The same one exporting Belt Fed Machine Guns. Half of the stuff covered in the article can’t be bought in the United States so I’d really REALLY like to know where in the hell its coming from.
That’s certainly possible but I’d bet that the regular ol’ Arms Dealers, think Lord of War, are the ones behind it.
To be fair 9mm Pistols and AR pattern rifles could absolutely be sourced in the US and shipped to Haiti so I’m perfectly willing to believe that part of it, but this other stuff? No way.
I love the accidental admission that you only want to know where it’s coming from because it can’t be bought in America, implying you wouldn’t like to know otherwise.
Accross the continent, a huge number of guns recovered in crimes can be traced back to a gun store in America. It’s an incredibly low risk way to source firearms, especially compared to things like “robbing the military”.
But just because a domestic abuser with a room temperature IQ can’t buy one at his local Walmart doesn’t mean they’re not American guns. The “profits first, people never” mentality of arms manufacturers and their pet politicians has resulted in billions of dollars of weapons in the hands of militant groups.
Of course if you genuinely wanted to know, there’s multiple reports on exactly that topic. Be sure to tell us what you learn from them, so we know you’re not just defending Americas gun laws by muddying the waters.
I think they “really wanted to know where they’re coming from” because the explanation from the article didn’t seem plausible.
That’s exactly it. The only fully automatic firearms available for purchase in the United States are going to be used, very expensive, closely tracked by the Federal Government, with very limited quantities available. The idea that these kinds of firearms are being sourced in the US is unbelievable.
Semi-Auto firearms I can believe, although its still wildly illegal, but not the full auto stuff. There’s just no way.
Accross the continent, a huge number of guns recovered in crimes can be traced back to a gun store in America.
Not fully automatic firearms. The very few for sale in the United States are old, expensive, Federally tracked, and not available in any real quantity.
I love the accidental admission that you only want to know where it’s coming from because it can’t be bought in America…
Yes, because the explanation being given by the article doesn’t match with the reality of firearms in the U.S.
For instance that firearm in the first picture of the original article simply isn’t for sale at any shop in the United States. The only way you are buying it is with a special permit from the US Federal Government itself, the permit is only given to specific military and possibly some police organizations. The permit will only allow the purchase of a pre specified number of an exact model of firearm, and that purchase will be tracked (by serial number) from the time of manufacture through the sale process and delivery to the permitted organization.
Once all that’s done the permitted organization cannot legally sell them, let alone export them, without a whole 'nother pile of paperwork that requires Federal approval.
Be sure to tell us what you learn from them, so we know you’re not just defending Americas gun laws by muddying the waters.
I read the article you posted at the beginning of March. In fact I’ve probably read the majority of the articles, and the studies underpinning them, on this subject for at least twenty years. I even read the U.N. Report linked in the original article. Did you?
The truth is that simple semi-auto weapons like AR pattern rifles and Glocks can be bought here, sure, but a dozen different Federal Laws are being broken in order to get them to the gangs in Haiti. I’m sure it’s happening anyway and I’m not arguing about that.
What I’m saying is that is that the claims of full auto weapons coming from the US are extraordinary and need far more proof than just an AP News article.
I guess it’s the magic gun fairy then, manifesting American-made guns out of thin air and leaving them under the pillows of gang members the world over.
There actually was a Kalashnikov factory in the US producing Real Authentic Kalashnikov AK-47s. Was one of the very early victims of sanctions over Ukraine.
According to the above Pew Pew Tactical article, it looks like those Crimea-invasion sanctions were what started the US-based factory – they set up domestic production in the US to provide their US sales, since they couldn’t import from Russia any more.
The American company, Kalashnikov USA, was initially an importer of Russian-made firearms until the US government banned importation.
Using their familiarity and know-how, the importers became manufacturers, creating their own firearms based on Russian specifications.
I guess that strictly-speaking, the term should still be “AK-pattern”, Kalashnikov or not. Says that it’s based on the AK-103, which is really a descendant of the AK-47.
Still, seems like an improvement on the path humanity was on of having periodic global bloodbaths over individual human egos and the nationalism others attach to it. We still have bloodbaths over those issues, don’t get me wrong, just smaller scale overall.
And nobody please mention Switzerland as an example. Yes, we have lots of guns but they aren’t meant for self-defense outside some very narrow exceptions. Thankfully we can trust our police to do their work and they are usually very well trained.
The UN dogma of guns causing violence is ridiculous and insane. Switzerland isn’t Hell.
Civilians can’t easily own or carry guns in Haiti so only criminals are armed.
No one can uninvent guns. No one can stop smuggling. No one can stop illegal manufacturing. Gun control is a fantasy and/or totalitarian nightmare fuel.
Switzerland has far more gun regulations than the U.S. If you’re arguing for purchasing permits and concealed carry only by rarely-issued permits, sure. I’ll go with that. Better than what the U.S. has now.
Background checks in the US are practically equivalent to purchasing permits in CH, except the data retention is less specific because the date of purchase and what is purchased is harder to tell. Concealed carry was only restricted in the 1990s by gun-grabbers.
Also the US isn’t a monolith with one set of laws.
They both check you don’t have a criminal record and/or aren’t prohibited from purchasing guns. They both allow you to buy a firearm once they have cleared. You have to pay either way. Purchasing permits you get from the police, background checks are done by licensed dealers but the authorisation comes from executive power as well.
What’s the difference?
EDIT: My good faith is still on less shaky ground than the UN saying guns cause violence but having armed guards whenever and wherever they like.
The US has a well-known loophole allowing people to buy guns without any check or registration by buying from a private citizen or at fairs.
Switzerland has no such exceptions. To acquire guns, you need to apply for a permit and register them. Inherit guns? Same. Go to a gun fair? The cops are actually there so you can get an express permit if you had already been giving a valid one that’s less than a year old.
Licensed dealers aren’t allowed to check anything: you bring the permit delivered by the police, they check that and your ID and have to file the registration on purchase.
In Switzerland, there is no legal framework for gun self-defense and it states so clearly on the permit: it’s a permit to buy a gun (and related gear like ammo), you can keep it at home, take it (strictly unloaded including mags) to the range or an armorer and that’s it. Carry permits are only for professionals.
Edit: Switzerland is actually more permissive in the type of weapons one can buy as long as one gets the right permits. Buying a fully automatic short-barrel rifle with a suppressor would be much easier and cheaper than in the US. The hassle would be finding a place to shoot it since taking a full-auto to a range requires an additional daily permit and the range to allow it.
If someone has traces of THC in their system they’re automatically a criminal if they handle a gun. If they downloaded a film and they’re a convenient target politically they can also get in trouble (unenforced laws are enforceable).
Haiti made the wrong choice of demanding freedom from slavery before European powers were ready to adapt to life without human chattel. We’ve never let them forget that.
Once Haiti declared independence, they invaded Santo Domingo, effectively ending Spanish occupation of that part of the island. Slavery ended up being abolished by default once the Spanish were removed in 1822.
Well, Haiti did kill most of their masters when they rebelled against them. (Which I honestly can understand given the especially awful brand of slavery that was going on there)
Also, while France is to blame for the insane “reparations” that have been forced upon Haiti, they ultimately sold their debt to some wall street banks, who pressured the US government to invade Haiti (on more than one occasion iirc) to force them to take loans with high interest rates in order to repay the debt (and create more).
When I learned about that I couldn’t wrap my head around the fact that forgiving the debt was apparently never an option for anyone involved. So, fuck the banks and also fuck the USA.
Yeah if they’re getting machine guns its not from civilians. Civs can’t have any manufactured post 1984 and because of that stipulation they go for 20k at least.
Where do the smugglers obtain machine guns? Because something tells me they’re not smuggling individual guns worth 20k to Haiti. The only people with access to newer machine guns would be the government weather its military or clandestine agencies. So your smugglers are government connected.
Depends, are we talking full auto AR “machine guns” or actual machine guns like the FN Minimi or bigger?
Because full auto conversions for semi-auto rifles are easy to do. Actual machine guns are harder to come by, but still obtainable if you can get the right FFL and SOT license and either make your own or order them from manufacturers for “resale”.
Depends on scale for me. Like if there are a high number of automatic ARs going to Haiti I’d start wondering who has the capacity to alter that many guns quickly and traffic them. If its like one or two rifles a reporter heard firing very rapidly then who knows how it got there or when it was modified.
Given the size of the US, I’m sure you could find a couple guys to do it. Or even in Haiti, if you got the parts. And the parts aren’t hard to come by, the whole rifle is harder.
Haiti doesn’t have an Army and it’s not possible to steal THAT much inventory from the US Military without getting caught. It is possible for something to “fall off the back of the truck” occasionally but that kind of opportunity is extremely limited.
Those AK47s are the same way, they can’t be purchased here…at least not in Full Auto form and the weapon that guy in the first picture is holding ALSO isn’t available for over the counter purchase in the United States. They may be “coming” from the US in that they are being shipped from Florida to Haiti but the United States itself almost certainly isn’t the original source.
Haiti doesn’t have an army now. They had several military branches, and paramilitary groups too, up until 1995. Those groups were definitely armed. Where do you think the guns went when they were disbanded?
I don’t know where “here” is for you, but you can definitely buy AKs like that in most parts of the US.
Edit: actually I’m not sure what that rifle even is. It looks like an AK, but has an AR stock and it doesn’t look like an AK magazine… But the ejection port is only big enough for pistol rounds like 9mm. Given that, and the variety of guns in the other picture, I think they’re just getting whatever they can, wherever and whenever they can, so we’re not talking crates full of ARs coming over from the US very recently.
It’s a Galil Ace in 5.56, the ejection port is larger than the small spot you’re looking at. The original Galil was very close to an AK, the ACE diverged quite a bit more but uses the same basic design. I don’t know enough about them to tell if it’s a civilian SA receiver or not, they’re fairly rare in the US. Definitely a boutique gun for collectors and not something that falls into the black market much. No way to tell for sure but I would guess there’s a decent chance it wasn’t sourced from the US.
Well, it piqued my curiosity and now I think I have figured it out, which makes this far more interesting. The Galil Ace civilian version was an extremely limited run with less than 1100 total rifles being made, all for the US market and all chambered in 5.45x39. The rifle in the title picture of this article complaining about the flood of US guns depicts a gun that was never sold to any US civilian nor used by any US government agency (there is a slight chance of a handful of highly restricted and tracked “dealer samples” existing). If you look at the list of users for the 5.56 version of the Galil Ace you will notice that it is used by several Central and South American governments/police forces as well as… Haitian police forces.
I have to say there is no such thing as a full automatic rifle. There are Automatics or Semi- Automatics! Just read it to often and started twitching lol!
A lot of semiautomatic mechanisms can be converted to select fire with very little tooling or investment, you don’t need legally detained “machine guns” per the NFA definition to smuggle guns, anything cheap and untraceable enough will do.
What’s the point israel would have bombed them indiscriminately anyway? Apparently killing tens of thousands of palestinians is justified for 1500 hostages.
But what about the Hamas that’s hiding behind all the Humans, and not to mention the beheaded babies. Isn’t it a bit too early for a ceasefire, since Israel hasn’t gotten its vengeance?
Most people I saw on here were critical of being uncommitted towards the general election and don’t care about being uncommitted during the primary. Several states don’t even hold a primary for the party if they are currently holding office.
To add to that, they mostly agreed that Trump would tell Israel to finish the job, and they were right, that is what he ended up saying. Voting against Biden would in fact doom Gaza to genocide.
So the months of coordinated efforts to by activists to disrupt Democratic meetings, harass Democratic politicians, chant genocide Joe, vote uncommitted in primaries, block traffic, support BDS efforts etc. was actually an effective method of protest that had a small but meaningful effect in changing foreign policy?
The methods of protest the state wants us to think are successful and the methods that can actually succeed are usually not the same. Please take note.
And will they reward Biden for listening or reinforce the idea that there’s no point trying to please the progressive left by finding some other reason to get upset and not vote?
I don’t think the progressive left is why Hillary lost. Certainly, people choosing not to vote because she was centrist had an impact, but I don’t think there were really enough “Bernie or bust” folks to be solely responsible. You actually had a higher percentage of Bernie voters going for Hillary in 2016 than you did Hilary voters going for Obama in 2008.
You had like five different factors and a pretty tight final margin. No one factor was responsible. Comey’s letter, Hilary being center, Russian meddling, online misinformation – all of it is partially but not wholly responsible.
Ah, you must be a “progressive” who cares more about being right and owning the libs than actually advancing a progressive agenda. I much prefer prioritizing progressive goals and making progress towards them. This UN resolution is a step, and Netanyahu’s petulant reaction to it only makes it more likely that we take more right steps in the future. I’ll continue to celebrate those and hope Biden moves in the right direction, instead of scoffing about “how I was right” in 2016.
And for that matter, I seem to recall a lot of “progressives” saying Biden would lose in 2020 and Democrats would be destroyed in 2022 – yet, i don’t see you mentioning those predictions. You’ve only got 1 out of 3 right there. I’m sure however in 2026, regardless of how this year goes, you’ll still mention how you were right about 2016, won’t you?
I think there’s two sides to this. Criticizers shouldn’t suddenly fall in line because we’ve made progress, but they also shouldn’t pretend that nothing’s happened.
The right answer is to give credit to Biden for listening this much, and continue to push for more. I agree though that overall, this action should earn him more progressive votes – just not all of them, and not with all criticism disappearing.
There’s a flip side to the politics: criticism from the right-wing pro-Israel faction is quieter than usual because a separate group of anti-semites have gained power in the Republican party.
Normally, Biden wouldn’t have much incentive listen much to the far left, but right now he’s not paying much in costs from the other side.
No, he really doesn’t, because of winner takes all elections and the two party system. The Nash equilibrium is for both major party candidates to align their platforms right on the 50% median voter. This maximizes the votes for both of them.
In this specific upcoming general election, Biden’s base voters have nowhere to go to except the Cheeto fascist. Not much reason to cater to their policy preferences–they don’t have a real choice. That’s been reflected in the chatter on Lemmy as well.
You understand there is no such thing as a median voter. They are only issues and most voters have one or two issues they won’t compromise on. Biden is alienating younger and Muslim voters. If Biden was converting 1+ Trump voter for every voter he loses, you might have a point. But there is no evidence he is netting votes from this. That makes no sense in an election that’s fighting against authoritarianism.
Why can’t we agree Biden that needs to go all out to win this thing?
Absolutely not. That’s why when i heard the US abstained i had to double check why, and predictably it was because of the length of the ceasefire.
Also, demanding the change of language from ‘permanent’ ceasefire to ‘sustained’ ceasefire was scummy and probably also part of the reason why they abstained and let the vote pass.
Zhang Jun, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of China to the UN, thanked the E-10 Council members for their efforts on the draft.
Noting that his country’s negative vote on the US-led draft resolution last Friday, he stated that a comparison of the two drafts showed the differences:
“The current draft is unequivocal and correct in its direction, demanding an immediate ceasefire, while the previous one was evasive and ambiguous,” he said, adding that the present resolution also reflected the general expectations of the international community and enjoyed the collective support of Arab nations.
I remember when Nazi Germany said they didn’t want to harm Jews, they just wanted them out of Germany, then they decided that all of Europe should belong to Germany, and then blamed the Jews for forcing their hand to violence by continuing to exist.
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