[assman]

New Ukraine Government to Citizens – Turn in Your Guns by Friday

Nothing the state fears more than an armed citizenry.

When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.

If you lived in Ukraine and you had firearms, after seeing what you have seen in recent months, would you comply?

[spalex]

I would be stock-piling guns!

Not necessarily for safety. But if the government enforces this instead of just asking nicely, then the value of guns are going to be higher.

Desperate people in times of conflict will pay a shitload instead of the $200 they have been paying for rifles in recent times.

[kinjutsu]

...I can imagine this will be the states in 25-30 years.

If you get caught with these guns public execution is very possible.

[vinman]

MOLON LABE

[j r]

Bit of a distortion of the story, no? This is about disarming paramilitary groups that have seized military weapons. According to the original story, Ukranian citizens can still apply for a license to eat a shotgun or a rifle. It's possible that the original fun regulations are themselves onerous, but this is an alarmist take on a pretty mundane story.

[rover]

During the uprising in February a LOT of weapons were stolen from police stations and military depots: thousands, possibly tens of thousands of hand guns, AKs, rifles, hand grenades etc. The authorities want to take these illegal guns of the street, that's all. Read today a report of a journalist in Kiev: she went to the city administration and some dude who works there, offered her a handgun for about 90 bucks. Some other dude jumped at the opportunity and took it, then they went to some room to shoot a can to make sure it works. Everyone is armed to the teeth. Damn, must be fun to be there now.

[assman]

(03-25-2014 01:23 PM)j r Wrote:  

Ukranian citizens can still apply for a license to eat a shotgun or a rifle.

^ This reflects either a profounding misunderstanding of, or disbelief in, the importance of an armed citizenry.

When government has a list of who has what firearms, you are not really free. As a side note, this is the real reason the left is pushing for what they refer to as "universal background checks" in the US. It's not about the background checks, it's about creating the foundation for a gun registry.

jr, let's say you lived in the Ukraine and during the conflict, you being unarmed and facing an armed government, you acquired a firearm that was stolen from a government weapons cache. Would you comply with the current order to turn in that firearm?

[j r]

My comment has nothing to do with my feelings on an armed citizenry. I am just pointing out that you mischaracterized the story.

If, during Hurricane Katrina, a bunch of private citizens managed to get into a military armory and get a bunch of M4s and a SAW to defend themselves, once the emergency situation was over you would expect the government to try and get those weapons back. That's not the government telling citizens to hand over their guns. That's the government trying to restore order.

I have no strong opinions on gun regulations in Ukraine, because I don't know enough about the issue to say anything meaningful.

[Btbob]

This isn't a government attempting to regain government property. This is a population control measure. While I don't disagree that the authorities wish to restore order, it's also indicative that the recent referendum was not as widely supported as the world was led to believe. Population control measures such as these are common in counter-insurgencies.