Iraqis Buying AK-47s for Self-Defense

Washington Post ^ | 4/23/03

[areafiftyone]

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Gunshots heralded what the men in the New Baghdad market were selling Wednesday, among the oranges and the eggs - AK-47s, Beretta submachine guns and Browning 9mms, for as little as $10.

Massive arms caches abandoned by Iraqi forces and cleaned out by scavengers have put automatic weapons in the hands of anyone who covets one, endangering any return to peace and stability in Iraq. Even widows and other peaceful Iraqis are buying AK-47s for self-defense.

[areafiftyone]

For the benefit of Western reporters, buyers and vendors screamed vows to use the weapons against U.S. soldiers if they stay in Iraq too long.

I suppose those reporters were from CNN and MSNBC!

[Normal4me]

Paging Sarah Brady...

[RightWhale]

put automatic weapons in the hands of anyone who covets one, endangering any return to peace and stability in Iraq.

The usual stretch and leap we have come to expect and love from our cousins on the deep Left.

[Mr. Mojo]

This is outrageous. I propose that we send Diane Feinswine over there to clean things up immediately!

[Skywalk]

I think a lot of FReepers read lines like "for as little as $10" and begin to salivate--I know I do.

Damn, imagine what 200 bucks would buy!!

[Servant of the Nine]

Any reason the Iraqis souldn't have a Second Ammendment in their new Constitution?

So9

[Brian S]

Makes me wonder. Will the New Iraq's citizens be allowed the right to keep and bear arms for self defense purposes once a government is established?

[Joe Brower]

[Normal4me]

The UN will probably propose a "Food for Guns" program next.

[2timothy3.16]

Policing all those weapons or trying to round them up through amnesty programs could be difficult.

Difficult? How about next to impossible.

[Dead Corpse]

$200? How much for plane tickets? I got about a grand I could free up and some flyer miles I haven't used since before 9-11.

Think our supposedly freedom oriented, individual Rights respecting government, would let us back into the US with a crate full each?

[Migraine]

endangering any return to peace and stability in Iraq

Quite the contrary -- with an armed populace, you'll not get the organized crime pseudo-government the Russkies got when their power vacuum developed a little over 10 years ago.

The only thing remaining is to make sure that everybody has plenty of bullets, too. When there is mutually-assured destruction, violence takes a vacation. If there are some "good Muslims", as they say, there should be just enough upstanding vigilantes to keep the bad guys guessing.

[Mr. Mojo]

Massive arms caches abandoned by Iraqi forces and cleaned out by scavengers have put automatic weapons in the hands of anyone who covets one, endangering any return to peace and stability in Iraq. Even widows and other peaceful Iraqis are buying AK-47s for self-defense.

How, exactly, do weapons in the hands of peaceful Iraqis "endanger any return to peace and stability?"

[walkingdead]

Man oh man am I droolin'! Heck I'd go over there and spend my entire next paycheck at this "outdoor gun pavilion" if the government would let me bring them back!

[Skywalk]

Now, I'm not advocating a big smuggling operation but it would be quite interesting from an organizational planning perspective ;)

[Quigley]

In order for them to use those weapons on Americans and Britons they will have to be a lot braver than Sadaam's Elite Republican Guard. All they have to do is look around at some of the battlefields and they will see that the Americans and Britons have a pretty good knowledge of how to shoot back.

[Black Bart]

Sounds as if the Iraqis now have more liberty than Americans, in some ways.

It's a Liberty Gap!

[Dead Corpse]

Smuggling. Not a pretty word.

However, all the ones I purchased would be for my own enjoyment and not for re-sale. Sorry to be selfish, but a guy needs his hobbies. As such, they should be considered personal souvenirs.;-)

Damn gun banners. I'd rather buy domestic but the powers that be don't want us peons having them without breaking our piggy banks and being treated like a self-confessed criminal first.

[Skywalk]

Well you could always import them in broken-down form, under coffee grounds. That always seems to be the way the drug lords do it in the movies.

Just to make it clear to the JBT lurkers, I was just saying such an operation would be interesting, not advocating any of us actually engage in freedom, er smuggling.

[Redbob]

What has struck me about various news reports from Iraq was that U.S. soldiers searching for Ba'athists (Bathers?) who have found ordinary citizens with AK's and such, have allowed them to keep them "for their own defense."
Not just once but several different stories have reported this.

I simply cannot conceive of an army commanded by a President Gore allowing any such thing to happen.

I simply cannot conceive of an army commanded by a President Gore at all...