Conventional Excuse for Gun Confiscation: The Taliban Will Protect You

 "Citizens: Turn in your weapons! (Soviet Poster about 1920)

The classic case for confiscation of weapons in Western Civilization in the last hundred years, is the government will defend you. You do not need weapons to defend yourself.  The Taliban is reported to have emulated this Western propaganda in Kabul, after taking over in August of 2021.

From Reuters.com:

KABUL, Aug 16 (Reuters) - Taliban fighters in the Afghan capital, Kabul, started collecting weapons from civilians on Monday because people no longer need them for personal protection, a Taliban official said.

"We understand people kept weapons for personal safety. They can now feel safe. We are not here to harm innocent civilians," the official told Reuters.

The Taliban are following a long tradition of disarming individuals under the pretext individuals do not need weapons, because the government will protect them. The Taliban feels the need to add a caveat:

 "We are not here to harm innocent civilians."

As governments became more sophisticated in their need to dissimulate, they often claim the government will protect people, so they do not need weapons.

It is a claim made in the English experience with gun control. Joyce Lee Malcolm documents this in her scholarly book "Guns and Violence: the English Experience".  On page 176, she documents a significant expansion of the law against the carry of weapons in 1953. Sir Lionel Heald, the Attorney General, is promoting the bill. He says: It is the duty of society to protect them, and they should not have to do that... The argument of self defense is one to which, perhaps, we should not attach too much weight.

Self defense was specifically eliminated as a reason to have a firearm in English, Canadian, and later, Australian law. 

Gun control laws, and the number of legal, or even illegal firearms, have not shown any correlation to violent crime. 

They show an unwillingness of governments to trust their people with weapons. 

Most European gun control laws were created after World War I and before World War II, for political purposes, not crime control. Murder rates were essentially unchanged, although, as expected, there was a spike during World War II. 

In India, the British instituted weapons control after the Mutiny/uprising in 1857. It was clear the purpose was to prevent uprisings. Most gun control laws were the result of conquest and  war. 

Misleading the people who are governed, in order to disarm, them has a long and unpleasant history. Niccoló Machiavelli, known as the father of modern political science, states deception when disarming people is a necessary thing.

"For it is enough to ask a man to give up his arms, without telling him that you intend killing him with them; after you have the arms in hand, then you can do your will with them."  The Discourses, end of chapter XLIV

In the Koran, it is permissible to lie and decieve in order to gain advantage to advance the cause of Islam. 

Most people realize people who wish them to be disarmed do so because they wish to do things which would be difficult to accomplish if the people were armed.

The Afghan  revolt against the Soviet installed regime started with the puppet government's attempt to disarm Afghans. 

This is not an auspicious start for a new Taliban government. Afghans love their weapons.  Afghanistan is a land of waring tribes.  A man is expected to be able to defend himself and his tribe.

©2021 by Dean Weingarten: Permission to share is granted when this notice and link are included.

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