Other Countries

Sarah Brady went to Venezuela.

Well, really she didn’t that I know of, but I found out the new Venezuelan Gun Control Law proposal and I’ve been reading it. To say that it is every gun banner’s wet dream would be an understatement of biblical proportions.

First, a little background. Venezuela is a “democracy” under the authoritarian rule of Hugo Chavez and an absolute meek pliable legislature. Laws are ordered by Hugo, usually while he rants on his weekly Sunday TV show (which every TV and radio station must carry under penalty of law) and on Monday the “Assembly” gets together to bang the “proposed” articles of the new law, puts it for vote no later than Wednesday and presents it to His Majesty on Thursday for his reading between blows of cocaine. By Friday is signed into law and published. Some laws make take some more time so they make no announcement till it is ready for publication and Hugo can claim it was his idea.

Now that the “legislative” process is covered, let’s go to the why they came out with a third gun control law during the jubilant period of eternal government by His Grace the Almighty Hugo: Crime is totally out of control. The official number of murders every year is above 15,000 for a country of under 27 million people.  To make it a tad clearer: Venezuela is roughly the size and population of Texas but it has a bit over ten times the number of murders.  98% of murders are never solved by the police and every poll in Venezuela says that the number one preoccupation for the average citizen is crime. Two other gun controls were previously adopted which included a one month grace period where every subject had to register any and all weapons with Venezuela’s Defense Department under penalty of heavy prison time. Of course criminals did not do such thing and crime kept crawling up. Have No Fear! Hugo is Here! So we have another Gun Control Law in the cauldron which promises without a doubt the elimination of crime as we know it.

Here are some of the highlights:

  • You buy the gun but it does not belong to you. It is government’s property that can be confiscated for any reason and without compensation.
  • You are allowed only ONE gun. That’s it! If you need (not want) more than one, you must make your case to the Government and go through a process which will not guarantee you anything.
  • You are allowed to own ONE reload (One spare mag or speedloader) and the reload is limited to 14 rounds.
  • You are allowed to buy only 50 rounds a year for self defense. If you use it and need it replenished, you must go through a crapload of paperwork similar to why you need another gun.
  • No hollow point ammunition. Full metal Jackets or FMJ expanding ammo only and only the ones provided by the government at their stores or the stores licensed by the Government.
  • Ammo for sporting purposes can be obtained but only at authorized ranges and under scrutiny and keeping track of every round spent. Unused ammo must be returned. Private ranges must account for every round of ammunition and keep strict tabs.
  • All ammo belongs to the state.
  • Reloading your own ammunition carries a penalty of 8 to 10 years in prison.
  • No gun modifications are allowed at all. This covers replacing any part of the gun like grips or sights.
  • Nobody but the Government is allowed to stock spare parts. You must buy the parts from them.
  • Illegal weapons carry a 10-18 year sentence
  • Illegal trafficking gets 16 years
  • Illegal bows, crossbows, air rifles or even airsofts gets you 8 years.
  • The Media MUST (under penalty of law) produce Public Service Ads explaining why guns are bad and you must be disarmed.

There is more, but I thought this was enough to make anybody sick. And if you do not think Anti Gunners wouldn’t dare to pass something like this, think again: They would kill to get that law here.

If you happen to read Spanish, you can download the proposed law here.

UPDATE: I just found out that the law has been approved as it stands by the Legislature. It is on its way to Hugo’s desk. Careful do not disturb the coke lines.

The “Chopper”, News from England and a Book from Colorado.

Another shooting over the weekend in the Miami neighborhood of Overtown left 12 people injured at a block party. Witnesses say that three males wearing black trench coats opened up with a “chopper” (slang for an AK-type weapon) and possibly two handguns in 9mm. The shooter with the AK-type weapon was seen shooting from the hip, Hollywood style while people ran for cover.  Of course, Miami PD Chief Timoney and Mayor Many Diaz once more cried to the heavens requesting the federal renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban which according to the zeal you hear them talk about will eliminate crime, reduce male impotence, bring back the housing market and bring Michael Jackson back to life. Of course, doing some actual law enforcement in that area and in the Miami area in general would be a bit too much to ask to Chief Timoney and Mayor Diaz but that is the politics of the inefficient bureaucrat for you.

But guess what has happened in the Land of Perfect Gun Control? The Daily Mail from the United Kingdom brought us the following headline: The most violent country in Europe: Britain is also worse than South Africa and U.S. How’s that for a kicker? You folks remember how tough Brits got on private posession of firearms and how the politicos went to the extreme of de facto criminalizing any type of self defense (check for references about Tony Martin’s case but not before ingesting you high blood pressure medicine) and promising all British Subjects a more peaceful and human living in the kingdom.  Apparently it did not happen and Great Britain has beaten everybody in violent crimes. They even provided a cute little graphic with the stats:

Right under the graphic we find the following statement:

The U.S. has a violence rate of 466 crimes per 100,000 residents, Canada 935, Australia 92 and South Africa 1,609.

Damn, it seems the problem was not the guns as the “intelligentsia” was tired of telling us. Remember when they told us to watch “advanced” countries like UK and adopt their ways so we could live a better life? Well, it seems that not only socialized medicine failed but also the concept of the Nanny State defending you against all evil if you gave up the right and tools to defend yourself. By the looks of it, England’s criminals are having a fair thanks to the government-sponsored nationwide Gun Free Zone.

Let’s see if government types get it this time: By definition criminals choose to ignore the law.  Capisce? If you still don’t get it, please order a copy of Guns, Violence, and Criminal Behavior: The Offender’s Perspective by Mark Progebin where he states: “convicts involved in gun-related crimes aren’t deterred by laws designed to limit the availability of firearms.” and “that gun control only affects law-abiding people and not criminals.” Now the research for this book was paid for by the US Department of Justice’s Project Safe Neighborhoods program with our money. Will the legislators even pay attention? Don’t count on it.

General Barry McCaffrey’s After Action Fantasy?

Making the rounds in the Internet is a report by General Barry R McCaffrey (Army retired) about the Mexican Drug war and the US influence in it regarding the supply of weapons. I won’t dwell on the absurd details and conclusions of the report, instead I’ll leave that in the capable hands of Rich Grassi of Tactical Wire.

Out of curiosity, I decided to do a research on the names that appear on the report. After 2 hours of Internet search, I find out that the report is only mentioned in a couple of small media outlets (which is weird for an event that happened with so many important people) and there is no mention at all in U.S. or Mexican press of the event actually happening at all! I went in deeper doing a news search of each individual member of the Mexican delegation mentioned in the report and although names match with the positions attached to them, none appear in any U.S. or Mexican Media sources before, during or after the dates that the alleged forum occurred.

This is very strange if not very suspicious. If General McCaffrey is telling the truth, how come there is not one single journalistic report on the meeting? You don’t get this many important people for an open meeting of this importance without at least one little blogger finding out and reporting about it. The other possibility is that the meeting was secret and the parties wanted to meet in private to discuss the Mexican situation. But if so, why would General McCaffrey publish it in his website knowing well that somebody would pick it up?

So we either have a beautiful scribbling of fantastic nonsense or a huge breach of security by General McCaffrey. Either way, for somebody who states in his company’s website that  “provides strategic, analytic, and advocacy consulting services to businesses, non-profits, governments, and international organizations.” this report is very bad advertisement.