It Can’t Happen Here: R.J. Rummel’s Documentation of Democide
Scholar R.J. Rummel has engaged in extensive work on the murder of civilians, by agents of their own government. During the twentieth century he has documented well over two hundred million civilians killed by their own government. This number is far greater than the number of soldiers killed during the same time.
One of the problems of dealing with such large numbers is that it is impossible to really imagine such quantities. Stalin was fond of saying that “twelve deaths was a tragedy, one million is a statistic.” Also, our media is very leftist in its world view. Therefore you are likely to see dozens of movies portraying the Nazis for the murdering thugs they were, but rarely do they show anything which casts a negative light on the communists. This is an indisputable fact. Read more
Customs Seizes Toy Guns in Washington State
Several news outlets including The News Tribune are reporting that customs officials seized “30 machine guns at the Port of Tacoma.” We’re following up on this for a few reasons. The first is that these guns were copies of M-4 assault rifles, which were actually seized in October of last year. We bring this up because it serves as ammo – no pun intended – to anyone who says that all guns used by criminals must have been legal. Clearly this is further proof that guns can, and likely will continue to be, smuggled into the United States.
But what is really odd is that the Customs & Border Protection is claiming that while these were “the same size, weight and look of the M-4″ these were listed as toy guns. The News Tribune noted:
“On Jan. 25, the ATF submitted its report. It found ‘that in their imported condition the rifles were tooled to shoot plastic balls. However, replacement of internal components with original machine-gun components could be accomplished within a short period of time, thus rendering the rifles capable of firing live ammunition,’ the Customs news release said.”
“Shoot plastic balls” seems to imply to us that these may be Air Soft guns, as not real guns at all. While these lacked the typical orange tips required for such guns, we should note that this is an American law and isn’t follow overseas. Likewise, there is a market for “non-guns” or “counterfeits” as well – as in guns that look the part but can’t be made to fire. Note our choice of words: “can’t be made to fire.”
We’d like to know how any “weapon” that is either not really a gun, or is meant to “shoot plastic balls” can be converted in what ATF claims to be a “short period of time?” Seriously?
What is more confusing is that according to the ATF, a machine gun is a machine gun if it has a receiver. Essentially a full-auto receiver is what makes a gun a machine gun, so do these guns have such a receiver? Otherwise, we can’t understand what the problem with these seized toys could be… unless the ATF is looking to start an Air Soft team cheaply!
Note to the ATF: If it looks like a duck, is the same size as a duck, but is made of wood it is called a decoy, but it isn’t a duck! Keep that in mind when you look to seize something that looks like a gun, feels like a gun but doesn’t shoot REAL BULLETS like a real gun!
Daily Kos Reports on Stolen Weapons… in Afghanistan
The fact that the liberal political mindwashing blog The Daily Kos reported – from a Washington Independent story – that hundreds of AK-47s were missing in Afghanistan is not surprising. But it is curious that the same rag hardly takes notice of the various guns that are routinely lost, stolen or sold by police officers in the United States.
Of course the mainstream media – and leftist blogs – would like readers to believe that all guns in the hands of criminals were easily bought at gun shows!
Cuba “Cracks” Down on Guns
Is Cuba softening its stand on guns? That’s how it sounds, as The Washington Post is reporting that Cuba has declared a two-month amnesty for citizens to register unlicensed guns. Ironically, in this Communist nation almost no one is legally entitled to own guns – after all guns brought the Communists to powers, so the Communists never wanted anyone else to have guns. Even police officers, say The Post, are required to leave pistols in a station when on leave, and many soldiers are given unloaded firearms.
According to The Post, those passing aptitude and psychological tests to legally possess a gun. The paper adds:
“Starting Feb. 12, Cubans will have the ‘exceptional and one-time only’ chance to register their guns with police, and will be allowed to keep them provided they are over 18 and have passed the proper tests administered at police stations.” Read more
Guns Stolen From Israeli Plant, Sold to Criminals
More ammunition for those who make the case that all illegal firearms must have started out legally. We have long said that guns could be stolen from law enforcement or the military, thus these were never legally owned by anyone other than government. Case in point, The Jerusalem Post is reporting that guns were stolen from the plant that makes them!
“Two residents of Rishon Lezion were arrested this week for stealing up to 170 advanced firearms from a secret Israel Weapon Industries plant and selling them to criminal organizations, police revealed on Wednesday.”
According to the story the men would take out up to 10 guns to test, but only return with around seven, selling the rest to criminals. While we honestly hate reporting that these events happen, we regret more that the anti-firearm crowd buries it head in the sand that criminals obtain guns this way.
Who Guards the Guards in South African?
South Africa has seen significant change in recent decades. While the nation’s racial equality has proven to allow more opportunities for all residents of the land at the tip of Africa, it has also sadly become a land that rivals the American Wild West or the Prohibition Era of gangsters. Crime is (in a word) everywhere. And despite gun bans, criminals easily get the goods. The Telegraph UK reports:
”A parliamentary committee heard that 2,944 police weapons were lost or stolen between January and September last year – more than in the whole of 2008, which was itself an increase on 2007″
And with missing guns, what does the police department do? Orders more guns:
“Dianne Kohler Barnard, the opposition Democratic Alliance shadow police minister, said that the state weapons manufacturer Armscor had recently ordered 4,000 replacement 9mm handguns made by the Italian manufacturer Beretta.”
This is yet another example that shoud serve as warnings to anyone who thinks buybacks and tougher laws will really keep guns out of criminal’s hands.
Firing Back: Pakistani Gun Markets Revealed
While liberal politicians and the mainstream media report about getting guns off the streets, in war torn countries such as Pakistan, it isn’t a matter of getting the guns off the streets – it is closing down the gun bazaars and stopping the production of illegal firearms. China might be a nation that makes counterfeit PlayStation 3s and Rolexes, but in the Pakistan border region with Afghanistan near perfect replicas of major firearms are mass produced BY HAND!
CNN.com offers a rare inside look at these markets, which was captured on video by VSB.TV from Brooklyn, New York in 2006. This was possibly the last time that western journalists were freely allowed in this region.
The warning is that criminals and warlords will always produce guns. You can close gun show loopholes, lock up the straw buyers, but keeping guns out of the hands of criminals is as impossible as it is to keep the guns out of the hands of rebels and insurgents. That’s something to think about the next time the media reports on a buyback that took a dozen guns off the streets.
Guns Prevent Crimes, But Mainstream Media Fails to Pick up on Story
Kudos to John Wangsgaard who wrote to The Salt Lake City Tribune for bringing attention to what the rest of the mainstream media seems not to care about; that being that guns in the home can prevent crimes. He writes:
“In this country, even home invasions occur less frequently than in many other countries because criminals worry that the potential victim might be armed. According to www.dailymail.co.uk, the violent crime rate per 100,000 residents is much higher in the United Kingdom (2,034), Australia (1,677) and even Canada (935) than in the United States (466).”
Firing Back: Consider Being In Haiti and Being Unarmed
The disaster that’s unfolding in the Carribean nation of Haiti is still unmeasured in its ferocity. With nearly the entire capital city apparently wiped from the map, the death toll could top 100,000. Mass destruction, complete loss of infrastructure, communications shot to hell and the national police and military facing an untenable catastrophe makes security the number one issue. Factually crime follows natural disaster; looting, cons, burglary, extortion, price gouging and innumerable criminal behavior by those desperate and those seeking to take advantage. Read more
Who Guards the Guards U.K. Edition: Cop Sells Handed in Guns
Ever wonder if those guns that were part of buybacks were really destroyed? On the one hand we feel a sense of loss just thinking that some potentially rare and valuable firearms (valid parts of history in our opinion) might end up being destroyed. But what a more disturbing outcome – namely those very guns (which probably weren’t on the street) ending up in criminal’s hands? The Daily Telegraph offered this bit of news:
“Two policemen have admitted their involvement in the selling of guns handed in to police by the public to be destroyed.”
So should we worry that many of those gun buybacks could be supplying illegal guns? It can’t happen here, right?
