Venezuelans regret giving up guns

Hugo Chavez (Wikimedia Common)

Critics of the Second Amendment often misunderstand it as primarily a right to hunt and ward off burglars. But America's Founders viewed the right to bear arms chiefly as a check against government tyranny.

That latter purpose makes perfect sense to at least one Venezuelan who has fled his homeland in the wake of its disastrous socialist experiment.

"Guns would have served as a vital pillar to remaining a free people, or at least able to put up a fight," said Javier Vanegas, 28, a Venezuelan teacher of English now exiled in Ecuador, in an interview with 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," Vanegas said.

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In 2012, President Hugo Chavez pushed through his rubber-stamp legislature the Control of Arms, Munitions and Disarmament Law, noted the Truth About Guns blog.

The law, which was generally supported by the public at the time, stripped Venezuelan citizens of every firearm and round of ammunition they owned.

Chavez's handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro, has blocked most of the food and medicine supplied by the United States and other countries from crossing the borders with Brazil and Colombia.

At least four people were killed last weekend and hundreds wounded in clashes with protesters and volunteers trying to unload truckloads of aid.