MatthewVanitas
Member
Greetings. I'm sure that there are members of the board who have more experience in this area than I, but just thought I'd throw out a few interesting things I've run across.
I've dropped in to check out a couple Turkish gunshops while I've been backpacking around Turkey, just out of curiousity. The shops I've seen usually stock a few 9mm pistols and .38 revolvers and a large number of shotguns. The 9mm (and some .380) are generally knockoffs of FN products using brand names I've never heard of, most notably the Highpower rıpoff labeled 'Rambo Magnum'. Revolvers seemed to be S&W copies with poor fit/finish. Shotguns I've seen were primarily semiauto, many with short (18'') barrels. Even saw a few with ghost ring sights, which struck me as interesting. Also a good number of over/unders. Many seemed decent quality, although the semis had a lot more pseudo-engraving than you'd see on a similar American shotgun.
A Turkish friend-of-a-friend met me in Anakara to show me around. He states that a good percentage of Turks keep a shotgun or pistol in the house for safety, but only police can carry in public. The police here frequently carry MP5 copies, and the Army carries G3s. I've also seen a few uniformed men carrying AKs, not sure what unit (Jendarm?).
I'm a bit unclear as to the legality of rifles in Turkey. I had some gunshop owners in Diyarbakir tell me that rifles were completely illegal. But that might be an incorrect belief held by them, or it may be possible that rifles are illegal in their province only (as Diyarbakir was the hotbed of Kurdish resistance in recent years). Not ten years ago the streets of Diyarbakir were filled with Kurds, Turks, and Armenian and Assyrian Christians stalking each other through the warren of medieval streets, so local ordninances may vary.
I was very surprised to see a familiar rifle while wandering the back streets in Trabzon, up on the Black Sea coast. Passing a tailor shop, I see men inside drinking tea and looking over an M1 Garand. I poked my head inside to say hello, but my Turkish is minimal and they didn't speak Arabic or Russian. All I could gather was that it was an American rifle, it worked, and the owner was very pleased with it. They didn't try to hide the rifle or seem covert about it, so either rifles are legal in Trabzon or else old Turkish men just don't care.
If anyone has any insight as to firearms in Turkish culture, I'd be glad to hear about it. Back I go to wandering...
-MV
I've dropped in to check out a couple Turkish gunshops while I've been backpacking around Turkey, just out of curiousity. The shops I've seen usually stock a few 9mm pistols and .38 revolvers and a large number of shotguns. The 9mm (and some .380) are generally knockoffs of FN products using brand names I've never heard of, most notably the Highpower rıpoff labeled 'Rambo Magnum'. Revolvers seemed to be S&W copies with poor fit/finish. Shotguns I've seen were primarily semiauto, many with short (18'') barrels. Even saw a few with ghost ring sights, which struck me as interesting. Also a good number of over/unders. Many seemed decent quality, although the semis had a lot more pseudo-engraving than you'd see on a similar American shotgun.
A Turkish friend-of-a-friend met me in Anakara to show me around. He states that a good percentage of Turks keep a shotgun or pistol in the house for safety, but only police can carry in public. The police here frequently carry MP5 copies, and the Army carries G3s. I've also seen a few uniformed men carrying AKs, not sure what unit (Jendarm?).
I'm a bit unclear as to the legality of rifles in Turkey. I had some gunshop owners in Diyarbakir tell me that rifles were completely illegal. But that might be an incorrect belief held by them, or it may be possible that rifles are illegal in their province only (as Diyarbakir was the hotbed of Kurdish resistance in recent years). Not ten years ago the streets of Diyarbakir were filled with Kurds, Turks, and Armenian and Assyrian Christians stalking each other through the warren of medieval streets, so local ordninances may vary.
I was very surprised to see a familiar rifle while wandering the back streets in Trabzon, up on the Black Sea coast. Passing a tailor shop, I see men inside drinking tea and looking over an M1 Garand. I poked my head inside to say hello, but my Turkish is minimal and they didn't speak Arabic or Russian. All I could gather was that it was an American rifle, it worked, and the owner was very pleased with it. They didn't try to hide the rifle or seem covert about it, so either rifles are legal in Trabzon or else old Turkish men just don't care.
If anyone has any insight as to firearms in Turkish culture, I'd be glad to hear about it. Back I go to wandering...
-MV
I have a copy of a print from the 10th century showing the Chinese using firearms (hand cannons) against each other.
