Not sure this is the right place for this but thought this perspective would be interesting to some.
I have been in Egypt for the last two weeks. With me being an American and in all venues in the minority guns often come up. In the first week here I was on a dive boat in the Red Sea. I met a police officer from Norway. She is not allowed to carry a firearm at all. Even as a police officer she can not carry. She does have both a pistol and rifle locked in her car but again she can not carry it. Without somebody approving it or some special circumstances she can not take it out at all.
I met a person from Denmark that was amazed I used firearms regularly. He had never. He told me a story about a person in Denmark that was a chef. He bought a knife for work. He was taking it home but forgot he needed to pick his kid up at school. He was arrested for carrying a weapon before he even made it to the school. He would have been allowed to take it straight home but he detoured and was arrested for it.
I have been moving around several towns on land the last week. Keep in mind this country has had 3 governments in the last 10 years. The first was a dictator. The second was a mess and was ousted by the army and now the third is in place and is about as corrupt as it can be. Keep in mind in the US we call this the Arab Spring. Here they call it a revolution. All that I talked to whished that it never happened. They were much better off with their dictator then they are now. Their government is not for the people by the people, no it is for profit by the powerful.
In the two weeks I have been here prices have rose 25% on many things. The government is backing out of most subsidies so they can keep more money. Just had lunch and the riot police are out in force today. This is the first day I have seen them. No guns for them but the rest of the police, and there are a lot of them, have automatic weapons.
Keep in mind the people of Egypt can not own a firearm. I don't mean that it is hard to do, or expensive, or you need a permit, I mean they can not! Only the police, the army and the government can own a firearm of any kind.
Just an interesting perspective the next time you go to your local gun shop, or shooting range, or voting booth. :)
Sounds like you're in Sharm el Sheikh. I lived in Egypt for three years. Good people, most of whom just wanted to be left alone and live their lives quietly. But sometimes I wondered how these folks managed to build the pyramids. ;D
I dove most everything from the Blue Hole to the SS Thistlegorm. I loved that place - took a month of in-country leave and finished my Divemaster course there.
The country was stable back then and Sharm was still growing, can't imagine what it's like now.
Travel safe, Steve!
Appreciate your perspecitve, ScubaSteve.
I've done a couple trips like that. I end up calling them "Bill of Rights Appreciation Tours".
I seriously wanted to be armed my whole time in Africa.
Funny how the "arab spring" came about due to Egyptians owning guns.
The first government after the spring decided that private ownership was no longer needed and outlawed the very guns that put it in power.
Thanks Steve. Be safe over there!
It does make a person think... to bad we can't have some of the anti-gun people go over there and see what happens when The People don't have a way to protect themselves from an oppressive government. They would never understand it anyway.
Time to get back to bailing!