NYT article - gun market in Iraq

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Anyone see the front page NY Times article yesterday (Monday) about the "it's a seller's market in Baghdad" for firearms? I skimmed a hardcopy, almost bought it, then reminded myself I could pull it on the web.

Well; I can't find it on the web - anywhere.

It notes that automatics are quite legal there, as apparently is carrying handguns. This conflicts with my impression of what was the case a year or two ago.

Anyone find a link for the article in full?

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I recall hearing that they really didnt care about the personal guns so much as someone stockpiling extremely large ammounts of explosives, heavy weapons, and ammunition.
I wouldnt deprive anyone of their gun in that situation either, so long as they looked like they were using it in a lawful manner. Its more important to let them have some self defense against holdouts and insurgents than to go chasing "evil black guns" cause of some lefty political whim.

Of all the things that are wrong over there, assault weapons seem to be the least of their problems.
 
News story on the tube the other night reported one rifle is allowed to be kept for self defense. In a search some soldiers were doing they found a hidden AK and returned it to the owner with that statement.

Funny how the citizens of Iraq are trusted to own guns, but some citizens of the US are not.
 
Yeah, why we don't we have gun laws here? Maybe we should invade the US and liberate it?

Anyway, our whole obsession with assault rifles and full-auto being something special is just arbitrary nonsense. For them, those are standard rifles. There isn't anything else.

Obviously it makes sense that they don't want people stockpiling heavier weapons (RPGs, heavy MGs). I wouldn't want people doing that here either, unless they can prove that they are collectors maybe.
 
I thought that I saw Oleg making a poster a couple months back about Iraqis having the right to an auto AK and Americans can not.
 
Auto AKs are the mostly widely owned guns over there so outright banning them was out of the question.

Even Hussein gave out AKs and such to people.

And Hussein's big gun collection (or was that his sons?) was looted and lots of various automatic rifles taken.

So basically you would be arresting a lot of Iraq if a ban on guns came into effect.

Hope the Pentagon is not that stupid.

Now what the Iraqi Govt does is up to them.
 
My good friend who just got back from 11 months in Fallujah as a advisor in nation building, was adamant that allowing the locals to have a AK for defense was imperative for the prevention of another ethnic cleansing on a scale that would rival Kosovo or Bosnia or Rwuanda.

This has been decided in Rumsfeldts office or higher that should the US be forced to pull out by a politcal change, (2008 election) they were going to be leaving a people behind with at least the basic means of self defense.

He has had some pretty strident views that I will no repeat here ( I am trying to get him to join, ) But his simplest view is that a westernised Iraq, Like a westernised Lebanon, will be stable and become the keystone to preventing the whole region from inflagration. Once the level of influence of the clerics was reduced in Lebanon, peace returned, That is the ultimate goal of the US at this point. To de-religionize politics.

Here in America, I can argue politics with a baptist, methodist, catholic, jew, aetheist and buddhist. yet we never bring up religion. And likewise when we argue religion, politics stays out. That separation is thorny sometimes, but does keep the peace. For them politics is religion, religion is politics, and business is tied up completely within the two of them.
 
Seems like someone could make some money buying up a bunch of Glocks on Gunbroker. They're selling for over $1000 @ there!

On another issue, maybe we should invade the US so we can be liberated from the NFA.
 
Good, I'm glad Rumsfeld isn't too caught up in the air of Washington DC that he doesn't understand that the best way individual Iraqis have to protect themselves is with arms. BTW of course they have AK's ,Ak's to them are like lever-action 30-30's and Model 70's are to us. :)
 
There was a radio story on *ahem* NPR the other day where they stated that evidently the insurgents have taken to attacking places like bakeries and such.

One baker that they interviewed stated that he kept several AK's in his shop to prevent just such an attack.
 
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