The Venezuelan Timeline: Lessons on Guns And Centralization

The Venezuelan Timeline

We’re back to Venezuela… Again:

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This time, with a picture worth a thousand words (or a thousand rounds of ammunition, depending on your preference):

I didn’t make the meme, but I did fact check it.

The timeline is amusing. Pay attention to the dates.

Sources:

2012 Firearm restriction:

Venezuela Bans Private Gun Ownership, China Condemns Gun Rights
On Friday, the Venezuelan government banned all private gun ownership. Gun shops will no longer be allowed to sell firearms or ammunition to private citizens. Police and members of the military will be exempted from the ban. Officials told the Associated Press that the measure is meant to stem violent crime
Posted: Jun 03, 2012 2:32 PM

2016 food shortage:

Venezuela food shortages cause some to hunt dogs, cats, pigeons
LA VICTORIA, Venezuela — Unemployed construction worker Roberto Sanchez could hear a time bomb ticking as he waited in line with 300 people outside a grocery store this week, hoping that corn meal or rice might be delivered later in the afternoon.
He fears that Venezuela could explode at any minute into political and economic chaos.“
We have no food. They are cutting power four hours a day. Crime is soaring. And (President Nicolás) Maduro blames everyone but himself for the mess we find ourselves in,” said Sanchez, 36. “We can’t go on like this forever. Something has to give.”
…
“People are hunting dogs and cats in the streets, and pigeons in the plazas to eat,” Ramon Muchacho, mayor of the Caracas district of Chacao, said this month in a tweet that was reported in many newspapers.
Published 5:09 p.m. ET May 18, 2016

2019 Shooting on civilians for aid (one example of many):

2 dead after Venezuelan national guard opens fire on civilians attempting to keep border open
SAN CRISTOBAL, VENEZUELA — Venezuelan soldiers opened fire on a group of civilians attempting to keep open a segment of the southern border with Brazil for deliveries of humanitarian aid, causing multiple injuries and the first fatalities of a massive opposition operation meant to deliver international relief to this devastated South American country, according to eyewitnesses and community leaders.
FEB 22, 2019 AT 6:30 PM

In an ironic but almost comedic twist, the aid never even arrived:

Just 8 of 368 Tons of U.S. Aid to Venezuela Actually Reached Country, Report Says
Only eight tons worth of U.S. aid out of 368 provided to Venezuela in 2019 actually reached the nation amid political and economic turmoil in the country that has led to a humanitarian crisis, a report by the Office of the Inspector General at the U.S. Agency for International Development published April 16 found.
PUBLISHED ON 4/29/21 AT 1:08 PM EDT

Additionally, 85.5% of respondents said that they did not receive support from international humanitarian aid (2021 study). At all. Not just American aid, but any aid.

Obviously, correlation =/= causation with the gun issue. But it signifies a larger issue, which is centralization. They want to take away power from “the many” so only “the few” have that power. Whether the Venezuelans had guns or not, they still would likely be starving. But the guns would have been awfully helpful to shoot the people making them starve or to shoot the soldiers keeping them from the (very small amount of) aid that was certainly going straight to the centralizers.

The lesson? Keep the guns.

We can’t do much individually besides the things I’ve mentioned previously. But, if they end up coming for you, at least you can go out fighting. Which is a chance, a hope, at something better.

Which is a far better alternative than scrounging for dead street birds and getting shot by your own military.

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