All of those things would require permission of the local sheriff and an ATF permit to own (and obviously you have to pass all the other filters on the common 4473 form).

In the case of grenades or RPG, you’d have to demonstrate that you have a storage enclosure that would meet ATF explosives storage requirements.

Its not impossible to legally own these things in the US, but its not easy either.

Where can I find this demographic data?

You compare the weapons trafficing to the NRA, I don’t believe you can purchase automatic weapons, hand grenades, RPG’s in any public market in the US, but you can get them in public markets in a variety of towns and villages in Yemen. Been there, seen that. And I do understand the power distribution prior to the civil war of 1994.

Yes, agreed, the US does have a drug problem, so does Yemen. Hash can be easily purchased there and is also a main smuggling route to Saudi. and Yemen is one of a few countries in the world where qat is legal and chewed by nearly 90% of the citizens. Even the press in Yemen has stated numerous times on how qat is destroying the country. It is rapidly destroying the countries water supplies.

Yes, I do know the govt is purchasing weapons from the citizens on a limited basis using US taxpayer money. And yes, I do know Yemen is a very poor country. But can you explain how Sanaa is a weapons free city but you see men carrying guns everywhere right in front of the police and military on every street corner.

I have nothing against the people of Yemen, I still have several very good friends there. But I have seen the corruption, intimidation and harrassment steadily increase over the years to what you witness today.

Weapon Trafficking is a complicated issue, which roots back to the — US BACKED — Afghan soviet war, and the secession attempt of 1994. You would need to know more about Yemen to understand the distribution of power in the country at those times. In any case, every country has their own issues; like the US with Drug Trafficking, can you explain that?

Jane was just whining in the other post about the numerous checkpoints, so I guess you guys need to have a discussion about the number of checkpoints you find suitable to resolve this issue. And the government IS buying weapons from the people, and this is US backed, I don’t know where you got information saying they’re not; don’t forget Yemen doesn’t have an unlimited budget. Arms markets make just about as much sense as the NRA in the United States.

Jane, again there’s alot of forgery, fraud, and identity theft in the US. As far as the escaped cole bombers, its a tragedy what they did; however, very often escaped murderers/predators/rapists in the United States end up being caught for the same crimes, and you can watch America’s Most Wanted to learn more about your fascinating country.

In the published articles, I suggest you Annotate your sources, and focus on drawing credibility to your sources. Also, I find that often you recycle the bogus that you post here with what you publish, or maybe you get confused between fact and fiction when you’re writing the articles.