Cool development (sorta) in Saudi Arabia

[Yoda]

How cool!

The Saudis understand that many folks with "illegal" guns are not up to "illegal" activity!

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Riyadh - Saudis will be able to buy handguns and other personal firearms openly for the first time after the interior ministry said on Saturday it will licence privately owned gun shops.

Anyone over 25 with no criminal record could apply to open a gun store, the ministry said, according to the official SPA news agency.

An official said the move is aimed in part at reining in the widespread illegal ownership of handguns and assault weapons.

Hunting and sport shooting weapons are currently sold in specialty stores, and all weapons are supposed to be licensed.

But a large number of personal guns, including assault rifles, are owned and traded without permits, according to a person familiar with the business.

There are no statistics on how many guns exist in private hands in the kingdom.

But in July, Riyadh police said they had seized 1 091 weapons and more than 13 200 pieces of ammunition in the capital area in the preceding six months, a Saudi Gazette report said.

Last week, the interior ministry also said it would accept applications to set up private shooting clubs.

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Here's the link:
http://www.news24.com/Content/World...d3/17-10-2009-07-04/Saudi_to_permit_gun_shops


- - - Yoda

 

[tkopp]

Great news until you realize our allies in Saudi Arabia are the rulers, and the people genuinely despise us.

 

[model of 1905]

We have no allies in Saudi Arabia, only business partners because it is convienent. Most of the 9-11 perps were Saudis and that country should have been hit hard and fast as an example to the Islam world of what will happen when you attack our country. 8 years of war in Iraq and A-stan have accomplished nothing. If you are gonna fight, whether it be a fist fight, a gunfight or a war...you fight to WIN!

 

[stevelyn]

That would make Saudi Arabia more gun friendly than Chicago, NYC and DC as well as some east coast socialist state paradises and California.

I think it's a good thing when people in a country.......any country, gain freedom.

 

[NMGonzo]

I hope it does what is suppose to do .... (muahahhahahah!!(

 

[wideym]

You have to remember that one thing that the Saudi's have in abundance is MONEY and with MONEY you can get away with just about anything, expecially if your particular tribe is in control of the goverment.

I'm suprised that it actually took this long for the Royal Family to "officially" licence the sale and transfer of assault weapons, probably do to the increased unrest amongst the lower families and increased terrorist activity in the Kingdom. Although the Saudis' are death to drug dealers or users, they are generally leniant if not outright turn a blind eye to any weapon ownership by citizens (only citizens, not forgien workers), after all what real man wouldn't own a man's weapon.

 

[THE DARK KNIGHT]

Great. Saudi Arabia now has better gun laws than New Jersey. What wonderful times we live in!!!

Great news until you realize our allies in Saudi Arabia are the rulers, and the people genuinely despise us.

It's been no secret for the last thousand years that Islamic religion considers many things sacred, and does not take well to them being defiled. News Flash: Sticking your hand in the oven hurts, forks don't belong in power sockets, and 9v batteries taste awful.

 

[captlid]

Are women considered citizens in saudi arabia? If yes then I'll start cheering. If not wake me up when they are.

 

[Shung]

right on captlid !

 

[Gerald in Ga]

So, what the official is saying is that to curb illegal ownership they will just change the law and make ownership legal.

 

[9mm+]

Great news until you realize our allies in Saudi Arabia are the rulers, and the people genuinely despise us.

I have traveled extensively in Saudi Arabia for the last five years and I don't believe this to be true. Particularly in Jeddah, many Saudis are trying to emulate the West and have a friendly, casual attitude towards Americans. If anything, Saudi citizens despise their government and the dreaded muttawah (the religious police), and they're always suspicious of the uneasy partnership between Saudi progressives and ultra-conservative Wahhabists.

 

[alsaqr]

I think it's a good thing when people in a country.......any country, gain freedom.

I worked in Saudi for many years and still go there on work related stuff. The Saudi king took it away the freedom to buy guns several years ago because of al Queda attacks on the Saudi government and Aramco. Now they are getting a little of it back with gun registration. In the late 90s I bought a Steyr AUG rock and roll model with four magazines in a souk for about $450. Too bad I am not allowed to bring it to the USA.

 

[Zoogster]

Being cynical of our tyrant ally in the east, I would say the Saudi Royalty knows the best way to locate the illegal firearms they want to get rid of is to legalize and license them.

You can't take what you don't know is there. If you allow people to register for awhile you can obtain information on the item you want to confiscate or heavily restrict.
Otherwise they remain elusive on the black market.

 

[ChaoSS]

We have no allies in Saudi Arabia, only business partners because it is convienent. Most of the 9-11 perps were Saudis and that country should have been hit hard and fast as an example to the Islam world of what will happen when you attack our country. 8 years of war in Iraq and A-stan have accomplished nothing. If you are gonna fight, whether it be a fist fight, a gunfight or a war...you fight to WIN!

Great idea. After we are done blowing up Saudi Arabia, maybe we can head over and blow up New York to punish them for what McVeigh did.

 

[Kimber45acp]

Are women considered citizens in saudi arabia? If yes then I'll start cheering. If not wake me up when they are.

Oh gag. I hate political correctness. Of course women are citizens in SA. Unlike this country though, the profound differences between men and women are understood and accepted. Most Americans live in denial, with an attitude that men and women are somehow "equal." When it becomes obvious that equality is impossible, government tries to force a symbolic form of "equality" down everyone's throats. Here, women are forced to be men in many ways, and men are forced to be women in many ways. Should some of the laws in Saudi Arabia be moderated in regards to women? Probably. Does the USA have all the answers with their 60+% divorce rate, endless broken families, endless fatherless children, and endless out of wedlock births? HARDLY.

I worked in Saudi for many years and still go there on work related stuff. The Saudi king took it away the freedom to buy guns several years ago because of al Queda attacks on the Saudi government and Aramco. Now they are getting a little of it back with gun registration. In the late 90s I bought a Steyr AUG rock and

Stories like that make me feel good all over

 

[junyo]

I hate political correctness. Of course women are citizens in SA. Unlike this country though, the profound differences between men and women are understood and accepted. Most Americans live in denial, with an attitude that men and women are somehow "equal." When it becomes obvious that equality is impossible, government tries to force a symbolic form of "equality" down everyone's throats. Here, women are forced to be men in many ways, and men are forced to be women in many ways. Should some of the laws in Saudi Arabia be moderated in regards to women? Probably. Does the USA have all the answers with their 60+% divorce rate, endless broken families, endless fatherless children, and endless out of wedlock births? HARDLY.

We might not have all the answers, but we have more of them than a country where women can't drive, and where 75 year old widows or the victim of a rape can be sentenced to lashes for meeting with non-relative males.

I personally think one of the greatest things about the RKBA is the fact that it is an equalizer.

 

[captlid]

I am sorry to detract from the thread topic, but if I was living in saudi arabia currently I would have no opportunity to go outside or work. I have no relatives other than dear old grandma. Chew on that for a moment.

God bless that I was born in the usa during this time period. Can't imagine risking a beat down by the morality police for walking down the street by myself in broad daylight. Or god forbid getting raped and then being accused of adultery which is pretty much a death penalty right there and then. Family came from the east. Women are expected to get married and that's it. Anything else and you're automatically considered a whore.

 

[sig228]

Unfortunately, a proliferation of guns in any Middle Eastern country will result in more guns eventually finding their way into our enemy's hands. I'm all for gun freedoms but not in an area of the world where they truly hate Americans.

 

[ChaoSS]

Unfortunately, a proliferation of guns in any Middle Eastern country will result in more guns eventually finding their way into our enemy's hands. I'm all for gun freedoms but not in an area of the world where they truly hate Americans.

I think this is the kind of baseless racism that got us into trouble in the ME in the first place. You prefer that a whole race of people be denied the right to own firearms, because what, some terrorists attacked the United States using weapons other than firearms?

That would be like suggesting that we deny the right to own firearms to portions of the United States because Timothy McVeigh attacked the US and he was from there.

 

[HKUSP45C]

Unfortunately, a proliferation of guns in any Middle Eastern country will result in more guns eventually finding their way into our enemy's hands. I'm all for gun freedoms but not in an area of the world where they truly hate Americans.

That's just about one of the most ignorant statements I've read in quite some time.

+1 ChaoSS

Having spent nearly a third of my life in Saudi Arabia (Ras Tanura) I can say, unequivocally, that the vast majority of Saudis do NOT hate America or Americans. In fact, having also travled to dozens of other countries I'd suggest you'd be hard pressed to paint virtually ANY country accurately with that brush.

Honestly, I've met more freindly Saudi strangers than I have Amercian ones ... really.

 

[9mm+]

Ditto, HK...see my earlier post.

 

[captlid]

I'm all for gun freedoms but not in an area of the world where they truly hate Americans.

Then you believe in only guns for some people and not all people. Look, that little piece of dirt the arabs live on will always be hotly contested even if it had no oil. Its smack dab in the middle of the 3 most populated continents. If anything they need all the weapons they can get their hands on.

 

[damien]

Unfortunately, a proliferation of guns in any Middle Eastern country will result in more guns eventually finding their way into our enemy's hands. I'm all for gun freedoms but not in an area of the world where they truly hate Americans.

I just don't see small arms halfway across the world being any kind of a security risk to Americans. It isn't like they can teleport into an American Brady-sponsored victim disarmament zone where they could do some damage.

 

[Justin]

This thread has pretty plainly gone off topic.