A friend sent me this photograph. I do not know when or where it was taken or by whom, but it looks a lot like what I saw in Liberia,
circa 1992-1993, during what is known as the First Liberian Civil War. The private ownership of firearms had, or course, been outlawed by what passed for a national government, and the thugs organized under such pretentious labels as "National Patriotic Liberation Front" (NPLF) and "Independent National Patriotic Front of Liberia" had a field day. They turned the entire country into what might be described as a free-fire zone.
