Venezuela Bans All Private Ownership of Guns
Dabney Bailey
Venezuela enacted a new law that will ban private ownership of guns, reported by BBC News.
Previously, anybody with a gun permit could go and buy a gun from a private company. Now, only organizations like the police, the army and security forces will be able to purchase guns, and even then they will only be able to purchase them from the state-owned distributor.
This law is intended to help fight one of the world's highest rates in gun violence. As much as 70 percent of all homicides in South America are a result of gun violence, compared to only 25 percent in European countries. Gun violence has been a hot-button issue for Venezuela and the government is taking drastic steps to fight crime as the country's October elections come closer.
As you might expect, such an extreme level of gun violence have led to some pretty serious gun hate throughout Venezuela. A citizen is Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, told the BBC news that gun violence is "killing people every day. This law is important but they need to do more, they're not doing enough now."
Venezuela has a history of banning things in the name of protecting citizens. In 2010 the government censored the printing of violent images, stating that the ban would protect children from such harsh images.
http://www.guns.com/venezuela-bans-all-private-ownership-of-guns-8551.html