Costa Rica Guns – Like The USA, Your Rights To Own Could Be Trampled.

I have received a number of emails from perturbed website members and gun owners about what happened recently in New Orleans.

They are asking me about gun ownership in Costa Rica and complain that the US Constitution is rapidly being shredded by their President and his cronies and in looking at the facts, it’s difficult to disagree.

According to the US Constitution; “The right of the people to keep arms reasonable for hunting, sport, collecting, and personal defense shall not be infringed.”

The Guarantees Of The Right To Arms In State Constitutions in Louisiana states that: “The right of each citizen to keep and bear arms shall not be abridged, but this provision shall not prevent the passage of laws to prohibit the carrying of weapons concealed on the person. (Art. I, § 11)”

New Orleans Police Superintendent P. Edwin Compass said that the new gun confiscation order also had been expanded to include weapons possessed by law abiding citizens.”No one will be able to be armed,” Compass said in The Washington Post article. “Guns will be taken. Only law enforcement will be allowed to have guns.” Compass said the order would include citizens with valid, state-issued concealed weapons permits.

“The situation we’re seeing in New Orleans represents a complete vindication of everything we’ve been saying in defense of the Second Amendment,” said NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre.

“All throughout history, what you have in the aftermath of disasters like Katrina is mayhem, looting, robbing, raping and killing by the evildoers, along with a complete breakdown of government’s ability to protect people from those who would do them harm,” LaPierre said. “That’s exactly what the Right to Keep and Bear Arms was intended to address. The Second Amendment is the underpinning of citizens’ efforts to stay alive.”

Robert Pratt, the Republican Election Volunteer Coordinator in Lubbock and an active member of the NRA said he is outraged by the actions of New Orleans officials. “What happened in New Orleans is a complete breakdown of law and order,” Pratt said. “It is the same thing that happened during the L.A. riots.” He said taking guns away from law-abiding citizens goes against the citizen’s rights.

“It is an infringement of the highest constitutional right,” Pratt said. “The Second Amendment is not about hunting. It’s about citizens being able to protect themselves in a time of crisis.” Pratt said he believes events like Hurricane Katrina are exactly why the constitution grants citizens the right to bare arms.

“The authorities always tell you to call 911,” Pratt said. “Well, with all the lines down, nobody in New Orleans could call 911. How could people protect themselves?”

A Louisiana state statute allows the chief law enforcement officer to “regulate possession” of firearms during declared emergencies. Pratt said he has no problem with the regulations. “But regulate is different than confiscate,” he said. “If they want to lock down guns stores or tell the citizens they can’t leave their property while carrying a gun that’s fine. But going into peoples’ homes and taking away their protection is unconstitutional.”

NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox stated that “Yet while authorities sought to disarm ordinary citizens in New Orleans, they had no plans to disarm private security guards hired to protect businesses, the wealthy and connected.”

“We’re going to do what it takes to ensure this never happens again,” Cox said. “First, we’re going to go into every state that has laws allowing authorities to confiscate firearms from lawful people during a state of emergency, and we’re going to change those laws. Second, we’re going to get legislation on Capitol Hill to amend the federal disaster laws, so that governments never have the authority to confiscate firearms from peaceable citizens-whether under a state of emergency or not. And third, we’re going to go to court to defend the Second Amendment rights of people whose firearms have been confiscated, and we’re going to get those firearms back,” Cox said. “The NRA will not allow this travesty to stand.”

“Perhaps no single policy is more at odds with President Bush’s pledge to “end tyranny in our world” than the United States’ role as the world’s leading arms exporting nation.”

According to NationMaster.com the US exported US$90,929,000,0000 worth of arms to developing nations last year

“In 2003, more than half of the top 25 recipients of U.S. arms transfers in the developing world (13 of 25) were defined as undemocratic by the U.S. State Departments Human Rights Report”

“The Sunday Herald reported that declassified U.S. Congressional documents revealed a history of U.S. and UK support to the Hussein regime, including the sale of chemical and biological weapons or precursors for weapons like “anthrax, VX nerve gas, West Nile fever germs and botulism to Iraq right up until March 1992, as well as germs similar to tuberculosis and pneumonia.”

Former Senator Donald Riegle, a Michigan Democrat who conducted hearings on Iraqs weapons programs, concurred, telling the St. Petersburg Times “What is absolutely crystal clear is this: That if Saddam Hussein today has a large arsenal of biological weapons, partly it was the United States that provided the very live viruses that he needed to create those weapons.”

Oscar Arias is the front-runner in the next Costa Rica elections and the popular opinion seems to be that he would try to drastically curtail gun ownership in Costa Rica.

Oscar Arias also recently said that: “Disarmament of society is a much longer process [than demilitarization] that requires a fundamental change in outlook and behaviour.”

So if you are a gun lover and wish to own one in Costa Rica, I would suggest that you start the process and get it done now before they start changing the “outlook” and also try to change your “behaviour.”

Changing a law abiding citizen’s “behaviour” when he’s armed to the teeth is sometimes difficult and I still got all of my teeth.

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Written by Charlie McCormack* who is ex-Special Forces now happily retired in Costa Rica.

* Pen name.

Andrew Makarik

to@welovecostarica.com

Andrew Makarik is the main editor of WeLoveCostaRica, a fan of this sunny country. He is also a loving husband and a has a lovely daughter. By being a devoted family man and the biggest Costa Rica fan, he wants to make more people feel at home there. WeLoveCostaRica unites people and helps them find new home or a new travel destination. This website is a friendly community where everyone can find not only information, but also new friends and travel pals. Andrew is also passionate about IT and programming, so he himself maintains a friendly atmosphere in this cozy environment of WeLoveCostaRica.com.