Mogadishu's new mayor orders residents to turn in arms

[frankie_the_yankee]

And now for something completely different...............

Sure, I agree that there is no way that this warlord character will effectively eliminate guns from the city. Especially, since everyone there knows that what he really means is that he doesn't want any of his opponents to have guns, while his supporters will remain armed to the teeth.

But consider the makeup of Mogadishu. You have clan-based groups of killers who are also Islamic militants, and you have clan-based groups of killers who are not Islamic militants. (They are just plain militants.)

In other words, a large proportion of the people are what we would call murderous barbarians who's first impulse is to kill any group with whom they disagree.

Suppose YOU were charged with bringing order to that mess. Don't you think it might be a good idea to disarm all of these barbarians if you could?

What do you think they would do to YOU at first opportunity if they remained armed to the teeth?

If you had a free election there (if such a thing could even be done), no one like YOU would have a chance of winning, nor would anyone remotely like you. Instead, all that would happen is that the most numerous group of barbarians would take power, after which they would find themselves in a fight to the death with every other group.

Suppose you were there and charged with the task of establishing the rule of law as we know it in a civilized society? What would YOU do? Give everybody guns? What if most of the people had no concept of the rule of law or civilized society? Most likely, all they would want to do is kill YOU, and sieze power themselves.

Putting an AK-47 in the hands of a stone age savage will not transform him into a tolerant libertarian. All it will do is make him more able to kill you.

Sadly, unless Mogadishu is suddenly flooded with a civilized army of around 250,000 people charged with imposing order, (which isn't gonna happen) the only outcome in this case is for these poor souls to keep on killing each other until they themselves can't stand it any more.