Venezuela Bans the Commercial Sale of Firearms and Ammunition

Bob the Super Hamste writes "The BBC is reporting on a new law in Venezuela that effectively bans the commercial sale of firearms and ammunition to private citizens. Previously anyone with a permit could purchase a firearm from any commercial vendor but now only the police, military, and security firms will be able to purchase firearms or ammunition from only state-owned manufactures or importers. Hugo Chavez's government states that the goal is to eventually disarm the citizenry. The law, which went into effect today, was passed on February 29th, and up to this point the government has been running an amnesty program allowing citizens to turn in their illegal firearms. Since the law was first passed, 805,000 rounds of ammunition have been recovered from gun dealers. The measure is intended to curb violent crime in Venezuela, where 78% of homicides are linked to firearms."

Forks

[Anonymous Coward]

And forks make people fat.

Re:violent crime, eh?

[h4rr4r]

Is he planning on coming back as a zombie to rule? Their constitution will have nothing to do with him keeping him out of office, his death from cancer will though.

Why not just ban homicide instead?

[exabrial]

If the end goal is to reduce homicide, why don't they just make homicide illegal? This reminds me of the "ban large sodas" article form the other day... Politicians like to think they can influence human behavior by passing clever laws... (The collective brainpower of the masses will eventually outwit/underwit/circumvent any genius plan small groups of politicians create)

Re:The premise seems failed.

[Red4man]

I'll believe that guns kill people when the gun is convicted instead of the person.

Re:The premise seems failed.

[Tastecicles]

Mod parent UP!

I am a gun owner. I have guns in cabinets. To date, none have jumped out and tried to throttle me. I feel pretty safe around them.

I have to say though, I'm watching my .22. It's got a nasty glint in its eye.

Re:So....

[ZeroSumHappiness]

I wonder if statistics show that people who feel they live in a dangerous area are more likely to live in a dangerous area?
I wonder if statistics show that people who feel they live in a dangerous area are more likely to obtain a firearm?
I wonder if those statistics could be related to the debate.

Re:So....

[NatasRevol]

That's why I'm building a supply of nuclear weapons!

Gotta fight fire with fire.

Re:So....

[Anonymous Coward]

My guns hurt me all the time. Last time I went to the range, a piece of hot brass (strangely, from Venezuelan surplus ammo) burnt the heck out of my arm. And, I dropped my staple gun on my toe, which has an ingrown toenail, and that *really* hurt a lot.

Re:So....

[foradoxium]

no I do not exaggerate, my gun really is that big.

Re:The premise seems failed.

[chill]

It has an inferiority complex. All .22s do. I hope, for your sake, it is a long rifle. At least then it will be content with being able to say it is "bigger" than the other guns and still be able to live with itself.

Re:So....

[internerdj]

Statistics used to mean something, until I took statistics.

Re:So....

[dopaz]

How many accidental maulings / fatalities are there in houses that own a dog?

Now compare that to houses that don't own a dog.

When dogs are outlawed, only outlaws will have dogs.

Re:So....

[interkin3tic]

In the world where Opera, my old logitech mouse, and windows 7 got together and decidea that I probably didn't mean to select the first digit in that number, and I decided to not proofread that carefully.