So all you gun haters , please , pack up and move to Afghanistan!…….

—– Original Message —–
From: “SSAA” <[email protected]>
To: “AAAlist” <[email protected]>
Sent: Thursday, December 27, 2001 7:53 PM
Subject: [ssaa-news] NEWS – Afghan govt to collect guns

> Afghanistan prepares to disarm gun-loving people
>
> By Jeremy Page
>
> KABUL, Dec 26 (Reuters) – Satar loves his AK-47. For the last seven
> years, the 25-year old Afghan mechanic has cleaned it and oiled it with
> dedicated attention, and even slept with it under his pillow.
>
> Now Afghanistan’s new government wants to take it away.
>
> “It’s the best gun in the world,” he said proudly, unclipping a full
> magazine from the Russian-made semi-automatic rifle. “It doesn’t break,
> it doesn’t jam and it doesn’t overheat.”
>
> The administration that took office last Saturday has already banned
> people from carrying guns on the streets of Kabul in the first step
> towards disarming a country awash with firearms after 23 years of war.
>
> But interim leader Hamid Karzai has yet to explain how he proposes to
> collect weapons from a population still wary of further fighting, and
> for whom a gun has long denoted wealth, power and social standing.
>
> For many in Afghanistan, a popular saying goes: “You earn your living
> from the muzzle of a gun.”
>
> MUSEUM OF FIREARMS
>
> Abdul Wakil’s shop in a backstreet off Kabul’s main bazaar is a museum
> to Afghan’s long and bloody relationship with firearms.
>
> Here you can buy everything from 19th century muskets left over from the
> British invasions of Afghanistan to Soviet-made rifles from the
> Communist era and a 1999 Chinese pump-action shotgun smuggled in by
> Pakistani arms dealers.
>
> Despite the pending government ban, business is good.
>
> “There are less restrictions now and there is more demand,” said Wakil,
> whose father and grandfather ran the shop before him. “Some people buy
> for hunting but they also want a gun in the home for security.”
>
> Six years ago, this backstreet was Kabul’s main gun market, where
> Mujahideen fighters would trade Kalashnikovs, rocket-propelled grenades
> and hand-guns behind thinly disguised carpet stalls.
>
> Today, the arms trade is not so open.
>
> Wakil said his shop was licensed only to sell hunting guns, although
> that appeared to include the Chinese pump-action shotgun, which he would
> sell for $30.
>
> “You can’t buy that stuff here any more,” said Mohammad Ehsan, 34,
> sitting cross-legged in a stall down the road piled high with army
> uniforms, webbing and ammunition belts.
>
> “People should hand over their weapons,” he said. “There is no need for
> them anymore. I hate and condemn the use of guns.”
>
> ONE DOLLAR GRENADES
>
> But behind closed doors, heavy-duty arms such as Kalashnikovs and
> grenades are still traded between commanders who distribute them to
> their ragtag forces.
>
> Most weapons are Russian, either pillaged from Soviet troops who invaded
> in 1979 or sold by Moscow to the Northern Alliance when it was fighting
> the Taliban.
>
> A Kalashnikov costs between five and six million afghanis ($200-300), a
> Makarov Russian pistol about the same, and a rocket-propelled grenade
> launcher goes for eight million afghanis.
>
> Grenades cost less than a dollar each.
>
> Satar was given his gun by a commander when he joined the Northern
> Alliance to fight against the Taliban at the age of 18.
>
> “It took me two days to learn to shoot,” he said. “Now I can hit a
> sparrow from 100 metres (yards).”
>
> Satar will be sad to part with his beloved companion, but he is ready to
> give it up if his commander gives the order.
>
> “I will hand it to the government when we have a police force and an
> army to provide security,” he said. “But if foreign countries like
> Pakistan continue to interfere we will take up arms again.”
>
> And after seven years of fighting, it will be strange for him to adjust
> to life without the comfort of his AK under his pillow.
>
> “I guess I’ll get used to it after a couple of days,” he said.
>
> 07:02 12-26-01
>