The Taliban are clearly enjoying the fruits of their labor after routing out the Afghan military and commandeering the country’s capital in Kabul.
Two reports from Reuters indicate that many Taliban fighters have swapped their AK-47s for American-made M4s and M16s while the group’s leadership has begun confiscating weapons from civilians in the city.
“We understand people kept weapons for personal safety. They can now feel safe. We are not here to harm innocent civilians,” a Taliban leader told Reuters.
The Associated Press reported today that billions of dollars of U.S.-made military equipment has fallen into the hands of the Taliban since the terrorist group began its assault. The haul included ammunition, aircraft, and small arms, including M4s and M16s.
Images from Afghanistan show some Taliban fighters toting the fully automatic versions of the AR-15 rifle. While it’s fair to debate the tactical advantage that these rifles will provide over their Russian counterparts, the optics are not good for the United States.
“The image of U.S.-made weapons in the hands of the Taliban as it sweeps aside the Afghan National Army—funded with billions of dollars from the U.S. government over the past two decades—is a propaganda coup for the militants,” Reuters reports.
An anonymous U.S. Marines officer also told the outlet that the Taliban’s Russian allies won’t have any trouble supplying them with the ammunition necessary to feed their new weapons.
“The Russians crank out millions of rounds of AR 5.56 NATO each year for the U.S. market under the brand names of Tula, Wolf, and Red Army just to name a few,” he said. “I suspect the Taliban’s allies will have no trouble supplying parts for just about any infantry system.”
SEE ALSO: Afghan Teen Kills Two Taliban Fighters, Wounds Others with AK-47
WATCH: Taliban bring an anti-tank rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) to arrest alleged looters on the streets of Kabul. pic.twitter.com/ku9kM2clo8
— Insider Paper (@TheInsiderPaper) August 17, 2021
🚨Este martes, el corresponsal de la cadena árabe Al Jazeera, Hameed Mohammad Shah, captó en en #Kabul un vídeo de lo que sería la “primera protesta de mujeres” bajo el nuevo régimen #Taliban. pic.twitter.com/bQglOu7J83
— Diario de México (@DDMexico) August 17, 2021
As the Biden administration loses fully automatic American-made rifles to the Taliban, it is actively working to ban Americans from owning the semi-automatic version of those rifles. President Biden’s gun control plan would ban the manufacture and sale of “assault weapons,” which encompass a variety of rifles, including the AR-15.
Those who already own these firearms would be required to register them with the federal government under the National Firearms Act process. This policy has also been supported by Biden’s nominee to head the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (AFT), David Chipman.
Fully automatic machine guns like those captured by the Taliban have been heavily restricted for American civilian ownership since 1986.
The Taliban’s gun confiscation scheme is less sophisticated than that of the U.S. government, but the end goal is the same: disarm the civilian population.
Alzheimer Joe and Kamel Toe have FUBAR’d EVERY SINGLE THING THEY HAVE TOUCHED! America rests it’s case.
The Taliban now has ACOGS, Schmidt and bender lasers, Nods, and other gear they should never been allowed to have, all thanks to the worst administration in US History. Soon I guess we are going to see taliban fighters flying around in AH-64 choppers ? Biden and Harris are a WORLD WIDE EMBARRASSMENT. I guess it’s a distraction from the mess they have created at what used to be a southern border. What’s next is China gonna be allowed to take full control of the Indo Pacific? Oh wait that’s already happened. Maybe Russia will get an oil pipeline that generates billions for building a stronger more dangerous Russian militarily/ terror sponsorship. Oh wait Biden already did that as well, maybe it’s gonna allow China to get away with unleashing a Virus that is still wrecking our country. Yep that’s happening also. Maybe gas prices will soon be at $5 a gallon or lumber will be up 300% or more fentanyl then ever before will be on our streets in our schools and reaping havoc on future generations. All already true. Maybe they should blame trump or tell us how racist everyone is. Biden is a career politician who has never had to put his ass or money on the line. Harris had an affair with a married man to boost her career. Anyone who still supports this administration should be considered Anti American. What has Biden done for the citizens of this country? NOTHING.
You ask: “What has Biden done for the citizens of this country?”
In my humble opinion it’s more than “nothing”.
He & his administration are exceptional at hurting us and destroying our country.
Now Biden banned Russian ammo, we won’t get tula 223. There are other steel cased 223 and 5.56 made in Russia, cant remember the brands, don’t use it myself. Russia isn’t affected, the Taliban has all these M4s in Afghanistan US left over there, Biden just made sure they don’t run out of ammo. Wasn’t Biden trying to punish Russia, hurt them economically? No, this was part of his “master” plan.
Second amendment only protects the guns that existed in 1776 everything else should be banned all guns should be stored in central location should the malita need them to repel foreign invaders not at home for kids to get there hands on them
I worked riots In Chicago , Minnesota, and Wisconsin. I could not believe how many of the rioters were armed. Police was no where to be seen. Most police departments in major city are down by 25%. You may not want to be armed and that’s your choice. Me , I will protect myself and loved ones, that’s my right provide my the second Amendment.
David miller it’s obvious you live a very sheltered life. You are probably the type of person who has a Biden/Harris bumper sticker.
Your comments alone prove you are incapable of any rational thought processes and would immediately be deemed incompetent in any legal court in the USA, not to mention the fact that you obviously can’t spell or formulate a coherent sentence.
So David, how long have you been a troll?
And the Biden administration is green with envy as the Taliban are doing the very thing the Joke Biden abomination would love to be able to do in this country.
When I read the headline my first thought was the Taliban gets military grade guns and ammo for free. And American law abiding citizens get commercial grade guns and ammo (when available) for above reasonable costs and harassed by our own government every day. So, who’s side are democRATs on again?
Unbelievable! Taliban using our own weapons to kill innocent people. Everybody who voted for Biden should feel disgusted. Think of all the evil shit Dems have caused in the past year alone. From COVID deaths in nursing homes to illegal migrants to police officers being targeted and killed. Riots, destruction, chaos, now this. I truly believe the Democrat party has and always will be a force for evil.
May I remind folks that the similarity of the Saigon Embassy choppers in Vietnam and then in Kabul didn’t end just there, the U.S. left Arms and equipment in Saigon too.
Years later, a truck full of M-16’s were intercepted at out southern border, and those serial #’s came back as U.S. Army weapons left in ‘Nam.
If we need Gun Control, our own Government is the first place we should start.
” Nutty Nancy and the Dumbasscraps approve this message…”
” Nobody needs an AR-15 !!! ”
I’m getting the Wife an AR .22 this month… she’s small and don’t like LOUD and KICKING, so THIS WILL DO THE TRICK around the house !!!
I’ll keep the Big Boy Toy …
Call him all the names you want–and I know that means you’ll be calling me names as well in the next post or two–but it’s pretty obvious by now that any time a public shooting occurs with AR’s it’s going to create a publicity firestorm. I would focus instead on provable facts; that only a tiny fraction of homicides are carried out with semi-auto rifles, and if they are banned–so too would all other forms of semi-auto’s logically. I’m willing to meaningfully negotiate for the “right” of retaining use of my firearms.
I’m not willing to “meaningfully negotiate” away my firearms rights. Why did you put “right” in quotes? Have you read the 2nd amendment? “What country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance. Let them take arms.”
– Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Stephens Smith, son-in-law of John Adams, December 20, 1787
“This may be considered as the true palladium of liberty…. The right of self defense is the first law of nature: in most governments it has been the study of rulers to confine this right within the narrowest limits possible. Wherever standing armies are kept up, and the right of the people to keep and bear arms is, under any color or pretext whatsoever, prohibited, liberty, if not already annihilated, is on the brink of destruction.”
– St. George Tucker, Blackstone’s Commentaries on the Laws of England, 1803
“Guard with jealous attention the public liberty. Suspect everyone who approaches that jewel. Unfortunately, nothing will preserve it but downright force. Whenever you give up that force, you are ruined…. The great object is that every man be armed. Everyone who is able might have a gun.”
– Patrick Henry, Speech to the Virginia Ratifying Convention, June 5, 1778
The democratic motto is to destroy good with evil.
The Biden administration is a Giant mess. When Biden was a senator he could get away with making all his wrong decisions because he could just fade into the background and blend back among the rest of the useless politicians walking the halls of Congress. The people who failed to learn how big of a clown Biden was before they voted for him are now silent. From our borders being removed, to firing thousands of hardworking Americans for political reasons, and now this . Seems like Biden had been in office for 7 1/2 years already not a few months. What a mess this man and his administration is.
But Trumps tweets…
If anything, this reinforces the unfitness of AR pattern rifles and other MSR assault weapons for the civilian market. There are no roving bands of militants sweeping the American countryside; why then would we need weapons of war in our streets if not to create wars where none exist?
If you have a problem them, don’t own one. My wife will protect our home with one when I am out. What my family choses for protection is none of you business.
Weapons are only “unfit” if the owner is unwilling to use them for defense. And, BTW, stop referring to civilian ARs as “weapons of war” and “assault weapons”…..the M4 has full auto capability that the civilian AR does NOT have. No military in the world uses a semi-auto rifle as its main battle weapon. As usual, your ignorance is on full display….
Blue dog, you are such a tiresome asshole. Why don’t you go troll somewhere else.
What surprises me is that with so many weapons so widely distributed in Afghanistan, why aren’t the people just lighting up the taliban when they show up?
Next observation: it’s interesting that these guys swapped out their AKs for ARs as soon as they had the opportunity. It validates my own opinion on the superiority of the AR. I also have noticed that most of them seem to be exercising good trigger finger discipline, so they must have had some training. Makes me wonder how many of them just switched sides and suddenly became true believers when they figured out that the presidential usurper was going to bail out in uncontrolled haste and incompetence?
BLUE dog I don’t ever respond to all of your shelter life comments, but if you want to make BS statements then back it up. Explain to everyone what the difference between the civilian AR platform, and every single Semi auto hand Gun that is on the hip of all law enforcement and CCW citizens? And don’t say magazine capacity. Name 1 difference blue dope? You come out hear each time talking absolute nonsense. So please name the difference.
Barrel length? Stock? I guess that one is negotiable now with these braces.
Are you arguing that we should restrict handgun ownership? That’s way too far, Delco. I mean, give universal background checks and registration a chance before you start attacking the American institution of well-regulated handgun ownership.
My my my…spoken like a true liberal. Pick and choose what you want to ban. We all know giving UBC and registration a “chance” means full gun confiscation. So you are on a website trying to convince it’s members to believe you stand with them when you clearly don’t. Push your propaganda else where.
I do not support banning AR’s–because I’ve built lots of them and frankly, nothing beats them for ease of assembly, getting on target and accuracy. All that said–jumping on someone’s stuff and beating the “you’re stupid you don’t know what a real battle rifle is” is a tad deceptive, I know how easy it is to alter (whether accidentally or illegally on purpose) the fire control group to cause a disconnector to not reset the hammer.
@triggerpull , bluedouche him/clown claims to be a FFL so say calling this fraud stupid is a pretty accurate assessment of it’s lack of intellect , no ?
“MSR assault weapons”
Clarify what that means please.
Oh, sorry. I thought MSR was in common usage in the gun enthusiast circles. 😉
MSR is a so-called “modern sporting rifle”. Most MSRs come in patterns that were designed mid-20th century to be used by militaries to exercise warfare and then redesigned to fit restrictions for civilian use, for example reworking a mechanism to remove full-auto fire capabilities; OR a rifle design that went the other way, in that it was designed for civilian use and with few minor modifications were turned into a modern battle rifle, a weapon of war.
Assault weapons, by the dictionary definition, are any sort of fully automatic or semi-automatic military rifles designed or redesigned for civilian use. MSR is a narrower term than assault weapon, since the R specifies rifle, has to have a stock, barrel 18″ or over. A shotgun or pistol could be an asssault weapon but not an MSR AND many common MSRs have been redesigned to legally fit the definition of a pistol, barrel shorter than 18″ (about 45cm) and no shoulder stock, but then some rednecks decided to be cute and use braces like stocks on pistols and then go around denying that they are stocks.
I am usually pretty careful to qualify any claims about assault rifles with the MSR name because gun folks get pretty sensitive about words and language (maybe MSR is like their pronoun?). Like heaven forbid anyone say clip instead of magazine – even though the meaning of the word in common usage has evolved that the word “clip” is understood to be a mag. I got a bit prickly myself when a kid tried to correct me when I said something about a Garand clip and he told me I meant magazine.
Your combination of the terms “MSR assault weapons” would be considered a false catagory by no less than the National Shooting Sports Foundation and if you in good faith consulted some source for that “dictionary definition” then you were misled. Perhaps in the future you should avoid such dubious sources. After all, semi-auto predates any real or imagined catagory of “assault weapons” and it is more involved than what you have portrayed in your response but you know this much.
Get your facts straight SHIM! A rifle is SIXTEEN inches or longer! NOT 18 moron! LEAVE OUR SITE YOU TROLL!!!!!
Your assertion is that “weapons of war” create wars???
And that magazine capacity and self loading firearms creates crime?!?!?!?
Wow, your grasp of history and humanity itself isn’t tenuous, it’s just not there.
By your standard, if we had no possessions, there would be no crime.
Which makes you either foolish, or a fascist.
I’m voting for Fascist.
The word fascist used to mean something. I don’t think you have any particular meaning behind fascist here other than “I don’t like what you say”. Certainly the overuse of the word fascist to the point of eroding its meaning came from well-intentioned, if overzealous, internet people on the left, throwing the word as an insult back the other way only makes it mean even less than it did before.
I mean, we put fasciis on the back of the dime. How is that not celebrating fascism?
“There are no roving bands of militants sweeping the American countryside”
Maybe not the “countryside” but they are in your failing Blue shitholes YOUR dumbass Liberal Democrats have created. May they come to your house and educate you!
American’s ownership of AR platform rifles is a huge reason why we don’t have “roving bands of militants” in the American countryside.
I guess hunting, sports shooting, recreation and just plain having fun is unfit also…. I bet you don’t have a problem with alcohol killing more people than guns…The right to own an AR15 is founded on the basis of being an American.
First .. AR15 and your so called “weapons of war” are not in our streets. I suggest you educate yourself before showing you ass and look up the statistics on what type of firearms are used in most crimes.
Second , we do not have a gun problem in America (I know this will come off unpopular) we have a black problem, again do your research… look at where and who are committing the vast majority of firearm related crimes, particularly violent crimes.
I suggest the next time you need 911 or any police assistance , make sure you tell them not to bring firearms and bring their slingshots instead….
Lastly… please explain in more detail how this in anyway ” reinforces the unfitness of AR pattern rifles and other MSR assault weapons for the civilian market “
Blue dog either explain difference between the civilian AR platform and every other semi automatic handgun or stop with the BS. I get you are out hear to get a reaction, so congratulations you got one. But there is ABSOLUTELY ZERO difference between the AR and every glock , Sig, HK, Springfield, Walther, Smith&wesson, handgun PERIOD. Having credibility obviously means nothing to you blue dog, so I guess you win again.