Over the past few decades, the arms trade has been a lucrative sector among the world's **. In a certain corner of Asia, there is a small village called Dara Village, with its unique natural conditions and geographical advantages, the ** manufacturing industry has developed into a local industry, and formed a huge industrial network. The villagers even proudly proclaimed: "Even high-tech missiles are not a problem, they have the ability to copy them".
However, this seemingly ordinary village hides an astonishing fact: it is known as the "Black Gun Capital of Asia" worldwide. Today, the ** made in the village of Dara has begun to be smuggled around the world, from the war-torn Middle East to Latin America, which is mired in drug trafficking and gang violence, and these exquisite craftsmanship of firearms have become synonymous with violence and conflict.
The villagers are also gradually drawn into a larger and more complex chain of interests. But why are these towns able to manufacture and sell firearms at will?In 1979, the Soviet Union launched an invasion of Afghanistan with a huge military force. Soviet forces moved quickly, quickly capturing major cities, including Kabul, the capital of Afghanistan, as well as a number of strategic points on Afghanistan's borders with neighboring Pakistan and Iran.
The impact of this event will be felt throughout the article, which will be described in more detail below. Although the war in Afghanistan has been going on for a decade, resulting in great destruction and countless deaths, the ultimate victor was neither the Soviet Union nor war-torn Afghanistan, but the village of Dara in Pakistan. The village was unknown before the war and lived mainly on farming and small-scale farming.
However, with the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, a large number of refugees poured into Pakistan, many of whom chose to seek temporary shelter in the village of Dara. Due to its geographical location, the village of Dara became an important distribution point for supplies, supplying the resistance forces within Afghanistan. Over time, the village of Dara expanded to become a gathering place for refugees and smugglers, eventually evolving into a dark and complex area.
As the war continued, the villagers saw a business opportunity to make firearms and gradually developed the skill into a means of livelihood. Although the tradition of making guns in the village of Dara is very old, there is a local legend. After the British conquest of the Mughal Empire, an unfortunate British mechanical soldier strayed into the village of Dara and was rescued by the villagers.
As a token of gratitude for the villagers' assistance, the soldier not only gifted them **, but also taught them the art of gun assembly. In order to improve their living conditions, the residents of the village of Dara began to illegally manufacture and trade firearms. With the passage of time, the underground industrial chain has gradually formed, and the villagers have mastered the technology of making guns. Since the beginning of that war, the village of Dara has become a place for some civilian armed forces to obtain cheap firearms.
The firearms industry in Dara Village was once rampant, and some people even boasted, "As long as you dare to give a prototype, I dare to imitate it, and missiles are no problem!""This momentum can be seen. However, as Soviet troops withdrew from Afghanistan, the gun shop in the small town of Dara lost its main customer and began to attract gangsters from Southeast Asia. Today, there are thousands of firearms workshops in the village of Dara, totaling more than 2,600.
These workshops are usually small, no more than 20 square metres each. Some specialize in stamped parts for cartridges, others specialize in gun guards and stocks, and some even specialize in bullets. The village of Dara has long been in a regulatory vacuum, so the exact figures and flow of its firearms production have become a mystery. In the local market, the cost of black guns is surprisingly low, and according to rumors, the cheapest model costs just over $20.
Villagers often recruit laborers to assist in the production of these imitations, and in recent years the production equipment introduced has become more sophisticated. However, despite being cheap, it doesn't mean it's of inferior quality, at least not in this small village. The craftsmen here have skills that have been passed down for generations and know the construction and mechanics of firearms.
These replica firearms are outwardly indistinguishable from the prototype and even comparable to expensive imports in some aspects of performance. If anyone has a preference for historic ** such as the World War II-era Karl 98k rifle, Springfield rifle, and classic Ruger or Mauser pistols, they can find the right collection here. However, Pakistan has also strengthened its management in recent years, so it is believed that these phenomena will gradually disappear.
In fact, there used to be similar black gun workshops in China, such as Hualong County in Qinghai Province, which was once regarded as the center of the country's illegal ** trade. Beginning in the 90s of the last century, Hualong County gained fame for the illegal gun trade. At that time, almost every family was running their own ** manufacturing workshop, spending most of their time during the day on agriculture and turning to manufacturing ** at night.
In China's illegal firearms market, "Hualongzao" used to be quite famous. However, with the continuous improvement of the rule of law in China, this kind of behavior has long been severely cracked down by the law. It is no exaggeration to say that the widespread spread of illegal firearms poses a major challenge to public safety.
Considering that the residents of the villages who sell illegal guns focus only on sales and ignore regulation, once these ** enter the market, they risk being resold anywhere, creating a potential safety risk for the world.