Here in America, we are blessed with the Second Amendment. Anti-gun extremists have long tried to eliminate it with the proverbial death by a thousand cuts, chipping away at it with countless laws designed to impose as many restrictions on the law-abiding as they can get away with.
But with more than a decade of U.S. Supreme Court rulings—starting with Heller in 2008— underscoring the Second Amendment protects an individual right to keep and bear arms, some of the deeper “cuts” are either now “healed” or are in the process of receiving treatment through new court proceedings.
Other countries, however, are not so blessed as to have something like our Second Amendment to protect the right of the law-abiding who wish to own firearms, and we’ve seen many nations do everything they can to impose new and more draconian restrictions on their citizens who wish to own guns.
On the other hand, we’ve covered how some countries, in spite of their lacking an analog to our own Second Amendment, have been making progress in the realm of firearms and their citizens. Whether it is government action or simply citizens stepping up, it has happened in the Czech Republic, Finland, Israel, Lithuania, Poland, and Ukraine.
In our hemisphere, there is no country that has made more progress in lessening restrictions on gun owners than Argentina, especially when one considers that, as recently as 2007, the country was disarming civilians and destroying guns they turned in.
The progress can be directly attributed to the election of Argentina’s president, Javier Milei. He has worked to lower the minimum age for the acquisition, possession, and carrying of firearms for civilian use from 21 to 18, to coincide with the legal age of majority. He also has pushed for removing many restrictions on semi-autos.
Now, the Argentine government has formalized new regulations on semi-autos.
While there will still be more restrictions in place than most American gun owners could accept, this is clearly a move in the right direction. Those who wish to acquire the regulated firearms will need to have a clean criminal history (although to what degree is not entirely clear), pass a “psychophysical exam,” have an “approved” storage system, and demonstrate “shooting proficiency.” And, of course, registration.
Again, far more restrictive than we would like to see, but certainly better than the previous system where virtually nobody could lawfully acquire the restricted arms.
Nonetheless, it is heartening to see Argentina move to embrace more freedom, and we will watch for, and report on, any future improvements.
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