Myanmar Tyranny Made Possible by Government Monopoly of Violence

U.S.A. – -(Ammoland.com)- “The military and its brutal practices are an omnipresent fear in Myanmar, one that has intensified since the generals seized full power in a coup last month,” The New York Times reports.” As security forces gun down peaceful protesters on city streets, the violence that is commonplace in the countryside serves as a grisly reminder of the military’s long legacy of atrocities.”

Those atrocities and the “ethnic cleansing” have been well documented elsewhere, so it’s not my purpose here to recount the country’s history and developments that have led to the tyranny that has the country in an iron grip. Suffice it to say people are being brutalized and murdered and protestors and political figures are being rounded up, and some are being killed in custody. And naturally, the military is rescinding publishing and broadcast licenses.

Tyranny requires controlled information and a monopoly of violence. That monopoly is achieved through “gun control” laws, reserving arms for the rulers and their enforcers, and rendering “civilians” subjects. And guess what happens to “subjects” who get out of line?

“The regulation of guns in Myanmar is categorized as restrictive,” GunPolicy.org documents. That’s a globalist citizen disarmament project of the Sydney School of Public Health that partners with the World Health Organization and the United Nations, but which I nonetheless turn to in order to check on laws from around the world. In Myanmar’s case:

“[T]he right to private gun ownership is not guaranteed by …  civilians are not allowed to possess any  … no civilian (except for ethnic Chin hunters)… may lawfully acquire, possess or transfer a firearm or ammunition … the maximum penalty for unlawful possession of a firearm is three to seven years in prison…”

Frontier Myanmar presents a somewhat different analysis, claiming “Myanmar citizens have the legal right to own a firearm but only a privileged few have licenses and the Ministry of Home Affairs is coy about the matter.”

“[M]ilitary administrations gave priority for firearms ownership to high-profile military veterans and those with whom the juntas were closely associated,” the article notes. “[A]fter nearly 70 years of military dictatorship, it wasn’t strange that the ‘majority of people’ have come to believe that only security forces should hold arms.”

There are several takeaways from this that Americans would do well to understand, although if most of the information is processed through the aforementioned New York Times and what I call the DSM (Duranty/Streicher Media), they’ll never even be told about it in the coverage they see. What those in the media wringing their hands over Myanmar refuse to acknowledge is the citizen disarmament they demand, and the eradication of the most egalitarian power-sharing arrangement ever conceived, is what makes tyranny possible.

Do they really think their turn won’t come?

About David Codrea:

David Codrea is the winner of multiple journalist awards for investigating/defending the RKBA and a long-time gun owner rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He blogs at “The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance,” is a regularly featured contributor to Firearms News, and posts on Twitter: @dcodrea and Facebook.