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OpEdNews Op Eds    H2'ed 4/5/21

Who's Likelier to Take Your Guns Away? An Authoritarian Regime

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In Vladimir Putin's authoritarian ruled Russia, applicants for a gun license must submit to a psychiatric exam. Additionally, the license has to be renewed every five years, the applicant must attend a 6 1/2 hour government-run training session and must also pass a written test, the owner is required to register the gun with the police, and police will visit the homes of gun owners once a year to verify safe storage. Mental illness or treatment for substance abuse disqualifies a person for gun ownership.

American gun owners love the AR-15, the most popular semi-automatic assault rifle in the United States. It can fire 45-60 rounds per minute. In Russia, you can't own a gun that stores more than 10 cartridges in the magazine.

What about citizen gun ownership in fascist North Korea? Their firearms control act declares: "Institutions, businesses, groups and the public are prohibited from possessing or transacting firearms." Violators are subject to "stern consequences." In North Korea "stern" usually translates as "fatal."

China is another example of an authoritarian regime that used armed force to gain power but now has one of the strictest gun laws in the world. Private gun ownership is banned throughout the country. In 2019 the Hong Kong-based South China Morning Post reported that the Chinese ban on private ownership is so strict that even if you are caught with a non-lethal gun such as an air gun you are likely to get prison time. That's what happened to 51-year-old Zhao Chunhua. He was sentenced to three and a half years for possession of nine air rifles - which he used for shooting at balloons at his funfair stall for tourists.

Singapore, a democratic parliamentary government with authoritarian leanings, has been ruled with an iron hand by the same People's Action Party (PAP) for five decades. In the latest rankings of the Democracy Index, Singapore was designated a "flawed democracy." Singaporean Journalist Kristen Han points to search and seize raids without warrants, interrogations without lawyers, swiftly jamming through legislation because of one-party domination, limitations on freedom of the press, allowing defamation lawsuits that suppress freedom of speech, and more.

USA Today reported in 2019 that Singapore's gun laws are restrictive and punishing. All firearms are forbidden for ordinary citizens who, "if caught, are physically beaten by caning," and "Use a firearm while committing a crime draws a mandatory death sentence, even if no one was killed or injured."

Surely authoritarian regimes would not allow an organization like the NRA that favors laissez-faire gun ownership

An alarming number of Americans seem to be craving authoritarianism, judging by their enthusiastic approval displayed at Trump rallies and other public events.

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Bernard Starr, PhD, is author of The Crucifixion of Truth, a drama set in 16th century Italy and Spain. Starr is a psychologist, journalist, and professor emeritus at CUNY, Brooklyn College. At Brooklyn College Starr taught developmental (more...)
 

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