Fearful Iraqis scrambling to buy weapons
Fearful Iraqis scrambling to buy weapons
By Leila Fadel
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Quote:
BAGHDAD - Four days after his brother was slain in a Baghdad robbery this month, Muntather Shaker borrowed $1,500 and bought a pistol. He carries it in his back pocket, sleeps with it under his pillow and is ready to use it to defend his family.
"If I thought the government could protect me, I would never buy a weapon," he said. "We don't know what will happen when the Americans leave."
Shaker is one of many Iraqis who feel they must depend on themselves for protection now that the U.S. military has drawn down to just under 50,000 troops and will end combat operations Tuesday.
The withdrawing troops have left behind a country with only a tenuous hold on stability: Nearly six months after parliamentary elections, no new government has formed, violence is on the rise and Iraq's security forces are being targeted.
Despite assurances that the United States is not abandoning Iraq, people here are scrambling to prepare themselves. Weapons dealers in Fallujah, Baghdad, Mosul and Kirkuk said sales of personal-protection weapons are up by 30 to 50 percent in the past four months....
Hi Rex, thanks for the current article.
It is no surprise. The OP article and Schmedlap's comments (page 1 of thread) presaged what many Iraqis feel is needed - personal security weapons. Whether they will or will not provide that security is quite another issue.
The irony is that Iraq is a very gun-controlled, gun-licensed nation (snip from the current article):
Quote:
For Kobaissi and the Shaker family, the hope is that weapons will deter the next attack. But their weapons are illegal.
The Interior Ministry, which oversees police and security issues, stopped issuing weapons licenses more than a year ago, and it is illegal for anyone to have a weapon without a license. But Iraqis still buy weapons from black-market dealers. Men train their wives to use the guns in case of emergency, and they hope it will be enough.
Local police largely look the other way, in spite of Interior Ministry orders.
"The number of personal weapons in a country like Iraq are too high right now, even though the Ministry of Interior is not issuing new licenses," said a statement from the Interior Ministry's general inspector's office.
Regards
Mike