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Judi Lynn

(160,219 posts)
Wed Jan 2, 2013, 05:50 PM Jan 2013

Canada quietly loosens limits on assault-weapon exports to Colombia

Source: Globe and Mail

Canada quietly loosens limits on assault-weapon exports to Colombia
Published Wednesday, Jan. 02, 2013 04:39PM EST
Last updated Wednesday, Jan. 02, 2013 04:43PM EST

Just one day before last month’s elementary-school killings in the United States, Canada cleared the way for its gun merchants to export banned assault weapons to Colombia, one of the world’s most violent countries.

The Harper government quietly eased a ban on the export of assault-style weapons to Colombia after amending the Automatic Firearms Country Control List.

The change went into effect on Dec. 13, one day before a gunman walked into Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., and gunned down 20 first-graders and six school employees.

The change opens the door for Canadian gun merchants to sell fully automatic weapons with multi-bullet magazines – now banned in Canada – to Colombia, a country battling a half-century-long guerilla insurgency.

Read more: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/article6861525.ece

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Canada quietly loosens limits on assault-weapon exports to Colombia (Original Post) Judi Lynn Jan 2013 OP
What could go wrong with that? ck4829 Jan 2013 #1
Banned in Canada secondvariety Jan 2013 #2
Well, WTF? SoapBox Jan 2013 #3
We do quite a bit of that, though it's usually in slightly less incredibly-sketchy ways Posteritatis Jan 2013 #7
Batten down the hatches, Canucks Doctor_J Jan 2013 #4
What's that?? Alberta boy Jan 2013 #12
another reason to get the PC party kicked out on the next election riverbendviewgal Jan 2013 #5
I think the PCs have been gone for awhile Posteritatis Jan 2013 #8
THat's like the AMERICAN TEA BAGGERS riverbendviewgal Jan 2013 #10
Sounds like Michigan Politicub Jan 2013 #11
The preferred Weapon by Columbia is the Galil happyslug Jan 2013 #6
^ Wilms Jan 2013 #9

secondvariety

(1,245 posts)
2. Banned in Canada
Wed Jan 2, 2013, 06:01 PM
Jan 2013

but it's okie dokie to ship them to one of the most violent countries on Earth. God bless Capitalism.

Posteritatis

(18,807 posts)
7. We do quite a bit of that, though it's usually in slightly less incredibly-sketchy ways
Wed Jan 2, 2013, 07:39 PM
Jan 2013

It's usually light armor and APCs to some NATO and SEATO members.

I'd ask what Harper was thinking with this particular stunt, but that probably wrongly presupposes that he thinks.

 

Doctor_J

(36,392 posts)
4. Batten down the hatches, Canucks
Wed Jan 2, 2013, 06:07 PM
Jan 2013

Rove is going to turn your country into a right-wing hell hole just like he did this one. The fascists have already taken over your media. Pretty soon streetsweepers will be legal there, then the shooting massacres will become commonplace, then your health "care" system will be privatized, and all of your roads, then the schools, and it's good-bye country.

Try to head them off at the pass.

Posteritatis

(18,807 posts)
8. I think the PCs have been gone for awhile
Wed Jan 2, 2013, 07:43 PM
Jan 2013

Ever since CRAP took the driver's seat any semblances of sanity that party had at the federal level have been as dead as the dodo.

It's a pity, anyway. I didn't like the federal PCs, but they were (usually) people who simply disagreed with me, as opposed to the current crop which all but considers me an enemy of the state because I can use multi-clause sentences.

 

happyslug

(14,779 posts)
6. The preferred Weapon by Columbia is the Galil
Wed Jan 2, 2013, 06:49 PM
Jan 2013
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombian_Army#Assault_Rifles

Now the Galil is a derivative of the AK-47, but designed to use American M16 magazines. Its use in the Israeli Army is weird. When designed in the early 1970s it was the result of the Special Forces of Israel given several different weapons to test as a replacement for the FN FAL rifles the Israelis had been using. As a control, the AK-47 was included. The special forces ended up liking the AK-47 the best, thus modified to fire American 5.56 mm ammunition and use M16 magazines (and called the Galil after the Israeli arms designer who made the modifications) it was adopted.

Due to massive American aid, the M16 ended up replacing the FN FAL in almost all infantry and armor units of the IDF. The Field Artillery insisted on using the Galil. I have read many rationales for this, such as the Infantry and armor units preferring the lighter M16 to the heavier Galil, that the M16 was more adaptable to different configurations, unlike the Galil etc. The reason I liked the best was the Galil was loved by various American Supported groups in Latin America, and thus purchased by the US for use in Latin America, while the cheaper M16 was literally given away to Israel.

The Galil is derived from the original AK-47 NOT the Modified AKM-47 that was adopted in 1959 and has spread all over the world. The difference is HOW the weapon is made. The AK-47 was designed to be a stamped out weapon, but in 1947 the USSR did not have the capacity to produce it as an stamp weapon, and thus it was re-designed as a weapon that received as machined instead of stamped. It is this Machined AK-47 the Galil is derived from. The later AKM-47 was modified after the Soviet Union had improved its Stamping capacity to mass produce AK-47s.

To this day the Galil is a machined weapon, like the original AK-47. Like the original AK-47 this made the weapon an expensive weapon to produce, much higher then the Cost to produce the M16 (Thus the Soviet Army made and used the SKS in the 1950s, to arm its units instead of the AK-47, which appears to have been reserved for special units). When the AKM-47 (the stamped version) came out in 1959, it could be produced at a 1/4 of the price of an M16. Thus became the dominate weapon in the world today (And remain so, but the bullpup design Tavor started to replace the M16 and M4 starting in 2001)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IMI_Tavor
http://www.defense-update.com/directory/tavor.htm

Anyway, Latin America loved the Galil, it used American Ammunition and American Magazines, but had the reliability of the AK series of weapons. Thus Israel ended up selling most of their Galils to various Latin American Governments and groups and arming its own troops with American M16s (and later American M4s, which is an M16 with a 16 inch barrel instead of the 20 inch barrel of the M16). The Galil's ability to operate, even when neglected seems to be the reason the Israeli Artillery retains it (Armor and Infantry groups do take a lot more care of their small arms then does the Artillery, whose main interest is their Artillery pieces).

Just pointing out, the preferred weapon in Columbia is the Galil, followed by the M16 (FRAC prefers the AK). Canada produces neither, and does NOT have the machinery to produce the Galil. Canada does produce a variation of the M16, so it may be an option. The real question is why now? Columbia is in a low level fight, heavy equipment is NOT usable, what is needed is light weapons (Mortars and downward, along with Helicopter to move troops around) NOT anything bigger (Columbia is looking at Tanks, for some unknown reason, probably more to look good on parade then be effective it their war with FRAC).
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