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“We’re in Puerto Rico which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation,” Kaj Larsen begins in his report for Vice News. “At the same time it has the world’s highest murder rate by firearm.” And that pretty much says it all right there. Especially as the island nation’s gun control advocates can’t blame surrounding states’ “weak gun laws” for criminals’ firepower. Larsen reckons this “paradox” makes Puerto Rico “ground zero for the gun control debate.” Yes, well, no. Like Mexico, PR’s abject not-to-say-horrific failure to control criminality via gun control doesn’t get any play in America’s mainstream media. Why would it? The “gun control doesn’t work” message is the last thing they want to propogate. Of course, Vice doesn’t get it, either . . .

“The police are trying to crackdown on illegal guns and the resulting rise in violent crime.” I don’t think that means what Vice thinks it means. The rise in violent crime does have something to do with the government’s crackdown on illegal guns. The “crackdown” on guns for law-abiding citizens leaves the criminals free to prey upon the public. Can you say “No Issue”? wikipedia.org can . . .

Puerto Rico has a very stringent and restrictive licensing process necessary in order to purchase a firearm in Puerto Rico. A person has to be 21 to get a weapons license along with several other requirements. A person must present a sworn statement attesting to compliance with fiscal laws, purchase a $100 internal revenue stamp, submit 3 statements from community members who aren’t related to them attesting to their good reputation, submit a signed application that is notarized, be fingerprinted and photographed, and submit a negative certificate of debt to the child support administration. 

That process is just to be able to purchase firearms to store in a residence or business and not for a concealed carry permit. In order to acquire a concealed carry permit a person must first have a Target shooting license and then appear before a Judge and present proof of a strong reason for a permit. Due to this process, in many cases concealed carry permit applications are denied. As such Puerto Rico is considered to be an effective “No Issue” territory for concealed carry permits except for in exceptional cases despite the official “may issue” policy.

So why does Larsen say that “This year alone gun permit applications have doubled, possession of guns has tripled and licenses for shooting ranges have quadrupled”? Because Vice is reporting on the rates, not the numbers. In absolute numbers, the amount of people “allowed” to exercise their natural, civil and Constitutionally protected right to keep and bear arms is still proportionally low. PR’s permitting around 15k – 20k citizens per year – out of a population of 3.7m (and falling). Also, this is not the stat for concealed carry permits, which remain more-or-less unobtainable.

As Vice reveals. What did we learn from all this? Gun control doesn’t work. “Arm yourself,” a victim advises. “Defend your lives.” And…the NRA is there. Will the gun rights org restore Puerto Ricans’ gun rights, and will the restoration reduce crime? One thing’s for sure: if it does, the media will ignore that, too.

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27 COMMENTS

  1. Puerto Rico is a failure for the same reason that Mexico is a failure. Each is infected by a culture of corruption so bad and so pervasive that they are both irredeemable.

    • We should talk -given the US has Chicago, Baltimore, New York City, etc.

      Its a simple process, politically. First the local authorities are ordered to make gun ownership difficult “for the people”. Then the criminals cut deals with the elected scumbags who oversee the police- ensuring their disarmed victims won’t shoot back in the course of home invasions and robberies, whilst also kicking back a portion of the criminal loot back to the politicians -all of whom need every filthy dime to fund their election campaigns.

      If the cops get too good at their jobs and start busting friends of ” the government”, said officers are de-funded or fired. The racket rests on a foundation of disarmed citizens to exploit- and anyone who gets in the way of that money train is at risk, including media personalities at , say, Vice news.

      Its easier just to blame the law abiding gun owner, make some ratings, and call it it a day. Much lower risk of bullet holes appearing in media vans that way.

    • After living there for the first 33 years of my life, I couldn’t agree more with you. The political and criminal elite are more intertwined than people care or dare to admit. It’s like the whole public administration policy of the last 40 years is straight out of the Cloward-Piven theorem. The education system is in shambles and the .gov is taxing the working and middle class out existence. For decades, gun ownership if you were poor, but decent was considered taboo. It is beginning to change, but at a very slow pace as this type of changes are generational. Sure I was born there and grew up there and still own real estate there, but I got to the great state of Texas as soon as I could. This is home now.

  2. “The “gun control doesn’t work” message is the last thing they want to propogate. ”

    But that’s where you’re wrong. It does work, it does exactly what it is intended to do. It makes the general public more vulnerable- it succeeds in making the public less of a threat to the politicians. It was never intended to lower crime rates.

    That’s the last thing they want to propagate- gun control does exactly what it is intended to do, and in fact the only thing it can hope to achieve.

    • Yep I started laughing that under 3 minutes in and they’re already spouting factually inaccurate data at the viewers…

  4. Vice has always been extremely liberal and anti gun their idiocy does not shock me just watch the HBO show episode on Chicago. Gavin on the other hand is hilarious he’s strait up crazy

  6. “We’re in Puerto Rico which has some of the strictest gun control laws in the nation”
    Isnt PR its own island nation? Am I looking too deep into this?

    My second thought was the annexation of Puerto Rico from that movie Little Giants.

    Neat suppressor bucket in the intro there.

    • It’s commonwealth territory of the US and all Puerto Ricans are US citizens so by that definition no, it isn’t a nation. Now whether or not it should be it’s own nation is a debate unto itself.

      • Just learned some fun new facts on wikipedia while watching the vid, hooray learning!

        Really enjoyed the hairstylist lady and the NRA instructor interviews, suprising to see how dressed up those ladies were. Then again thats pretty common here as well.

  7. Honestly, that came out way more pro-gun than I expected it to be. They showed an interview with a woman, who was shot, and defended herself with a firearm. That is VERY pro-gun because out off all that interview the piece that would have the most emotional gravitas is that story. I think one thing we need to keep in mind is that the color commentary doesn’t matter, what matters is the subtle themes that are being pushed. The reporter says that it isn’t clear blah…blah..blah but after showing that very powerful interview with that women what side is going to appear more right to the average person? The gun rights side.

    • Every time someone says “politically correct”, I’m left thinking “according to whose politics?” That assumes that liberals are political and conservatives are some sort of social deviation from anything on the proper political spectrum. We let them control the language even there. (Even if “politically correct” is often a slam, it still implies that anyone who thinks or expresses things any other way is not part of a real/true political party that deserves consideration as valid.)

    • I watched it. It was good. If you didn’t watch it you missed a great story about a hair dresser saving her own life and the growth of the Puerto Rican NRA chapter.

  9. The piece that VICE did on the Big Sandy Machine Gun Shoot in Arizona was surprisingly balanced. The reporter begins the story as you would expect from an NYC metrosexual, he seems to be a fish out of water. But midway through the piece, after the “reporter” has had a chance to shoot some machine guns, an anti-tank rifle and interview the founders of the event and some of the participants on why the shoot exists and why it is important, it felt like he finally “got it”. The piece was well shot and produced and overall, I thought it was pretty entertaining. I doubt if the reporter went home and bought a gun, but it was a good demonstration on what our pro gun strategy should be, “Take an Anti to the Range.” They may still be an anti when you leave, but at least they will get it that shooting is safe, fun and interesting. Then the next step is to wean them off of the idea that the state or government doesn’t give a rats a** about you and it is up to you to protect yourself. Like the cartoonists and writers in Paris today, I don’t think the state did a very effective job of protecting them, did they?

  11. Can’t get the video to work. And I ‘ve been getting a LOT of 502 error massages. Very slow too. Unrelated we have a serious offer to move to PR and have free housing from a friend. It’s below zero right now and it sure sounds great-until you read this BS. Oh well…

  12. They interview a politician near the end of the video who comes across as a partisan hack. His argument is that if the NRA is able to pass positive gun laws in Puerto Rico, they’ll be able to do it in the States since the laws are much more strict. He claims it is a ‘Trojan Horse’.

    Seriously, you worry about what the NRA would do for other states when you can’t even control gun crime in your own territory?

    I loved that the woman who defended herself stated that Puerto Ricans have a constitutional right to bear arms. It’s more than that, it’s a God given, inalienable right to self defense. I felt this VICE video inadvertently did a better job of promoting responsible gun ownership by following her story up with the political hack who had no good rebuttal to her story. She made that politician look stupid.

    • There are times when I wonder if these “accidental pro-gun slants” are so inadvertent. We assume everybody in a lot of these mainstream media news outlets are all “liberal media” types who believe what their masters tell them to say. I wonder if some of them don’t reframe things intentionally to send a few “inadvertent slips” that might get people to think.

  13. If you want even more insight, just look at the U.S. Virgin Islands next door.
    Similarly restrictive gun laws and similarly high crime. The problem is when you try to bring it up with a senator or cop, they just don’t want to listen. Government is perfect in their eyes.

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