Civil Unrest & Gun Ownership

[timmy]

Last night, I was watching a news report on the aftermath of Chile's earthquake. Chile has pretty much become a model society since the downfall of Pinochet, saving the extra money from boom times that's being used to get them through the current economic crisis. Since the tremendous earthquake occurred, their requests for international aid have been limited to a small, specific set of items they need. Otherwise, they seem determined to accomplish their rebuilding by themselves.

Yet, even there, problems exist.

Two cities badly damaged by the tremendous 8.8 earthquake, Constitucion and Concepcion, have seen a breakdown of all governmental services, as well as a breakdown of supply. Food and other essentials have become unavailable. Naturally enough, some, especially the poorer citizens, have taken to "appropriating" the essentials of life on their own. Predictably enough, others in Chile have taken this event as an occasion for looting.

The news clip showed a group of citizens who had barricaded their street off with a pitiful pile of junk, and who were patrolling this barricade with an axe, a lamp stand, and in the case of one very elderly gentlemen in a wheelchair, a cane.

Because of the severity of the earthquake, governmental authorities were too overwhelmed to be able to provide law and order, or any kind of basic security, forcing citizens to take the law into their own hands and protect themselves from roaming bands of predatory goons with whatever came to hand.

To me, it does not seem reasonable for society to expect citizens to hand over 100% of their security needs to the government, unless the government can provide these services in every contingency. The Chilean situation is a good example of how, even though government and many in society expect citizens to place full dependence on the authorities for law and order, such an expectation simply cannot be met by any government.

I confess that I watched this segment thinking what a shame it was, that in these sorts of natural disasters, so many governments and so many in society at large refused to trust citizens with the right to keep and bear arms, but instead, trusted those less savory elements by default. That such logic and lazy thinking is lacking must be obvious to all, and it seems shameful that so many, who ought to know better, would act and think like teenagers, taking the attitude that "it won't happen to me."

[Vikram]

A very poignant yet heartening portrayal of the situation in Chile,Timmy. Especially of the elderly man in a wheelchair and a with a cane!

I remember well the Los Angeles Riots in the '90s when Rodney Kind affair kicked off. Many of the Korean shopkeepers were guarding their properties with their guns and as a results, they were a less molested lot.

Thank you for a good point well made.

Best-
Vikram