Global Anti-Gunners Target Women’s Support
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
The global organizations promoting international gun control through the United Nations (UN) used International Women’s Day events around the world in early March to enlist female support for their cause.
Throughout the world, women and girls are facing indiscriminate violence, according to a new report jointly released by the London-based Amnesty International, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and Oxfam International. As might be expected, their report fudged figures and facts to make their case for the globalist approach to gun control.
The report prepared by non-government organizations (NGOs) accredited to the UN condemned gun manufacturers and claimed that women everywhere pay an increasingly heavy price, with millions of women worldwide suffering from the death and grief caused by “the multi-billion-dollar trade in illegal guns.”
Their report is entitled “The Impact of Guns on Women’s Lives.” It claims that Amnesty International researchers have identified over 1,100 companies manufacturing smallarms and ammunition in at least 98 countries, and says these numbers are likely to increase. The report goes on to claim that while there is no solid figure on illegal gun sales, authorized small arms sales are worth $21 billion, including revolvers, pistols, rifles and light machineguns.
In their attempt to pit gun rights activists worldwide against the feminist movement, Saira Rees-Roberts of Amnesty International claimed that “Gun violence against women is happening around the world. This is not happening only in the developing countries. It is also happening in the developed world.”
Rejecting the notion that guns are necessary for personal protection, she cited discredited studies on firearms-related fatalities in the US and South Africa to bolster her arguments, noting, for example, that in South Africa a woman is shot dead by a current or former partner (male) every 18 hours.
The global anti-gunners used direct and indirect references to the US to place blame for the inability of the UN to adopt a treaty requiring licensing and registration of gunowners and firearms around the world.
“The US government is under pressure from the National Rifle Association,” said Rebecca Peters of IANSA, who debated Wayne LaPierre, executive vice president of the NRA in England last year. “There are other governments which are not restricting proliferation of guns for political reasons,” referring to Canada and Australia as examples.
The UN has been pursuing an international treaty to regulate firearms worldwide for several years and each year several meetings are held by various committees under UN sponsorship to develop various proposals.
To represent unified gunowners in various countries, a group called the World Forum on the Future of Shooting Sports Activities (WFSA) was set up several years ago. WFSA includes gunowners organizations in the US as well as other nations, and is an NGO in Roster Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council.
In that capacity, WFSA has attended as many of these meetings as possible and has conducted various forums in other countries featuring experts in various fields related to the firearm issue.
However, WFSA was not invited to attend the latest meetings in Brazil, Mar. 16-18. According to Thomas Mason, executive secretary US for WFSA, the organization had requested that they be allowed to attend the meeting to represent hunters and sport shooters in the world.
The rejection letter noted:
“Non-government organizations invited to attend are IANSA members and are working towards improving the standards relating to the ownership and use of small arms in their nations. We will not be extending an invite to the WFSA to attend the meeting, as its members are not prominent supporters of the need for stronger standards to more effectively regulate private possession and use of firearms. (Emphasis added.)
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