How Russians lost their own 2nd Amendment: The right to bear arms

Russia Beyond ^ | 11/28/17 | Nikolay Shevchenko

[Simon Green]

Funny how this always seems to happen when a country becomes a workers’ paradise.

[Rio]

[piytar]

What’s a pneumatic gun? An air gun?

[Yo-Yo]

In 1918 the Bolsheviks initiated a large scale confiscation of civilian firearms, outlawing their possession and threatening up to 10 years in prison for concealing a gun.

[DesertRhino]

The Russian 44 breaktop revolver contract really was a huge part of the survival of Smith and Wesson as a company.

[MTsumi]

Russia’s a good example of gun control being a farce. You can go on youtube and see hundreds of videos of Russians pulling guns. Gun fights, car videos, hitman, etc. Just from what you see on the internet, it seems pretty common to have a gun there.

[DesertRhino]

Smith and Wesson sold 131,000 of those fine single action revolvers to them.

[Simon Green]

What’s a pneumatic gun? An air gun?

Yes. Maximum muzzle energy of 18 ft lbs.

[JohnyBoy]

The supreme court just let stand a ruling that all military like weapons can ban banned by a state. We had better gun rights under King George III than we do today.

[Simon Green]

Those guns should have all havve been pointed at the “comrade” ordering their confiscation.

[Wyrd bið ful aræd]

My understanding of Russia is that the whole place is one giant *wink-wink nod-nod* from top to bottom.

[apillar]

I was talking to a Russian friend about this very subject a couple years ago. He said there a far, far more guns in private hands in Russia than you would think. Guns and ammo like everything else in the old Soviet Union was stolen en-masse from the state run factories and from the military and sold on the black market.

He said that gun laws are also pretty much ignored and unenforced by Russian law enforcement. In fact they will often advise people who are having trouble with organized crime to "get a gun". Everybody knows that means the black market not "official channels".

[ek_hornbeck]

Before the Revolution, guns were in abundant supply in major Russian cities like Moscow and St. Petersburg. Newspapers advertised Brownings, Nagants, Mausers, and other models of handgun which were as popular as they were affordable: A brand new Mauser would set you back 45 or so rubles, so there were also plenty of cheaper secondhand guns floating around; to put this into perspective, a janitor’s average monthly salary in Moscow was 40 rubles.

A common ploy among liberals confronted with facts about Bolshevik brutality is to grudgingly acknowledge repression under the Communists, but then to say "At least they were an improvement over the Czars."

While it's true that 19th Century Russian Czars were autocrats, it's also true that as long as you didn't directly challenge their authority, they really didn't care how people lived their lives. This is in contrast to Bolsheviks, who wanted to control every aspect of your life and every thought in your head.

The fact that the Czars allowed their subjects to keep and bear arms while the Bolsheviks did not says a lot. What says even more is the fact that the Bolsheviks imprisoned and executed more civilians for "political crimes" in 1918 than the Czars had over the previous half-century of their rule.

[eastforker]

.30 caliber air rifle with 82 ft lbs energy.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Communism is so great that they have to disarm the people to prevent them from revolting.

[piytar]

What kind of muzzle velocity can you get with that?! Guessing not enough to be useful.

[piytar]

Missed that one. Case name please?

[huldah1776]

LOL, I’m saving that one.

[JohnyBoy]

Kolbe v. Hogan 4th Circuit Opinion (MD, ‘assault weapons’) - Cert denied 11/27

[T-Bone Texan]

I just saw a YouTube video of a Russian pointing a gun at a fellow motorist while merging in traffic.

He actually leaned out and pointed it backward at the car behind him.

And I thought Houston drivers were dicks!