Venezuelans regret giving up their guns. It was “a declaration of war against an unarmed population”

As Venezuela continues to collapse due to the Democratic Socialism of President Nicolas Maduro, some regret having given up their weapons, Fox News reports. Venezuelans are warning about the effects of the six-year-old gun control bill that stripped citizens of their guns.

“Guns would have served as a vital pillar to remaining a free people, or at least able to put up a fight,” Javier Vanegas, 28, a Venezuelan teacher of English now exiled in Ecuador, told Fox News. “The government security forces, at the beginning of this debacle, knew they had no real opposition to their force. Once things were this bad, it was a clear declaration of war against an unarmed population.”

Under the direction of then-President Hugo Chavez, the Venezuelan National Assembly in 2012 enacted the “Control of Arms, Munitions and Disarmament Law,” with the explicit aim to “disarm all citizens.” The law took effect in 2013.

There wasn’t a lot of pushback. At first, Hugo Chavez ran a volunteer program, but most guns were taken by force.

Gun stores no longer exist. Selling or carrying any weaponry now carries a punishment of 20 years behind bars. A former gun store owner said even BB ammunition and airsoft guns are only issued to police and military officers.

The gun control was about social control, and now the people have no recourse.

STATE VIOLENCE HAS INCREASED

In April, The Hill reported that in the wake of the gun ban, homicide rates were rising. Ostensibly, the motive for gun prohibition was Venezuela’s out of control violent crime. In 2015, Venezuela’s homicide rate was the world’s highest, with 27,875 Venezuelans murdered that year.

Nearly half of homicides were due to robberies in Caracas. The socialist policies were a disaster and increased poverty.

There was a notable increase in state violence after the gun ban.

Venezuelans can get guns if they join the dictator’s militia — a goon squad. The armed militia of about 400,000 pro-Maduro civilians is a mob of hard-left community organizers who are running around brutalizing and robbing disarmed Venezuelans.

“A gun for every militiaman!” Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro said to uniformed militia members outside the presidential palace, Fox News reported. The Bolivarian militias, created by Maduro’s predecessor Hugo Chavez, already number in the hundreds of thousands and are being used to supplement the regime’s armed forces. Maduro is using them as death squads.

This should serve as a cautionary tale.