Acquiring Guns in a Foreign Country- A Cautionary Tale

I love to travel and tend to visit some crazy third world countries.  For the past two decades I’ve spent at least four to eight weeks a year traveling in places where it isn’t safe to drink the tap water.

 

 

As a retired cop, I can carry a gun almost everywhere in the United States.  I’m rarely unarmed when I’m in the USA.  Foreign travel is a different issue.  I’m not legally able to carry a gun in the countries I visit.  Not carrying a gun in dangerous foreign countries forces one to pay a lot more attention and develop contingency plans.

 

 

For many years, I’ve considered how I might obtain a firearm in a foreign country if I had a dire need to possess one.  I’ve written about my thought process in my book as well as in numerous travel articles I’ve written.  If you are interested in the subject, peruse Back From Nicaragua! and Preparing for Foreign Travel- Guns.  I think my best way of acquiring a gun in a foreign country is to either buy or steal it from one of the ubiquitous untrained armed security guards present everywhere.  Based off some experiences last week, I am currently rethinking that strategy.

 

I spent last week visiting friends who live part of the year in the Dominican Republic.  I stayed with my friends at their house on the beach near Cabarete, on the north coast of the island.  It’s a small town that is known around the world as a prime kite boarding location.  The town has a bohemian surfer vibe and is generally very safe.

 

 

My friend lives in a beach neighborhood that has about 30 houses, most owned by ex-pats.  The local homeowners association employs a security company to patrol the neighborhood.  There are three security guards on duty at any time of the day or night.  One sits in a guard shack on my friend’s property to prevent unauthorized people from entering the neighborhood from the beach.

 

 

At an afternoon neighborhood party my friend hosted, the head of the homeowners’ association and I started talking about guns.  He mentioned that the guns the patrolling security guards carried were in horrible shape.  He wanted me to inspect the weapons and see if they were functional or not.

 

 

He told me that the guards often left a pistol gripped shotgun unattended in the guard shack about 30 yards away from where I was sitting.  To prove it to me, he walked over to the guard shack, removed the unattended shotgun and handed it to me for inspection.  It was in horrible condition.

 

 

With all the neighborhood kids playing around the guard shack, I was glad to find that the shotgun was unloaded.  The brand was one I had never seen before, a “Carandi.”  It looked like a cheap copy of the Winchester Defender. 

 

 

The barrel was completely rusted.  The muzzle was dented and the front bead was gone.  The magazine cap was a plumbing pipe end cap that was actually welded on to the tube.

 

 

The action was functional but it drastically needed some lubrication.  The inside of the chamber was coated with a thick brown substance that looked a lot like fudge.

 

 

As the shotgun belonged to the crew that was ostensibly “protecting” us.  I function checked the gun and then cleaned and lubricated the weapon before the head of the HOA was able to locate the guard who left the gun in the guard shack.

 

 

I spoke with the guard.  Per company policy, he was not allowed to keep the gun loaded.  Two security guards had shot themselves with the weapons in the last year or so.  One blew a hole in his foot resting this same shotgun muzzle down on the top of his foot and accidentally hitting the trigger.  The other shot himself in the palm of the hand when he was playing with a handgun while sitting on the toilet.

 

 

The guards carried their allotted ammunition in their pockets instead of in the magazine of the gun.  The guard carrying the shotgun had two rounds.  The first was a completely corroded rubber buckshot round.  The second was a low-brass birdshot shell.

 

 

 

After I explained how horrible the shotgun was, the head of the community HOA went for a walk and came back with the other guard’s pistol.  Unexpectedly, I found that the guard was carrying a short barreled Dan Wesson .357 magnum revolver without a holster stuck in his waistband.  The guard carried three .38 special full metal jacket bullets for the gun in his pocket.

 

 

The revolver was in bad shape too.  The gun had a bad hand and cylinder stop.  The cylinder came off the crane and there was no spring operating the ejector rod.

 

 

 

The shotgun would have fired at least one round.  This revolver probably didn’t work at all.

 

 

I’ve seen lots of security guards around the world carry guns that looked to be in poor condition, but I have never had a chance to actually examine the guns.  Why would I assume that any other security guard’s weapon would work better than these? 

 

 

Sill thinking about grabbing a security guard’s gun in a foreign country?  Here are some things to consider before you do so.

 

1) You should be familiar with operating unusual firearms.

How many of you would have known how open the cylinder of an older Dan Wesson revolver?  If you had limited rounds did you know that the cylinder turns clockwise?  How about unlocking the action of a pump shotgun from a company you’ve never heard of?  Take a look at some other guns I’ve seen in my travels.

 

Take a look at this gun.  It belonged to a security guard in Quito, Ecuador.   It’s basically a long barreled revolver with a non-functional pump forend installed to make it look like a shotgun.  Would you know how to operate it?

 

 

 

Check out this Colombian guard’s guns.  Would you be able to run the 16 gauge sawed off single shot with pistol grips?  How about the handgun?  It is a Colombian Cordova.

 

 

Have you ever trained how to take a gun away from someone carrying it on a sling?  Would you know how the safety on this full-auto AK works?

 

 

If you plan to relieve a security guard of his gun, you better be prepared to run something you may have never seen before.

 

 

2) Don’t assume the gun works.

 

If you are able to do so, conduct a quick function check before you depend on the weapon.  Don’t be surprised if the gun doesn’t work.  If the gun doesn’t work, could you still use it as a threat to get something better?

 

 

3) Don’t assume the gun is loaded.

 

You might have to run the security guard’s pockets to find the ammunition.  Is it worth the effort to steal a rusty shotgun and two rounds of questionable function?  How about a broken revolver with three random cartridges?  Would you know how to use those weapons to acquire something better?  That’s a topic you should be thinking about.

 

 

Here’s the bottom line for me.  I’m no longer going to focus on the easy to acquire weapons carried by security guards in foreign countries.  While the guns are low hanging fruit, they may not work.  I think police weapons might be a better target if you were in an extreme circumstance.  They may be a bit tougher to acquire, but they will probably be loaded and in better physical condition.

 

If I emergently needed a gun in another country, I’d only consider taking one from a guard if I planned to use it in order to get a better gun from a cop.

 

 

*Legal warning- possessing firearms as a foreigner in another country is likely illegal.  Stealing a gun from a cop or guard will certainly get you thrown into prison.  These tips should be considered a theoretical thought exercise until your life is in immediate danger.  There are other, probably safer, ways to acquire guns in other countries if one has a little extra time.  Read my book for more details on that process.