If you read this New York Times story about Haiti ("In Rebel City, Guns Are Power and No One Wants to Let Go"), you'll come away thinking that guns are just a natural part of the Haitian landscape, sort of like cactus in the desert ("The nation is awash in weapons"). This story, from Florida's Sun-Sentinel, offers a somewhat different explanation for the arms glut:

Guns smuggled from South Florida arming Haitians

The political unrest in Haiti, with its graphic daily images of gunfire and street violence, is focusing attention once again on the island's South Florida gun connection.

...the ATF has said that 25 percent of the gun-smuggling cases handled by its Miami office during the past three years have involved firearms destined for Haiti. The island is the top foreign destination for guns exported illegally from South Florida....

Haitian gun smugglers have become increasingly sophisticated in recent years. Elaborate family networks of Haitian immigrants employ brothers and cousins as fronts to buy pistols and long guns in small increments to avoid sending up red flags on ATF paperwork....

Oh, sure -- a pistol here, a pistol there ... who'd notice that? Hey, I mean, it's not as if it's even theoretically possible to keep records of gun purchases and examine them later for patterns that might be tied to civil unrest in other countries that could result in, say, the need to deploy U.S. Marines.

I'm sorry -- what was that about "long guns"?

In the past, the ATF has had difficulty stopping the trafficking of small arms to conflicts overseas. It is perfectly legal to buy large quantities of so-called "long guns," which include shotguns, AK-47 type copies and many other military-style weapons and ammunition without raising any red flags or reports to ATF, said retired ATF agent Gerald Nunziato....

While traffickers break the law when they ship weapons overseas without the proper license, they are rarely caught, Nunziato said. A review of gun smuggling cases shows that even when they are caught, the sentences tend to be minor....

Oh -- so we could help prevent bloodshed in Haiti, but in order to do so we'd actually have to get serious about enforcing laws that have to with guns. And that would mean pissing Charlton Heston off. Well, we can't have that, can we?

(Sun-Sentinel link via INTL-News.)