Gun Control in Counterinsurgency

[jmm99]

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):

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

[Tracker275]

Those who pound their guns into plows, plow for those who don't.

...That is all I have to say on their situation. Of course, no different than anywhere else in the world.