United Nations Attack on Gun Rights Stalled
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The United Nations (UN) push for global gun control—a movement that American gun rights activists contend could lead to an attack on the Second Amendment—has been derailed, at least for now, said Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF).
Gottlieb attended the UN Conference on Small Arms in New York City which ran from June 26-July 7, and he told Gun Week that America’s constitutionally-protected individual right to keep and bear arms is safe. (See the Q&A with Gottlieb below.)
That much seemed assured after Robert G. Joseph, Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security, told the UN conference, “The US Constitution guarantees the rights of our citizens to keep and bear arms, and there will be no infringement on those rights. The United States will not agree to any provisions restricting civilian possession, use or legal trade of firearms inconsistent with our laws and practices.”
Prior to the conference, the UN was flooded with tens of thousands of complaints from American gunowners, prompting Secretary-General Kofi Annan to insist, “We are not negotiating a global ban, nor do we wish to deny law-abiding citizens their right to bear arms in accordance with their national laws.”
That doesn’t mean international gun control proponents are dead in the water. Gottlieb noted that there is a push now to control ammunition. He provided Gun Week with a copy of a book entitled Targeting Ammunition—A Primer that was circulated at the conference. The book was produced by the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva, Switzerland, an organization supported by donations from countries that support stricter civilian gun controls. Early in the book, writer Owen Greene notes that one reason controlling ammunition is important is because of “the old axiom that ‘a gun without ammunition is useless.’ ”
Joseph zeroed in on this push noting, “We are resolute in our belief that regulating ammunition is beyond the mandate of this body and would be ineffective, prohibitively costly and is best addressed elsewhere.”
He also made the US position on arming freedom fighters clear, when he noted, “We recognize the rights of the oppressed to defend themselves against tyrannical and genocidal regimes and oppose a blanket ban on non-state actors.”
However, Gottlieb warned that global anti-gunners want to keep their movement going, and they will press for another conference on small arms “in a couple of years,” perhaps anticipating a shift in Congress and the administrations (See the Hindsight column, Page 15).
Most of the non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in attendance were anti-gun, Gottlieb said. He described the philosophical atmosphere as “starting with the statue of the twisted Colt Python” in front of the UN building, and “going downhill from there.”
One of the greatest moments of irony, he said, came when the UN delegate from Iran began speaking against small arms and ammunition at a time when that country is believed to be developing nuclear weapons.
Gottlieb attended several sessions during which small groups discussed various subjects related to small arms control. He noted that American gun control organizations were represented, “but they kept a low profile.”
“They didn’t want to antagonize American gunowners,” he suggested.
He also learned that last year’s defeat of an anti-gun referendum in Brazil, which would have literally banned gun ownership in that country, was devastating to the global anti-gun movement.
“They had planned to build a campaign on what they expected to be a victory in Brazil,” he said.
While delegates with the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities (WFSA)—of which Gottlieb was one—provided several interviews with the press, anti-gun groups did not. Gottlieb expects SAF to be inducted into the World Forum during its annual meeting in September in Berlin.
The global gun control movement is an outgrowth of an effort to ban land mines. As that effort took shape, Gottlieb explained that those in charge “had to find something to do and justify their existence, and small arms got their attention.”
One of the main problems gun rights organizations face, both here and in other countries, Gottlieb explained, is that the gun control movement supporting and promoting UN gun control efforts is largely funded by foundations. And the money these foundations feed to the gun control effort is not always easy to trace, to identify exactly who is funding what.
That money pays for political activities, organizing and for slick publications. Gottlieb provided Gun Week with samples of the materials supplied during the conference by the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and others. IANSA is based in London, and is reportedly funded by globalists including anti-gun billionaire George Soros.
According to IANSA’s material, 1,000 people die every day “because of guns.” They go on to assert that “Guns are a man-made vector of disease and they are manifestly bad for human health. No country is immune.”
IANSA does not differentiate between guns used by the military and police, criminals are average citizens. According to their literature and position papers, all guns pose a global threat to humanity and must be regulated by binding treaties.
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