DS9: Business as Usual

[Yukaphile]

If what was said in the episode was true, Kira and other Bajoran resistance members like her were buying weapons from precisely these men - the same people who'd then sell them to genocidal madmen. Yeah, I'm wondering if they're hypocrites. It's not the first time, however. Kira maintains even an innocent man who just ironed shirts for a living was as guilty of being a monster as any gul or a high-ranking member of the Central Command during the occupation, which is utterly false any way you want to approach it. You don't get to be guilty just for being someplace. This from the same woman who then overcame her feelings and was there for Ghemor in his final hours, even though by her logic, he's just as "guilty." And I say all this as somebody who usually likes Kira most of the time.

[Yukaphile]

It was also never confirmed if they were black marketeers or not, so don't presume to act as if they were. If it was, please say so. It's been a while since I saw the episode.

[Antiboyscout]

In the end, the leader of a government was buying the WMD, so I'm not sure what all that discussion about the right to bear arms was about.

[Yukaphile]

Gotta say, for once, I agree with ABS. They seemed like legit businessmen who sold to anyone, regardless of if they had scruples. Sometimes that meant for good causes, like liberating Bajor, because it'd pay off down the line. Other times it's to a tyrant. It's actually kind of a refreshingly realistic look into the gun industry and the gun lobby of today. They don't care who they sell to as long as it makes them money. That's a message that's pretty timeless, and how it only stops when the decent people of conscience within the organization take steps to challenge it.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Gotta say, for once, I agree with ABS. They seemed like legit businessmen who sold to anyone, regardless of if they had scruples. Sometimes that meant for good causes, like liberating Bajor, because it'd pay off down the line. Other times it's to a tyrant. It's actually kind of a refreshingly realistic look into the gun industry and the gun lobby of today. They don't care who they sell to as long as it makes them money. That's a message that's pretty timeless, and how it only stops when the decent people of conscience within the organization take steps to challenge it.

Wait what's that supposed to do with not being about gun rights?

[Yukaphile]

Well, by citing that they sold to a leader of a government, he implied they were legit businessmen, which is how I interpreted the episode.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Well, by citing that they sold to a leader of a government, he implied they were legit businessmen, which is how I interpreted the episode.

Well that's a point he brought up, but he didn't imply anything about it being legit businessmen.

[Yukaphile]

Why would they use the black market to sell weapons to the leader of a government? Another reason I feel they're legit merchants is that it would be outlawed on the station, no matter how much they'd helped Bajoran rebels, if they were with the black market, given how hard Odo cracks down on them. I mean, in our world, the NRA is still selling loads and loads of weapons after Newtown, which I feel was the moral event horizon on the whole "gun issue," and sadly such weapons still have a somewhat romanticized view in our cowboy culture, so is it so unreasonable that a galactic weapons exchange could be a legitimate thriving business - even after 20 children were helplessly butchered in ours and nothing was done to curb that from happening again? Especially to worlds that still have conflict.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Black market means illegal market. Unless it's been established in Bijor space the illicit nature of selling guns to any extent, then it's not a black market. And being a government doesn't really mean anything. North Korea's sanctioned up the ass to its throat for violating UN protocol. And again there isn't any government here except for the administration on Deep Space Nine by Kira, Sisko, and Odo who all belong to separate civilizations that don't even have a binding agreement of policies between each other.

[Yukaphile]

As Sisko constantly reminds people, it's a Bajoran space station, the Federation just helps run it, hence why when the Bajoran government stepped in within the episode, despite how furious it made them, Sisko and Kira and Odo had no choice but to back off. And I can't see them doing that if it wasn't a legitimate business similar to the NRA because again, they still have power and people still buy guns even after what I'd termed the moral event horizon for the "gun issue" with Newtown, and yet people still buy weapons and romanticize them in our violent culture, so why not apply that to a galactic scale as well? I don't see that as being unrealistic - as long as it's taking place outside the Federation, certainly.