- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- technology@lemmy.zip
- cross-posted to:
- world@lemmy.world
- technology@lemmy.zip
Weapons dealers in Yemen are openly using the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, to sell Kalashnikovs, pistols, grenades and grenade-launchers.
The traders operate in the capital Sana’a and other areas under control of the Houthis, a rebel group backed by Iran and proscribed as terrorists by the US and Australian governments.
The advertisements are mostly in Arabic and aimed primarily at Yemeni customers in a country where the number of guns is often said to outnumber the population by three to one.
The BBC has found several examples online, offering weapons at prices in both Yemeni and Saudi riyals.
The words beside the weapons are designed to lure in the buyers.
“Premium craftsmanship and top-notch warranty,” says one advertisement. “The Yemeni-modified AK is your best choice.”
A demonstration video, filmed at night, shows the seller blasting off a 30-round magazine on full automatic.
Another offers sand-coloured Pakistani-produced Glock pistols for around $900 each.
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Oh dear god you normally have to go pretty far into the dark web to see something like this.
Great work Elon, just amazing.
This is bordering on clickbait, because of course weapons are being sold in some form or fashion at most forums or marketplace in Yemen.
It’s a country that has been wrecked by civil war and years of a genocidal air campaign by the Saudis, and now intermittent targeted strikes by American and British naval forces.
I would be shocked if most of those people aren’t also selling those openly at their local Bazaar or market.
I… uh…
…ok.
So, if you go on Facebook, or Craiglist, and then privately buy or sell a firearm that is:
Fully Automatic
Does not meet required barrel length for its caliber
Is a fucking grenade or other explosive
Sold to or purchased from a person in a state you do not reside in
And/or
You do not also do the required paperwork (and usually a background check on the purchaser) to indicate to the government that you have sold/purchased a firearm, or at least keep a record of this for yourself…
…in almost every state in the US, you are now likely a felon, should your activities become noticed by law enforcement.
https://www.findlaw.com/consumer/consumer-transactions/private-gun-sale-laws-by-state.html
In fact, the ATF and FBI have quite often done honeypot operations in these kinds of groups.
Please tell me you can see the difference between exploiting the loopholes in a country with a highly complex array or firearms laws, and an open air bazaar in a foreign country with basically no gun laws.
Twitter/X, which is, last I checked, a US based and registered company, is now facilitating unregulated firearms sales to a potentially international audience, and again, it is facilitating arms transfers to or from persons and entities the US likely considers to be terrorists.
I do not have to have any political opinion regarding the Houthis to be able to tell you that this is yet another gigantic legal quagmire for Twitter/X.
Why are you assuming that there is a state of law and order to any degree, outside of maybe the capital…?
Are you aware that we’re talking about Yemen…?
Notice that Wikipedia page for their civil war doesn’t currently have an end date i.e. it’s still active…
It’s not like Twitter is providing up support for these transactions, I’m saying it’s not surprising they exist on a public forum like Twitter for a country that’s ravaged by a decade war and famine.
Just like how kids in the United States sell drugs on Twitter or Instagram.
So no, Twitter is not automatically liable just because people are abusing the platform. I’m not saying it can’t get there, just that it’s not that simple.
Regardless, I wasn’t saying anything about the legality of it for Twitter.
I am not. I in fact said the opposite.
Please tell me you can see the difference between exploiting the loopholes in a country with a highly complex array
orof firearms laws, and an open air bazaar in a foreign country with basically no gun laws.EDIT: Now that I’m quoting myself, that or should be an of, whoops.
At no point did I mention laws, or legal loopholes.
And I certainly never mentioned anything about the United States, or the legal liability of Twitter, except as in response to your comment.
I think you’re confusing my acknowledgment of the daily reality of a country that is currently divided between 3 and 5 major and minor factions, all in various states of civil conflict, with being something else entirely.
I wasn’t providing any opinion, or analysis, on the legality from Twitter’s perspective. I certainly wasn’t making any comparisons to laws in the United States and Yemen, or anything else that you’ve been talking about since your first comment.
I would make the “duh no shit this is clickbait” observation if the BBC ran yet another story about how kids are selling drugs on Snapchat or Instagram.
Why this is a problem? In a country that selling guns and weapons is legal what wrong in using online websites for this?
I wonder if they also have anti-tank weapons available.
There are grenades and grenade launchers that are or have specific anti tank designs (though they probably won’t work too well against any tank produced after the 70s), so, probably yes.
Also, while an RPG is not technically a ‘grenade launcher’ (as it fires in a basically flat, direct trajectory, compared to grenade launchers that lobbed more like artillery shells, indirectly in high arcs), a lot of less weapons literate people and journalists see ‘Rocket Propelled Grenade’ and might think it thus counts as a ‘grenade launcher’.
This premium crafted AK penetrates all armor! One of a kind, best in town, you won’t find better deal! Allah as my witness, no tanks will survive your shots, only 899 ryals and you get a free fake beard!
Kalashinokovs
A file picture of an AK47 rifle and ammunition
An AK-47 is an assault rifle, not a machine gun.
Assault rifles – the main weapon that most countries issue their infantry these days – are a weapon that are typically used in semi-automatic mode, but also have a select fire mode to optionally fire in burst or fully-automatic mode. They can’t sustain fully-automatic fire for an extended period of time.
Machine guns are heavier weapons that can deal with dissipating more heat and so are more-amenable to be fired in fully-automatic mode for a sustained period of time.
If you wanted a machine gun that’d go with the AK-47, it’d be something like the RPD.
I have a sneaking suspicion that journalists intentionally do this to make their articles sound more exciting, because every time I see a weapon term used incorrectly – often calling a weapon a machine gun or some lighter vehicle a “tank” – I saw this done in some media with VN-4s during the Venezuelan political unrest, which is not a vehicle that looks much like a tank – it is substituting a more-powerful weapon for a less-powerful one, and not the reverse.
taking a word that has different meaning in different contexts and insisting that it can only have one possible meaning just so you can sound smarter than others is not where it’s at.
according to US legal code,
The term “machinegun” means any weapon which shoots, is designed to shoot, or can be readily restored to shoot, automatically more than one shot, without manual reloading, by a single function of the trigger.
Sure, but that’s also not the common-use definition; it includes things like bump stocks. There are plenty of examples in which legal terminology doesn’t reflect plain English, and the journalist obviously isn’t using US legalese.
just because something isn’t common around you doesn’t mean it’s not common.
Just because it is common around you doesn’t mean it is common on a societal scale, which is the one they are speaking to. You know this. You know, that the general public defines guns this way. The technical definition is not the common one.
that’s literally what I just fucking said
I apologize, the way my phone collapses a lot of comments to fit the screen made it look like you were @tal@lemmy.today. Which made it seem like you were saying, basically the opposite. I didn’t notice the difference in commenter names until I expanded each little downward pointing chevron on this thread.
it includes things like bump stocks
Not anymore! Thanks to a court case, bump stocks, FRTs, and the like are all legal once again. Swiftlinks are still illegal though.
Also the news is totally doing exactly what you imply, they do it every time. Hell they are fond of calling the AR-15 “high powered” despite the .223 round carrying about as much kenetic energy as a hot .357 mag round, or calling standard capacity magazines “high capacity” because despite it being the standard it’s higher than their arbitrarily set “low” number, or even calling things “fully semi-automatic” which is just word vomit. They don’t care, because the people who are knowledgeable about the subject are already incapable of being manipulated like that sure, but most of the general public is not knowledgeable about it so the percentage works out in their favor to get views. Eventually (and I think soon,) they’ll overuse it and maybe it’ll start to lose its effect.
That said, most people do just mean “gun that fires full auto” for “machine guns,” including machine pistols like the Glock 18. They’re not typically making a distinction between LMG, SMG, etc, unless they do specify “LMG.” I have no doubt these AKs are full auto (I’d be surprised to learn they were semi-auto actually), and thus they would fit the commonly used definition of “machine gun” enough that I won’t give them guff about it. This time.
id call the common use of the term machine gun to be any automatic firearm accurate enough, but you also have a point about inflated language
deleted by creator
Actually strawberries are an accessory fruit, not a berry. Ha, now it is I who is smarter than you!
Weird attempt at being pedantic considering that this is undoubtedly not an actual AK-47
Also the AK and StG 44 are clearly submachine guns based on their developmental history, and submachine gun is clearly a very small machine gun. And the US legal definition agrees :B
Yemeni-modified
I got questions.
What do they do mill out the magwell like Century does the WASRs?
Pakistani-produced Glock-clone pistols for around $900 each.
That’s a terrible deal.
You dont want your Plock?
Not for $900! In the US you can get an Austrian (well, Austrian design, US manufacture) made name brand one for like $600.
But would I buy a Plock for $300? Absolutely, that’s just funny.
For $300 I’d buy a hi point yeet cannon and spend the remaining $150 on blackjack and hookers.
But that’s not quite as funny, that’s just some people’s tuesday.
Good. If anyone needs weapons right now it Yemeni citizens. Gazans could use some guns too.
I wonder how many people in the US use FB messenger to contact their FFL?
Their what?
Firearms dealer
Facebook Father-in-Law?
Foot Friendly Leaopard.
Firearm Foistin Local
Five Finger Lemons
