Oh, NOW The Militia Is A Good Thing

The Gun Thing

…as the Ukraine government belatedly realizes:

The Ukrainian government will give weapons ” to anyone who wants to defend the country”, it has said, in the aftermath of Russia expanding its war in the country’s eastern territory.

Amid reserve forces being mobilised and sent to fight the expanding Russian occupation of Ukraine’s eastern territories, the Kyiv government is taking steps to dramatically increase the supply of available fighters, promising to hand weapons to anyone willing to take up arms in defence of the nation. Joining the resistance is simple too, the government says — all you need is your passport and a willingness to fight.

Says it all, really.  And it’s not even “well regulated”:

Yesterday, Ukraine’s parliament passed a bill considerably liberalising ownership of firearms for civilians and making explicitly clear this change in law was in response to the dangers the country faced. As reported, the bill “establishes the basic rights and responsibilities of individuals”, liberalises ownership, but also “increases the responsibility for their illegal use”.

Yeah, it used to be almost impossible for Ukrainian citizens to legally own guns.  Funny how that works, innit?

22 comments

  1. And as soon as the crisis is “resolved” the Ukrainian .gov will require them to return said firearms.

      1. We need to tell them about boating accidents and combat loss. In addition how to oil them up for the long haul buried in the back garden.

        “Grandma, why is Grandad pouring oil in the petunias?” “Hush, Child.”

    4. No records on the weapon dispersal. I have a buddy that was working in Kiev. His girlfriend got 3 AK’s and all the magazines and ammo she could carry. He launched a boat two days ago and is headed to Tablizi, Georgia. I lost contact with a buddy that got trapped in Afghanistan and I would hate to loose another.

  2. The American media has been running fawning articles praising people for buying the same guns they want to ban me from owning.

    1. Yeah, but but but the Russians aren’t invading Massachusetts, are they? (The Commies, well that’s a whole different thing.)

  4. Having a gun is better than not having a gun, but if the first time you’re picking one up is the day of the invasion, you’re hosed. You’re cannon fodder, and you don’t even understand that you’re cannon fodder.

    For a militia to work in any realistic capacity, competence at arms has to be a component of your lifestyle. Certainly, it doesn’t have to be the center of it, but it does need to be something that fits with comfortable familiarity, even if you have to bang some rust off.

    As our host once said, “a nation of riflemen”.

    1. You only need motivation, and a desire to get ONE of the invaders before they get you.

      Not too difficult… we A-bombed the Japs in 1945 rather than face that prospect.

      1. Ah, you are quite right, of course. A willingness to skid into Valhalla with even just ONE head on a stick is enough.

        It’s good to remember that

        “The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.”

        ― Robert A. Heinlein

        1. “The price of freedom is the willingness to do sudden battle anywhere, any time and with utter recklessness.”
          This is how the Swiss were able to be “The most armed and the most free.” by the time of Niccolo Machiavelli.

          The original cantons banded together and actually honored the Confederation Helvetica, unlike a certain Treaty Organization of the North Atlantic recently, so that an attack on one was an attack on all.

          Eventually word got around that that land in the mountains wasn’t a good place to go for conquest, as the nutters in the mountains fought back like madmen.

      2. Exactly.

        There’s ~44 million people in Ukraine. If a sizeable percentage are armed, the calculus for an invasion changes in a big way. And not just for the jerks at the top. The average grunt has got to see things differently, too. The whole project goes from “let’s roll in there and secure our new territory” to “we’re heading into a @#*&#$^! meat-grinder.”

        Of course, Ukraine’s government messed up by not doing this earlier, so that this consideration could affect Putin’s thinking (even a couple weeks earlier might have helped). Now that the war is on, it’s late to try and implement this strategy.

        Of course, when it comes to an armed citizenry, late (even last-minute-late) is better than never.

    2. I doubt the Vietnamese or the Afghans were highly trained militias before the French, Russians and the US as well as other countries came for a visit. Hide your gear, take a couple shots of opportunity then go back to plowing fields and planting rice. The problem in the US, as pointed out in the original Red Dawn movie, is that we have 4473 Forms at local stores and with the Federales that can be searched. Now they’re going to an electronic format that makes the database breachable from the comfort of Moscow or where ever rather than dispersed locations that would require more physical action than typing fingers.

      JQ

  6. So If someone joins their Militias, they get issued a AK, a Dragonuv SVD and a RPG with plenty of ammo?

    What a great country! Where do you sign up?

    Asking for a friend.

  8. It will be interesting to see what the gungrabbers and the mass media have to say about this militia after the final results are in.

    “See? We TOLD you that rifles and pistols were useless against tanks and F-15s!”

    OR

    “Citizens don’t NEED weapons that will stop an invading army! We don’t have invading armies in the U.S.!”

    1. To which I would reply, how long did the Vietnamese and Afghans hold off the US? The answer is decades. Regardless of the drones, airplanes and advanced technology, you cannot take and hold territory without boots on the ground.

      JQ

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