[lit-ideas] Nigerian gun control as an example for us

Mike, since I was responding to you and not Irene, and since I can never
figure out what she's talking about, let us go back to the issue.  You were
enumerating the blessings of absolute gun control, while I was arguing that
it would never work.  I said the only way you could get it to work would be
to institute a repressive tyrannical regime that would confiscate all
weapons.  You proposed your Draconian $50,000 fine for being caught with a
gun.  And then I recalled something from my past, the situation in Nigeria
as described by the Nigerian Airways reps.  Nigeria had very strict gun
control, but that didn't make one safe because gangs of largely un-gunned
robbers would rob the houses of presumed unarmed victims.  One of the reps
as I said attempted to buy one of my guns saying that if any home-owner
could produce a gun the bandits  would run away.  They obviously liked their
victims to be unarmed.

 

Nigeria is a volatile place and the various clans regularly fight amongst
each other.  Shortly after Nigeria took delivery of its DC-10 (I was invited
to go along on the delivery flight, by the way, to wonderful Lagos, but
declined) there was some political violence there and I received a call from
one of the reps, the one who had been educated in Scotland.  Unfortunately I
couldn't understand his accent well enough to decipher the number he asked
me to call.  I always wondered what that was about and what became of him.
But be that as it may, the subject was gun control and Nigeria had and still
has very strict gun control.   Yes, all the political factions, militias,
etc. have guns, but the subject is --

 

The ordinary citizen and the ordinary robber-predators.    These guys are
still subject to very strict gun control.  According to the article I
posted, bands of robbers still regularly rob the rich, and the rich still
brave Nigeria's draconian gun control laws to buy guns with which to fend
off the robbers.  Are the robbers armed?  The article
(http://www.worldpress.org/cover7.htm ) referred to some of the guns finding
themselves into the hands of the young robbers - the sort of robber my
friends referred to, but they probably aren't much  better armed than they
were when one of the Nigerian reps tried to buy a gun from me.   These
robbers probably still run away when a wealthy homeowner brandishes his
illegally acquired gun.

 

I puzzled over this comment: "Last year the police carried out a dawn raid
on Orilowo-Ejigbo, a Lagos suburb, and arrested three men after seizing a
cache of arms that was sufficient to outfit a 20-man army."  Was this cache
from the homeowners who wished to defend themselves?  Perhaps.  A cache that
could outfit a 20-man army doesn't sound terribly large by San Jacinto
standards, but it apparently seemed large to the Nigerian authorities.  

 

The other incident referred to in the same paragraph, about bandits
overcoming the security force in Seba in order to rob a group of traders
obviously isn't referring to the sort of robbers my friend referred to.  The
robbers he referred to would run away if a home owner produced a gun, these
bandits were well-armed and well-organized and willing to engage in a gun
battle to achieve their end.

 

So what does this say, Mike, about your gun-control proposal?  Will
Draconian methods eliminate guns, make everyone safe, and even eliminate the
need for Police to carry them?  Nigeria instituted Draconian gun control and
it hasn't worked for them.  The people most likely to obey these laws, the
ordinary citizens, want guns to ward off the robbers.   Perhaps the
fledgling teen-aged robbers aren't going to be terribly well-armed, but they
aren't going to be interested with complying with Nigerian gun control laws.
Of course, if they happen upon an unarmed home-owner, they won't need guns.
Other weapons will suffice.   

 

The problem, as some of us have been saying for some time, is people rather
than guns.  Some of them will engage in their nefarious schemes regardless
of the laws.  The ones most likely to comply with gun-control laws are the
law-abiding citizens who are the least threat to others.  But if these
ordinary citizens see that they can't be kept safe, as the Nigerian citizens
saw, then they will ignore the laws and arm themselves.  The police will be
able to arrest ordinary citizens.  They will be easy to catch, but I suspect
the police will not be enthusiastic about arresting them.  Their families
and friends are those very citizens who wish to defend themselves.  Note
that the article says, "However, a greater percentage of those who carry
firearms today never submit to any scrutiny."  Police are going to look the
other way when they encounter family & friends (or the family and friends of
other cops); So laws exist, but as the article says, "Many Nigerians,
particularly if they are wealthy, keep guns in their homes in case they are
attacked by armed robbers in the middle of the night."

 

Nigeria is a nation that has attempted draconian gun-control like you want,
Mike.  It hasn't worked.

 

Lawrence

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