More Lamestream Media

Can't have a story about Africa without pointing fingers at the US, since, ya know, we're the ones responsible for all of their social ills.

They just can't resist with the hit pieces, attempting to make it look like the US is the one doing the supplying, to wit:

"The report, titled "Africa's Missing Billions," was released as part of a campaign at the United Nations for stricter controls on the global trade in small arms and light weapons. The U.N. General Assembly has begun hearing proposals for a new treaty regulating the arms trade, a process that only the United States , by far the world's leading arms dealer, voted last year to oppose.

Gun-control opponents, led by the National Rifle Association , worry that a treaty would infringe on private gun ownership. Oxfam and other advocates have called for a framework that restricts only sales of arms that are likely to be used in conflicts or to violate international law.

African nations broadly favor stiffer controls on small arms sales. The most commonly used weapon in African conflicts is the Kalashnikov assault rifle, 95 percent of which come from outside the continent, according to the report."

First order of business by journalists everywhere in these hit pieces is in vilifying the US and its gun-owning populace, by always mentioning the NRA.

I also have to wonder, were we really the only ones who opposed this measure? I'm somehow doubting that this is the case. Of the ambassodors who were present, it's possible that this was true, but who were the countries being represented at the UN summit? Were their country's citizen's views in line with those being pushed by their respective ambassador?

And who is the usual suspect with the supply of these Kalashnikovs (that's the AK-47 for those of you who don't know the difference)? Cluebat to those who don't know anything about this type of thing - the damned thing was designed and built by the Soviet Union. They gave the fuckers away, free of charge, during the Cold War years, to any would-be dictator who wanted them, so long as said dictator would tow the Red Party line and welcome the Marxist Doctrine.

What has followed is exactly what one would expect from those conditions, and I'm not arguing who is right and wrong about such grave matters as genocide and ethnic cleansing, past or present, but at least get the facts square here. The US may indeed lead the world in small arms production (we do NOW, anyway) but I'd wager that we aren't shipping much of it overseas, and that which we do is probably to another legitimate government's military that has paid for it.

Truth be told, one of the few things left that the Russians can still trade in is military hardware, and I wouldn't be surprised if most of it is surplus stuff that's been sitting around for 40 years in a warehouse in Siberia, boosted by the regimental Colonel to pay for his newly constructed dacha by Lake Baikal. Which scenario sounds more reasonable?

And for anyone who thinks that it takes a western, first-world country to make assault rifles, it doesn't. Kids in remote villages in the remotest sections of the world, with little-to-no formal education can build these things, and do it with terrific reliability.

Go see.