I've been thinking recently that I'd like to see an international charity premised on delivering guns to oppressed people living under tyranical regimes. The first application would be a place like North Korea, where most of the people are miserable but powerless to oppose a facist military government that holds all the weapons. What would happen if an organization were able to purchase and airdrop a thousand AK-47s and some ammunition directly into one of North Korea's enormous gulags? What if similar drops were made all over the country, directly into the villages and towns so that the people could snatch them up before the government could respond?
A similar strategy might work in regions facing genocide, like Darfur, where only the government-sponsored thugs have access to firearms. Why not even the odds by providing the refugees living in "aid" camps with the means to fight back and reclaim their land? Or is it better to just let them rot for the rest of their lives in disgusting tent camps run by "humanitarian" NGOs?
I'm sure such an organization would be condemned by the UN, but would it be illegal to operate it from the United States? There'd be risks involved with the deliveries, and it would be expensive, but if drug smugglers and terrorists can raise money and move people and weapons around I don't see why Guns Without Borders wouldn't be able to.
I'm all for it. Washington, DC should be number 3 on the list.
I'd be for it. Technically, to ship arms across a nation's borders without the prior approval of its government is an act of war, but then, the concept has experienced some, ah, modification these few years past.
We did that with the mujahadeen in Afghanistan...the rest is history.
I don't think air dropping would be effective. You have to get people on the ground to deliver the weapons and provide training. That's why the best use for a first attempt would be to the refugees in Chad that have been driven out of the Sudan. They could then re-enter the Sudan in force and deliver more arms to the people who live there.
Short of large-scale military intervention, I think an armed citizenry is Africa's best chance at ending their cycle of brutal dictatorships.
I'd even consider going to Chad to help out with this project if I didn't think I would come back to the US to face life in prison for gun-running and acting as a mercenary.