What’s with… all the AK 47s??

The AK-47 – short for “Automatic Kalashnikov” – is the most popular assault weapon in the world. With over 100 million in circulation, it’s the go-to weapon of guerrillas, militants, and revolutionary movements – not to mention criminal gangs – ever since its invention by Kalashnikov after WWII. So the news that 33 of these deadly babies were intercepted in two shipments in the last month should be of great interest to the authorities!! Cause for every interception, we gotta assume there were 10 that slipped through our oh-so-porous borders. That these last interceptions passed through our wharves in GT is even more alarming!!
In the far end of the reign of gang terror between 2002 and 2008, your Eyewitness remembers – with alarm – those 30 AK-47s that had disappeared from the GDF armoury at Camp Ayangana in early 2006. But soon showed up in the hands of the various criminal gangs that had declared war on the Guyanese state in general – and the PPP Govt in particular!! Your Eyewitness has no qualms about raising alarm bells at this time – because this many assault weapons floating around can only signal some organised groups behind them!! He even remembers during the 1980s when military men freelanced with their “long guns” to terrorise PPP supporters as kick-down-the-door bandits!! The PNC was behind THEM!
Now, these weapons aren’t cheap – with each costing at least US$1000 – or GY$216,000!! Secondly, these weren’t from the usual Eastern European sources – they were made in the USA!! Now you may be asking how come the USA’s manufacturing a Russian-origin weapon – when its own army totes around its vaunted native M-16s, which are churned out by its own military complex, thank you!! Well, after the US slapped sanctions on Russia and its satellites, the good ole US free market sprung into action, and right now there’s at least five manufacturers of AK-47s in the land of the free and home of the brave!! The essence of free enterprise, of course, is if there’s an itch, you can make money by scratching it!!
But back to what may be afoot here. We know about the small-time youthful criminal gangs that would use guns to conduct robberies and Gaza and Gully beefs!! Then there’s the political gangs – like the now-departed Fineman Gang – that conduct terroristic raids to make a political point! And finally, the large-scale criminal gangs like the one that was run by Roger Khan!! Your Eyewitness however, thinks we’re now seeing a new type of gang – the transnational gang that combines aspects of the preceding three!!
With the Yanks putting pressure on Venezuela’s Wild West border region, we should’ve expected some of their gangs migrating here – along with their refugees!!
Get them!!

…the Parliamentary Committees?
With the Parliamentary Committees formed – and now chaired, let’s see how the Opposition will use its opportunity to govern!! After all, the four Parliamentary Sectoral Committees (PSC) – Economic, Foreign Affairs, Social Services and Natural Resources – were formed after the PNC bludgeoned the PPP and demanded to be included in “governance”. These committees cover the ENTIRE gamut of Governmental activities and are constitutionally mandated to SCRUTINISE the latter in real time!!
Half of the PSCs are chaired by the Opposition in a rotating arrangement – and they have great leeway in setting the agenda of their committees. But the Opposition aint really interested in “shared governance”, are they?? What they want is to monopolise governance to loot the public treasury!! To use the PSCs to keep the PPP on the straight and narrow takes time to summon Govt officials and grill them in areas of national concern.
But, Dear Reader, that means work and research! Which is like garlic to Count Dracula!

…Norton?
Just when your Eyewitness thought PNC leader Aubrey Norton would’ve been responding to WIN’s reality check at the last Elections, he started foaming at the mouth – and writing daily letters to the press – on an atrocity the PNC committed in 1964.
Shouldn’t he be apologising?