From OP-Ed section Here is an unkind word from our anti-gun friends at the New York Times. The fvkcers are such a low-down SOBs that they want to connect the NRA to terrorist. Of course I would like to remind everybody that the NRA has trained more police officers than any other organization combined. If you click on the link for the actual story, the site requires that you sign-up for a free sign-on id.
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[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2002/03/19/opinion/19KRIS.html[/url]

Visiting N.R.A. Heaven

March 19, 2002
Visiting N.R.A. Heaven
By NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

SUQ AL-TALH, Yemen - Want to buy a submachine gun?
This little market town in the wild, wild north of Yemen has more than 50
shops selling all kinds of toys for boys. A used Uzi goes for $170, a
machine pistol with silencer is $350, and a brand-new AK-47 assault rifle
goes for nearly $400.
Grenades are $4 each. An antitank mine is $22. A rocket-propelled grenade
launcher is $500. An arms merchant I met here might even be able to find
you an antiaircraft gun or a tank. No sales tax.
This is Yemen, where we're preparing to send American soldiers to open a
new front in the war on terrorism. I admire the instinct of trying to
boost security here, but the bottom line is that we're going to send our
troops on a poorly defined mission into a country where they're not
wanted, where grenades cost $4 each.
The plan is for the Americans to train Yemeni troops. But the Yemen
government's main problem in controlling terrorism is not that soldiers
are poorly trained. Instead it is that for reasons of history, culture and
tribal politics, the central government doesn't entirely control the
hinterlands.
Americans who gripe about big government and high taxes, who believe the
state that governs best governs least, would love Yemen. The central
government controls the beautiful old capital, Sana, and a chunk of turf
to its south and west. Beyond that is a delicate balancing act with local
sheiks.
When I wanted to come up here into northern Yemen, I took an escort from
the government including, for one stretch of road, a pickup truck loaded
with seven soldiers and a heavy machine gun mounted in back. But more
important, to avoid kidnapping (Yemen's favorite sport) it was prudent to
get invitations from the leading sheiks.
"No one will pay attention to the government escort," a wise Yemeni
explained to me. "But if you're invited by the sheiks, they won't dare
bother you. They'll be afraid of retaliation from the sheiks."
The frailty of the government's authority was underscored on the road
north, when we were stopped at a roadblock by a group of men with assault
rifles. It was Yemeni code: a stick across the road means you stop, or you
get your tires shot out.

It turned out that one of the men at the roadblock was owed money by a man
of another tribe. So they were stopping all traffic to look for a car
driven by any member of that other tribe: they planned to confiscate the
car and keep it until the money was repaid. There were no police or army
units to keep the road open, and the roadblock would remain until either
the tribesmen got their car or the debt was paid.
Vice President Dick Cheney dropped in on Yemen last week, for a useful
show of support - even if it was also a show of nervousness, for Mr.
Cheney spent only two hours in the country, and he switched to a military
plane that took evasive maneuvers as it landed. Opposition parties, eager
to profit politically, said in a statement that the visit would "lead to
more bloodshed."
American spooks worry that Yemen might provide a new base for terrorists
like Osama bin Laden (who in a 1996 interview praised Yemen, his ancestral
home, as a place in which he might settle). That's the reason for trying
to bolster the government by training its army. It's a worthy goal, and if
the training were conducted in the United States or in another country
like Saudi Arabia it would not risk undermining the government's moral
authority.
So why not conduct the same training, the same technology transfers,
outside of Yemen?
By the way, a parting thought:
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about firearms, and I noted that England and
Japan - which tightly regulate handguns - have much lower gun death rates
than the United States. I got a barrage of e-mail. Much of it was
thoughtful and well-reasoned criticism, but there were also plenty of
blasts urging me to move to Japan or England.
Thanks for the advice. And if you're so bothered by gun registration, and
so convinced that guns don't kill people, then consider moving to a nice
mud-brick home here in Suq al-Talh. With you and everybody else carrying
around an assault rifle, with armor-piercing rounds in your bandolier,
with a couple of grenades in your pockets, you'll really feel safe. You'll
love the freedom!

Copyright 2002 The New York Times Company

Alright, I've got my shopping list ready.  Who else is going?

I was expecting an article about Front Sight, Nevada.

Well, Kristof is off of my Christmas card list.

It's too bad that Mr. Kristof is too blinded by his anti-gun bias to see what's really going on in Yemen.

Is it some sort of libertarian paradise as he suggests?  Hardly.  In fact, Yemen has plenty of the sort of laws and regulations of which Mr. Kristof and his fellows statists approve.  And the Yemeni constitution doesn't recognize a right to keep and bear arms.

The reason that Yemen has so many well-armed bandits is not a lack of laws, but a lack of enforcement.  In that respect it's not much different than Chicago or the District of Columbia.  The government has spread its authority so thinly that gangs and sheikdoms have been left to fill the gaps themselves.

Don't you guys know that it's the guns that are the cause of instability in Yemen?

Best of the Web today - WSJ- takes on Mr. Kristof and his anti gun column

BY JAMES TARANTO
Tuesday, March 19, 2002 2:45 p.m. EST

Lazy Columnist Watch

A week ago, we razzed New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof for going all the way to Yemen to write a column making fun of readers who sent him hostile e-mails. Now Kristof has gone out and done some reporting (link requires registration). His findings, reported under a Suq al-Talh dateline: There are a lot of guns in Yemen, and the place is chaotic.

Kristof, of course, is not just a reporter. He's a columnist, which means he's also paid to offer his unique insight and analysis. Here it is: The National Rifle Association is bad. Actually, we're not sure we can credit Kristof with this brainstorm, since the NRA is mentioned in the headline ("Visiting N.R.A. Heaven") but not in the actual column.

Kristof does make one argument: America shouldn't send troops to Yemen because the place has so many heavily armed men. But if he wants U.S. troops not to face armed men, against whom would he deploy them? Perhaps against American civilians once the government has taken their guns away?

You might be wondering how Kristof manages to squeeze a whole column out of this. Actually, he doesn't. He spends the final two paragraphs . . . making fun of readers who sent him hostile e-mails.

Nicholas Kristof is an idiot and a jackass.

A couple of weeks ago, he wrote about the Second Amendment Sisters' chapter at Mt. Holyoke College in Mass. in a smarmy kind of way:
http://[url]www.nytimes.com/2002/03/08/opinion/08KRIS.html[/url]

and now he goes and writes this imbecilic piece from Yemen.  Idiot!

I wonder if his tune would change at all if his precious little bubble was burst by a mugging, robbery, or car jacking. If you don't like the Constitution and the Bill of Rights-go back to Europe and live like the socialists do. Stop trying to recreate America in some sort of euro-trash approved, bleeding-heart, anti-liberty, socialist wet dream.

[/rant]

He is quite wrong, THIS is the NRAers favorite vacation spot...

[url]www.scottsdalegunclub[/url]

Who wants to sleep with camels? And do without air conditioning?  And I LIKE my G&T in the afternoon after a morning at the range.[;D]

Yeah, but over there $4 will buy a family a years worth of food.