Gun Control in Iran  by Tom Reynolds

With recent events in Iran and President Trump calling on the Iranian people to rise up and replace their tyrannical government, you might ask about Iran’s gun control policy… and it’s what you would probably expect. 

There is not much specific about it on-line, other than it is generally described as quite ‘restrictive’.  It appears that handguns and semi-automatic firearms are illegal (except for the government, of course.)  Hunting shotguns and some single fire rifles are available with a license, primarily in rural areas. 

There are few restrictions on the use of force by the government.

Obtaining a gun license in Iran, for those few guns that are legal, involves several steps:

Applying for a gun permit at the local police station

Submitting to a background check, including criminal records and military service status

Completing a psychological evaluation to ensure mental stability

Taking a firearm safety course and passing a written and practical exam

Paying the required fees

Waiting for approval from the authorities, which may take several months

Wow, notice the resemblance to New York State under Kathy Hochul and the Democrats.

A you might expect, where there is gun control there is a flourishing black-market trade in firearms.  So much so that the Iranian legislature recently passed laws imposing more severe penalties for illegal firearms.  Internet sites offer to illegally sell basic handguns for about 200 million Rials!  Don’t let that price amaze you, 200 million Rials is roughly $240.  (Runaway inflation is one of the reasons that Iranians are protesting.)

SCOPE recently wrote about gun free ‘sensitive’ places; traditionally in America, when citizens were not allowed to carry weapons in a ‘sensitive’ place, the government was supposed to provide security.  The assumption by gun control advocates is that the state remains a reliable guardian of public safety and will never devolve into an oppressor.  20,000 to 30,000 dead Iranian protesters would disagree with that assumption. 

When regimes face existential threats to their power and the state has a monopoly on violence, the state will resort to using their monopoly on violence against its own citizens.  And in Iran, the state is currently feeling threatened by its citizens and it holds an absolute monopoly on armed violence.

The complete removal of an armed citizenry leaves people at the mercy of those who hold all the guns. Iran's blood-soaked streets stand as a grim reminder of that reality.