly attributed to him, but is good advice nonethless:

"The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government."

This is very, very bad news for law abiding firearms owners in Venezuela and elsewhere in the world for you can bet that the gun haters will be watching carefully, trying to figure out how they can implement the same policy in their country.

gaga said...

So.. 18,000 murders in a years is a sign of a country successfully keeping crime down with gun ownership?

Anonymous said...

Gaga, you just don't get it.

Guns don't kill people. People kill people. If you ban guns, then those who would kill others will just find other means using more readily available weapons (knives, clubs, etc.). And the really bad people will still have access to guns. Even in England, which has some of the most draconian gun laws in the world, the really bad criminals still manage to get guns and ammunition for them.

What banning guns *does* do is to effectively disarm law abiding citizens. Anyone who has done any amount of study of self-defense tactics will quickly learn that guns are the most effective equalizer between the bad guys and your 90 year old grandmother because they require the least amount of physical conditioning to effectively use. Other methods (knives, martial arts, clubs, etc.) require much higher levels of personal skill, strength, and ability to effectively implement. (This is why guns became the predominant military arm, displacing swords, spears, etc. at the end of the middle ages in Europe.) With guns, even people who have only the bare minimum of knowledge can still effectively defend themselves.

The only reason dictators ban personal arms is because they are afraid the people will use them to overthrow the government, not because they care about the welfare of the people.

Butoeskor said...

Gaga, keep spouting numbers and statistics. Go ahead. They're completely meaningless, especially when they can be falsified and manipulated into conveying what you want them to mean (and I, as a man of science, refuse this notion!).

You are anti-gun, right? So just don't buy a gun.

Why do you feel the need to take guns away from others? Don't you understand that you will only be disarming the populace, and not the criminals? You're turning every citizen EXCEPT the criminals into sitting ducks.

Think about it: When a drug addict wants heroin, he gets heroin. It doesn't matter how illegal heroin is to get, there's always a vendor somewhere, and the addict is willing to pay whatever it takes to get the heroin.

Guns aren't heroin, but they are a valuable commodity that if made illegal, their price will skyrocket and you can bet your ass they will be sold on the black market for a huge profit. This added incentive will only make illegal guns even more lucrative to trade in, so your stupid gun control laws work about as well as another hole in your ass.

There will always be murders. There will always be muggins, robberies, terrorism, dictators. Nature is fucking cruel, don't you forget it for a second, and we as humans are a part of nature.

If you wish to create the perfect utopia by banning guns and all weapons, I'm sorry to send your dreams crashing to the ground, but it ain't gonna happen buddy.

Shit, I don't even know what you're doing reading this blog. FerFal always clearly makes the connection between the freedom to own guns and the freedom to defend your life and property.

Hey, if you don't like weapons, there's some great places in the world for you: The UK, Australia, Venezuela now...

Why don't you move to one of those places and tell us how much better your life is without the freedom to self defense?

I hope it never happens to you, but there will come a time in all of our lives when we are confronted by an enemy we cannot best through our physical strength, nor negotiate with words. They will want more than you can give, and they will take it violently.

Will you be prepared? What are you gonna do, call the cops? They'll come to pick your cadaver off the ground.

What about your family? Would you just let your mother get raped? Would your let your father get his teeth kicked out? All for some utopia that will never exist?

Nature is cruel. Never forget it. If you wanna tango with nature, you better have some protection.

Butoeskor said...

Don't for a second think that just because a country allows what they call "gun ownership," that it is free from the binds of tyranny.

True gun ownership brings with it the right to defend your life and property against harm.

That means the right to carry, with the right to a "shall-issue" permit. That means minimal fees. That means no gun registry. That means no "assault weapons bans." That means no "full-auto bans."

And now, another question I wish to ask those who are in favor of gun bans and "gun control": Have you ever fired a gun in your life? (Other than that pathetic thing in between your legs?)

Because I always find that jerks who know nothing of what they speak to be the ones who speak the loudest and most frequently. They attempt to alarm others around them with their falsities and lies, their arguments appeal to emotion rather than to logic.

They are fueled by a sadistic lust for control.

If we don't stop these people, they sure as hell aren't going to stop themselves. All gun owners and gun rights activists need to stomp their foot on the ground and demand their rights. Sometimes you have to kick a few asses to make an omelette.

Anonymous said...

Keep drinking the kool-aid gaga. It was made for people just like you. Drink up!

Anonymous said...

Back in 1975 if as much as a .22 cartridge, or an empty magazine of any kind, was found in your pocesion while in Venezuela you might end up in jail for as long as they wanted, (and if they found a gun, even if it was non functional, forget it, you were lucky if they didn't kill you)in those days the Carter Government upheld Venezuela as a paragon of freedom. I imagine that it's only gotten worse, as a Venezuelan friend used to say, but look how beautiful our country is. Well I'll rather live in the ugliest place on earth with freedom than in the most beautiful place on earth as a subject.