Assault Weapons Initiative

I want to come up with a backstory regarding a really silly government program that basically amounts to "We're giving away all these 20 year old military grade assault rifles, sub-machineguns, combat shotguns, and light machine guns absolutely free to all citizens who sign up."

Note this does not take place on Earth.

Another law just passed saying that they have to maintain any equipment they keep on hand. Giving it away would be cheaper than ensuring destruction or maintaining them.

Some arbitrarily long time ago, some kind of danger loomeing that threatened to invade [generic off-Earth location]. As a defensive measure, [generic government] decided to arm the citizens to potentially fight as a guerrilla-force with their obsolete equipment.

Then the invasion never came.

I like this one. Extra points if later on, the government tries to go totalitarian and La Résistance is armed as well as they are.

Actually they give out the weapons because they are totalitarian.

edited 1st Jul '11 12:15:28 PM by Worlder

Then everyone is conscripted and must do drill.

edited 1st Jul '11 12:41:11 PM by Trotzky

Nah no one is conscripted.

They just think "Here have some free guns."

Every has the right to bear arms in this country. It is just that the gun laws in this country are the most lax ones on the planet.

edited 1st Jul '11 12:47:48 PM by Worlder

Why would a totalitarian government arm its citizens if it isn't forming a conscript militia?

It sounds like the worst idea ever.

edited 1st Jul '11 1:21:11 PM by MatthewTheRaven

I know right.

Everyone is just that devoted.

Dissenters usually get shot in public by... civilians.

Oh and they are lucky if they get shot to death. They could've gotten disemboweled, beheaded, impaled, or immolated instead.

Could be that the government quietly tracks the citizens who take the firearms offer. Any citizens who kills undesirables (or unimportant individuals) for them is allowed to roam free, whether the act is vigilantism or gang warfare, but anybody who shows signs of genuine intent to overthrow or disrupt their order gets a visit from men armed in armor that can laugh off the obsolete weaponry, and is promptly made an unperson. Especially effective if the old weapon is before an extremely significant advance in firearms technology: as an example, kinetic weapons in an era where the government can afford anti-kinetic shields that can only be pierced by energy weapons.

That's...inexpressibly scary, and implies some form of actual mind control, either that or massive-scale societal brainwashing that wouldn't hold up for very long. Most people will not be inclined to shoot others outside a life-or-death situation for the offense of disagreeing; it usually takes major training and desensitization to get a person to the point where they will.

^^ Killer Clowns' idea would work quite well. "Just that devoted" doesn't. In any totalitarian system, there are going to be people who don't think they're getting a fair shake, or who have a grudge against the government for whatever reason.

Very well I will adopt Killer Clown's model.

Also other countries are very horrified at such legislation.

It is one thing to order one's citizens doing various thing that they probably don't.

It is another to provide the tools to kill each other many times over.

edited 1st Jul '11 6:39:19 PM by Worlder

At what, the 'give away weapons' part or the 'shoot anyone who doesn't use them for being unofficial arms of State Sec' part?

The give away guns part.

Another side effect is that many of the arms will probably smuggled to other countries.

edited 1st Jul '11 6:38:58 PM by Worlder

So we've got one really weirdly totalitarian country that, for some reason, gives away guns to its citizens, surrounded by other countries that are horrified by the increase in the local gun population (and as such are probably not too healthy on the totalitarianism front either). Are there any normal countries in this world?

Seriously, a totalitarian state is not going to want to be giving away weapons, unless they're so obsolete as to be actually useless. Like, if you've got Dune-style shields that can reliably and without inconvenience to the user prevent all damage from projectiles, then this makes sense. If the guns are any use as weapons at all, than any totalitarian state is going to be very, very leery of spreading them around; it wouldn't be a totalitarian state if someone wasn't getting shafted.

I know someone is going to be questioning if that country really is what it appears to be.

It could be an extreme form of gun-rights. You aren't just allowed to have a gun, the government has to provide you with them!

Yes yes.

That is perfect.

Such an insane law.

I love it!

At one point, the Soviet Union was going to privatize the economy by issuing vouchers to every citizen who could then invest in in the companies of their choice. I suppose you could privatize police and mimitary services by giving every citizen a voucher for a weapons cache of their choice.

BTW those weapons are not that outdated.

These military grade hand-me-downs still pack a punch and will make every Right-Wing Militia Fanatic weep tears of joy.

Oh and there are instruction manuals on how to maintain that rocket launcher.

edited 3rd Jul '11 3:14:09 PM by Worlder

Then yeah, if these weapons could actually be used against the government they'd have to be insane to give them out. Usually the tyrant's program is precisely the opposite. The sort of government I think of when I hear 'give out free weapons' is kind of belligerently independent, probably surrounded by larger and less gun-happy states, and if anything too laissez-faire (in both economic and social policy).

It has the authoritarianism of China.

The gun culture of the US.

The prideful attitude of Texas.

edited 3rd Jul '11 8:29:33 PM by Worlder