In 2012 the workers paradise of Venezuela banned the civilian possession of firearms to combat the sky-high number of comrades who were murdering each other.
The gun ban didn't reduce the number of homicides. In fact, the murder rate continued climbing for another five years before supposedly declining in 2017. Official government statistics show a homicide rate of 25 per 100,000 in 2023; about 5 times that of the United States, but a dramatic improvement over the 94 homicides per 100,000 people recorded in 2017.
President Donald Trump says that Nicholas Maduro has been offshoring Venezuela's violent thugs by exporting them to the United States, which is why crime is down. Maduro himself claims that the police have eradicated criminal gangs. Rebecca Hanson, an assistant professor of Latin American Studies, Sociology and Criminology at the University of Florida, argues that "a more plausible explanation for falling homicide figures is that Maduro’s policies have resulted in more consolidated relationships between criminal groups themselves." There are fewer gangs to go to war with each other, which in turn has led to less gang-related violence.
Whatever the reason, the Maduro regime hasn't lifted the ban on gun possession enacted by his equally dictatorial predecessor Hugo Chavez, so it's highly amusing to me that Maduro is now trying to build up a militia force to defend Venezuala against a U.S. invasion... and has to rely on people with no experience with firearms to serve as his auxiliary fighting force.
Civil servants, housewives and retirees alike lined up in Venezuela's capital Caracas over the weekend as thousands volunteered to join the country's militia in case there is a U.S. invasion.
President Nicolas Maduro called on citizens to respond to "outlandish threats" by the U.S. and sign up over the weekend to the Bolivarian Militia, a civilian corps linked to the South American country's armed forces.
The show of force is also intended to send a message to Washington, which has issued a $50 million bounty for Maduro -- who is accused by the Trump administration of leading a drug cartel -- and has stationed three warships off Venezuela's coast for what the U.S. says are anti-drug operations.
Last week, Maduro denounced "the renewal of extravagant, bizarre and outlandish threats" from the U.S.
Militia registration centers were set up in the capital's squares, military and public buildings and even in the presidential palace Miraflores.
After registering, volunteers were shown a documentary about the European blockade on Venezuela's coast between 1902 and 1903, after then-president Cipriano Castro refused to pay a foreign debt.
The 2017 film showed armed farmers, some shooting guns while others analyzed maps, as warships loomed in the distance.
Next, the volunteers were taken through a room with weapons on display: a U.S.-made machine gun, a Swedish grenade launcher, a Soviet RPG launcher and a Belgian machine gun.
An army lieutenant explained how to use each weapon.
"Can this be shot at the sky?" an attendee asked.
"It's better to shoot it straight," the soldier replied.
I'm surprised they showed a film that featured farmers shooting guns, even at capitalist Europeans, since any farmer who so much as possesses a rifle today can face up to 20 years in a Venezuelan prison.
Venezuela still has its street gangs, and with a homicide rate five times greater than the United States there are clearly some civilians who know how to operate a firearm. Thanks to the disarmament policies that inevitably come with socialist government, though, Maduro has metaphorically shot himself in the foot when it comes to a "people's defense of the homeland." Those Venezuelans who have the most familiarity with firearms are the criminals who've been ignoring the country's gun laws (or arming themselves with the tacit approval of the Maduro regime) all along, while the housewives, civil servants, and retirees who Maduro wants as the face of his militia are completely ignorant about the basic functionality of firearms.
We don't have that problem here, nor do we have Venezuela's sky-high homicide rate...at least not outside of some Democrat-controlled cities. We do have somewhere between 80-100 million citizens who are actively exercising their right to keep and bear arms, though, and one of the reasons why the Founders believed it was so important that the people's right to keep and bear arms was protected was to prevent what's happening in Venezuela today; a populace tasked with defending the country that has no clue how to do so.
