Steve at the Firearms Blog describes why the price of small arms in Libya is skyrocketing. IANSA should be welcoming this. Can’t have those rebels hurting anyone, now, can we? The problem in the world has never been that there are too many small arms and light weapons out there, it’s that there are too many small arms and light weapons out there in the wrong hands.
The real question is who’s hands are the right hands? That’s a more difficult question. This country has had, and indeed is founded on, a strong respect for individual liberty and individual worth. There are plenty of oppressed people who, given the power, will become oppressors themselves. In fact, the world probably has a lot more experience with that kind of revolution than it does with something like ours, which was rather unique. Just seeing how hard it is to maintain some semblance of freedom left in this country, I’m not all that comfortable saying freedom is a universal human value. I think there are a great many thing humans value more than freedom.
That said, I believe the kind of massacre happening in Syria and Libya right now is so horrible I’d be willing to roll the dice, and suggest dropping crates of small arms into the parts of the country the rebels control would not be a terrible idea. Every human being, I don’t care what your ideology, has the basic human right to defend themselves against that kind of tyranny and horror, and as free people we ought to be willing to lend a hand.
Here’s an idea: let’s have the BATFE run a sting operation to monitor the flow of small arms into Libya. That should get a few thousand “assault rifles” into country pronto, right?
War is terrible, but massacres are worse. Massacres are what can happen when only one side is armed.
I as a private citizen should be able to purchase a crate of rifles and a pallet of ammo and ship it to whatever hellhole I like – Syria, Burma, Darfur – but the bleeding hearts prefer that the oppressed die like sheep. I guess it makes them feel more noble or something.
You have to look at this from the liberal’s twisted mind. In Syria and Libya, the liberals are the pro-gov’t demonstrators and the ones who approve of the slaughter.
Diomed,
Controlling what comes into and out of a country is, I think, an area where there is a valid place for government.
That said, I support your moral right to smuggle the heck out of some arms for freedom fighters in the grand tradition of our Founding Fathers. =)