Al-Haj Ahmad Khashan is a potential customer at the market, examining one of the guns on a nearby table. The instability of the Iraqi state, the absence of the rule of law, the presence of unofficial militias in the streets and that state of security in Baghdad are all factors that make locals want their own guns, Khashan suggests.
“Battles and being in a continuous state of conflict is what is causing people to want to buy weapons,” he notes.
The police in Baghdad are concerned about the gun markets, Saad Maan, spokesman for the Baghdad Operations Command, the body tasked with ensuring security in Baghdad, told NIQASH. And they conduct ongoing raids on the markets and try to arrest those carrying guns without the proper permits.
Maan denied what the traders said, that it was easy to bring weapons into Baghdad because those manning security checkpoints on the way into the city were willing to turn a blind eye.
“And any soldier who dies in battle should have his weapon brought back to his commander, who then issues a dead of release so that everyone knows that the dead soldier’s weapon has been accounted for,” Maan explains how things should work.
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