Pakistan - Cheap Guns

The border regions of Pakistan are (and traditionally have been) a Wild West region, with most tribal, ethnic and criminal groups being well armed with cheap weapons brought in from Afghanistan or manufactured on demand. There are few tribes that don't possess large arsenals and have fierce rivalries against one another. Most urban residents employ chowkidaars, or private guards, for protection. If you are not caught in the middle of a firefight, you may be worse off at a wedding or party. In the tribal areas, Pathans have a bad habit of celebrating weddings using their AK-47s as firecrackers and shoot bursts into the air, ignorant of Newtonian physics.

Reader Mike Squirrell sends in the following: Darra Adam Khel has been closed to foreigners for years but if you take local pickups from Peshawar (if you ask, the locals will hide you from the peering eyes of cops at checkpoints), make sure you tell the driver to take you all the way through town to avoid being stopped by the tribal police. At the first gun shop, ask the owner to invite the police to escort you, and a little baksheesh (about 100 rupees per cop) will get you a guided tour and a wave out of town. You can't actually buy the guns, but you can fire them. (Choose a Chinese- or Russia- made gun to fire since the Pak-made ones can explode in your face.)