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Por qué la enmienda constitucional de control de armas de Gavin Newsom no ha ido más allá de California
Wednesday, June 12th, 2024Un año después de que el gobernador Gavin Newsom propusiera cambiar la Constitución de Estados Unidos para imponer nuevas restricciones a la posesión de armas, ningún otro estado se ha sumado a su campaña por una enmienda 28.
Incluso cuando Newsom continúa promocionando el esfuerzo, en gran parte a través de anuncios en las redes sociales que alientan a las personas a firmar una “petición” y donar a su comité de acción política, parece haber ganado poco impulso fuera de California. Los líderes legislativos de varios otros estados grandes controlados por demócratas dijeron a CalMatters que pedir una convención constitucional para adoptar la enmienda no ha sido tema de discusión entre sus grupos.
El portavoz de Newsom, Nathan Click, dijo que el equipo del gobernador se centró el año pasado en sentar las bases para la campaña, que planean revitalizar en 2025, cuando la mayoría de los estados comenzarán nuevas sesiones legislativas. Esto ha implicado principalmente lograr que el público invierta a través de la petición en línea, que es efectivamente una forma de ampliar la lista de correo del comité de acción política, y capacitando a los voluntarios.
“No nos hacemos ilusiones sobre lo difícil que es aprobar una enmienda constitucional, por eso nos hemos centrado en construir este ejército de base para ayudar a estos legisladores”, dijo Click. “No es sólo la presentación de un proyecto de ley. Es la presentación de un proyecto de ley y gente en el terreno que está dispuesta a luchar”.
Pero la falta de progreso hasta ahora plantea dudas sobre si Newsom está buscando seriamente la enmienda constitucional, que ha reconocido que enfrenta obstáculos abrumadores para convertirse en ley, o si se trata simplemente de un mensaje político inteligente.
A medida que el amplio marco de control de armas de California es cada vez más desmantelado en los tribunales luego de un fallo clave hace dos años, los críticos dicen que la enmienda propuesta es el intento de Newsom de remodelar un tema perdedor en algo que los partidarios puedan respaldar y al mismo tiempo mantenerlo en el escenario nacional en caso de que se postula para presidente algún día.
“Han salido del armario. Han mostrado su verdadera intención. Quieren erradicar la Segunda Enmienda, punto”, dijo Alan Gottlieb, fundador y vicepresidente ejecutivo de la Fundación de la Segunda Enmienda, quien ha presentado demandas repetidas veces para revocar las restricciones a las armas en California. “Está marcando este territorio para las primarias demócratas con miras a postularse para la Casa Blanca en el futuro. Está tratando de asumir ese cargo para que otros candidatos no puedan afirmar que son los más antiarmas”.
Devolver el control de armas ‘al mapa’
Las leyes de armas de fuego de California se encuentran entre las más estrictas del país y solo se han vuelto más estrictas bajo Newsom, un defensor desde hace mucho tiempo de las políticas de control de armas que ha firmado docenas de proyectos de ley que regulan la venta, propiedad y fabricación de armas desde que asumió el cargo en 2019.
Pero la decisión Bruen de la Corte Suprema en 2022, que anuló el estricto estándar de Nueva York sobre quién podía portar un arma oculta en público y estableció una nueva base histórica para revisar las leyes sobre armas de fuego, trastocó todo ese sistema.
Tras una avalancha de litigios por parte de grupos defensores de los derechos de las armas, en los últimos dos años los jueces han dictaminado que las leyes de California son inconstitucionales que exigen características de seguridad en las armas de fuego vendidas en el estado, limitan el número de balas en los cargadores, prohíben las armas de asalto y prohíben las armas en ciertos lugares sensibles permitirá demandas contra fabricantes de armas “anormalmente peligrosas” y prohibirá comprar más de una arma cada 30 días. La mayoría de esas decisiones, algunas de las cuales revocaron fallos anteriores que defendían las mismas leyes, están siendo apeladas por el estado.
Entonces, el 8 de junio de 2023, Newsom anunció un plan para evitar los tribunales. Su idea era lograr que los estados convocaran una convención para agregar a la Constitución de los EE. UU. cuatro restricciones sobre armas de fuego que son ampliamente populares en las encuestas públicas: verificación universal de antecedentes para la compra de armas, aumento de la edad mínima federal para todos los compradores a 21 años, exigencia de un mínimo no especificado período de espera entre la compra y la toma de posesión de un arma, y prohibición de la venta de armas de asalto.
“El gobernador Newsom no se queda de brazos cruzados mientras los jueces de derecha desmantelan nuestras leyes de seguridad de armas”, dijo Click en un comunicado. “Está tomando medidas agresivas: defiende las leyes de seguridad de armas de fuego de nuestro estado, las primeras en su clase, de ataques judiciales y, al mismo tiempo, lucha para aprobar una enmienda constitucional para consagrar la seguridad de armas en todo el país”.
Es una ruta que hoy en día podría ser incluso más difícil que lograr que el Congreso apruebe un proyecto de ley. Dos tercios de las legislaturas estatales (34 de 50) deben aceptar convocar la convención constitucional y luego cualquier texto propuesto debe ser ratificado por al menos tres cuartas partes de los estados, o 38, ya sea a través de legislación o convenciones. La última enmienda constitucional exitosa fue hace décadas.
A pesar de las preocupaciones, incluso de algunos aliados demócratas del gobernador, de que convocar una convención constitucional podría abrir la puerta para que los estados liderados por los republicanos propusieran enmiendas con prioridades conservadoras no relacionadas, la Legislatura de California obedientemente puso en marcha una resolución al final de la sesión del año pasado.
“Se suponía que esto lo pondría en el mapa y lo mantendría en el mapa”, dijo el asambleísta Reggie Jones-Sawyer, un demócrata de Los Ángeles que guió la resolución en la Asamblea.
Los estados demócratas no se apresuran a unirse a California
Sin embargo, ningún otro estado ha hecho lo mismo en el año transcurrido desde entonces, incluidos 19 donde los demócratas controlan ambas cámaras de la legislatura.
Click señaló que muchos de esos estados tienen legislaturas a tiempo parcial que no volverán a reunirse hasta el próximo año, después de las elecciones de noviembre. Dijo que el equipo de Newsom ha estado trabajando con legisladores de otros estados para presentar resoluciones en 2025, aunque se negó a proporcionar detalles.
“Dada la naturaleza, no estamos tratando de alertar a la oposición”, dijo.
Sin embargo, estados controlados por los demócratas como Nueva York, Illinois, Michigan, Massachusetts y Hawaii celebraron sesiones este año, sin convocar una convención constitucional sobre control de armas.
CalMatters se puso en contacto con las oficinas de los líderes legislativos en esos cinco estados para preguntar si sus grupos habían considerado el plan de Newsom. Muchos no respondieron a numerosas preguntas, pero los representantes del presidente de la Asamblea de Nueva York, Carl Heastie, el presidente del Senado de Illinois, Don Harmon, el presidente de la Cámara de Representantes de Illinois, Emanuel Chris Welch, y el presidente de la Cámara de Representantes de Michigan, Joe Tate, dijeron que no se había discutido y que no estaban al tanto de cualquier acercamiento del equipo de Newsom.
Los acontecimientos recientes en Nueva York y Pensilvania también ilustran los desafíos políticos que plantea la aplicación de la estrategia de la convención constitucional, tanto desde la izquierda, donde existe una desconfianza de larga data en el sistema, como desde la derecha, donde la mayoría de las políticas de control de armas son anatema para los republicanos.
En marzo, la Legislatura de Nueva York votó a favor de rescindir varias resoluciones históricas que pedían convenciones constitucionales, que se remontaban a 1789, lo que refleja los temores de los activistas progresistas de que los conservadores pudieran utilizar ese proceso para socavar los derechos democráticos. Docenas de estados liderados por republicanos han aprobado previamente resoluciones que buscan una convención constitucional para adoptar una enmienda presupuestaria equilibrada.
En Pensilvania, el único estado con un control partidista dividido de su legislatura, un portavoz de la presidenta demócrata de la Cámara de Representantes, Joanna McClinton, dijo que su grupo había dado prioridad a la legislación sobre seguridad de armas.
“Desafortunadamente, nuestros esfuerzos han sido bloqueados por el Senado estatal liderado por los republicanos, donde dos proyectos de ley bipartidistas sobre seguridad de armas han estado estancados durante más de un año”, escribió Nicole Reigelman en un correo electrónico, “por lo que cualquier consideración de una convención constitucional aquí probablemente enfrentaría una oposición similar de la mayoría republicana del Senado”.
Newsom continúa anunciando su plan
Los grupos nacionales de defensa del control de armas no se han sumado a impulsar el esfuerzo de Newsom y parecen mantenerse distanciados de la idea.
A pesar de aplaudir con frecuencia el apoyo del gobernador a la nueva legislación de control de armas y asistir a sus ceremonias de firma, ninguno fue citado en un comunicado de prensa elogiando la propuesta, publicado por su oficina días después del lanzamiento de la campaña el año pasado. Everytown for Gun Safety y Brady: United Against Gun Violence declinaron o no respondieron a solicitudes de entrevistas sobre cómo encaja en su estrategia.
No obstante, Newsom ha seguido animando a sus seguidores a implicarse en la campaña.
“Si el Congreso y los tribunales no toman medidas para ayudar a que nuestras comunidades estén más seguras frente a la violencia armada, entonces nosotros, el pueblo, debemos hacerlo nosotros mismos”, dijo en un anuncio reciente en las redes sociales instando a la gente a firmar su petición. “Es un pequeño gesto que puede tener un gran impacto cuando muchos de nosotros lo hacemos juntos”.
Más de un millón de personas se inscribieron el año pasado, dijo Click, y la campaña ha capacitado a más de 1,500 de ellas sobre cómo pueden ayudar en sus estados. Planean capacitar a 10,000 voluntarios a principios de 2025, cuando comiencen las presentaciones de resoluciones.
Gottlieb, de la Fundación de la Segunda Enmienda, dijo que la propuesta de Newsom ha logrado más para los oponentes, que han utilizado su herramienta de recaudación de fondos para movilizar a los propietarios de armas, que para la seguridad de las armas.
No le sorprendió que el llamado a una convención constitucional no haya ganado fuerza fuera de California, especialmente en un año electoral, argumentando que el control de armas no es tan popular como otras prioridades demócratas como el derecho al aborto, particularmente en áreas rurales y estados en disputa.
“No creo que el tema del control de armas no les guste a los demócratas, pero simplemente no pueden dejarlo de lado”, dijo. “Son como un perro con un hueso en la boca”.
SAF TRAVEL ADVISORY: AVOID TURKS AND CAICOS ISLANDS
Wednesday, April 24th, 2024BELLEVUE, WA – To all U.S. gun owners Do Not Travel to the Turks and Caicos Islands, a British Overseas Territory located southeast of the Bahamas, and if you have already made plans, reconsider your destination.
SUMMARY: Since November 2022, at least eight American tourists have faced “firearms prosecutions” for inadvertently having ammunition in their luggage. In the past, tourists had been able to pay a fine, but as of a judge’s ruling in February of this year, violators are subject to severe prison time.
Firearms and ammunition are strictly forbidden in Turks and Caicos. The U.S. Embassy in the Bahamas last September issued this warning to travelers: “Firearms, ammunition, and other weapons are not permitted in the Turks and Caicos Islands (TCI). TCI authorities strictly enforce all firearms related laws. The penalty for traveling to TCI with a firearm, ammunition, or other weapon is a minimum custodial sentence of twelve (12) years.”
The advisory also stated, “We wish to remind all travelers that declaring a weapon in your luggage with an airline carrier does not grant permission to bring the weapon into TCI and will result in your arrest.
“We strongly encourage you to carefully check your luggage for stray ammunition or forgotten weapons before departing for TCI. If you bring a firearm or ammunition into TCI, we will not be able to secure your release from custody. You are subject to TCI laws and must follow local law enforcement procedures.”
Finland has announced it will open 300 shooting ranges in a bid to encourage citizens to take a greater interest in national defence.
Monday, February 19th, 2024A member of Finland’s defence committee said the move would help Finns improve their shooting skills in the face of increased threats from Russia.
Under the Finnish constitution, every male aged between 18 and 60 must complete national army service but the government hopes that civilians will keep their weapons skills after the period of conscription with the new range proposals.
Jukka Kopra, the Finnish politician, said: “The present government aims to increase the number of shooting ranges in Finland from roughly 600-700 up to 1,000.
Increase because of Finnish defence model
“This is because of our defence model, which benefits from people having and developing their shooting skills on their own.”
In 2023, Finland’s new Right-wing coalition agreed plans to increase the number of ranges to 1,000 nationwide by the end of the decade, as well as plans to allow diabetics to serve in the army and encourage more women to join up.
There are currently around 600 ranges in Finland, compared with 2,000 at the turn of the 21st century.
A spokesman for Finland’s defence ministry said it was working to “safeguard the activities of Finland’s shooting ranges and promote the establishment of new shooting ranges”.
In a statement to The Guardian, the spokesman added: “The environmental permit processes and legislation concerning shooting ranges will be streamlined.
“The target for the number of outdoor shooting ranges will be about 1,000 by the end of the decade. The focus will be on establishing a sufficient number of rifle and tactical ranges throughout the country.”
Brazil: Senate Moves to Challenge Socialist President’s Extreme Gun Control Decree
Thursday, July 27th, 2023Brazilian Senator Luis Carlos Heinze introduced a bill on Monday that seeks to suspend the new “Responsible Gun Control” decree issued by radical leftist President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva last week.
Lula’s gun control decree rolls back policies implemented during the administration of former President Jair Bolsonaro. It forbids citizens from obtaining certain types of firearms, reduces the total number of firearms that a civilian can purchase, and decreases the duration of firearm permits. The decree also limits the amount of ammunition that citizens can purchase per year and imposes restrictions on shooting clubs, hunters, marksmen, and firearm collectors.
The decree also establishes a series of guidelines to transfer authority over the regulation and inspection of civilian firearms from the Brazilian army to the federal police, granting the police force exclusive power over civilian activities involving weapons and ammunition in the country alongside Brazil’s Justice and Public Security Ministry.
“That is why we will continue to fight for a disarmed country,” Lula said last week during the signing of the new decree. “It is the Brazilian police who have to be well armed, it is the Brazilian armed forces who have to be well armed.”
According to the senator, the decree “violates several constitutional and legal provisions,” while going beyond the powers attributed to the executive branch of government. The senator also argued that the decree “ignores shooting as a sporting practice” by reducing the amount of purchasable ammunition per year.
“The text transfers duties from the Army to the Federal Police, totally outside the Disarmament Statute,” Heinze said. “The Lula government is going against the wishes of the population. The 2005 referendum shows that 63.94 percent of Brazilians voted against disarmament. The popular will must be respected.”
The senator’s statements refer to a national referendum held in 2005, during Lula’s first presidential term, in which Brazilian citizens voted overwhelmingly against banning gun and ammunition sales. About 64 percent voted againt doing so, while about 36 percent supported the move.
The decree signed by Lula last week forbids civilians from legally obtaining 9mm, .40, and .45 Automatic Colt Pistols (ACP), as well as semi-automatic smoothbore firearms, overturning Bolsonaro’s policies that allowed for the sale of those types of firearms to citizens. The Brazilian government announced that it will implement a buyback program for the now banned firearms this year.
Heinze also criticized the Brazilian federal government’s attempt to disarm the population without presenting projects for public safety.
“What we have today is a Minister of Justice who is, all the time, on the platform and does not present results,” Heinze said when presenting the bill. “It is necessary to act with due seriousness.”
Reversing Bolsonaro’s flexibilization of firearm access for Brazilian citizens was one of Lula da Silva’s sterner campaign promises. In January, the radical leftist president began to roll back Bolsonaro’s gun-related policies within the first hours of his third presidential term.
Heinze’s bill accuses Lula of violating the Brazilian Disarmament Statute bt stripping the army of its regulatory functions over civilian firearms and transferring them to the Federal Police. Heinze also argued that the decree constitutes an “illegal intervention of the government in an economic activity, which generates jobs and helps in the growth of the Gross Domestic Product.”
“The ban on the sale of weapons, ammunition and supplies for reloading throughout the national territory will harm thousands of entrepreneurs, importers and the industry itself,” Heinze stated.
The Senator introduced a similar bill in January that sought to reverse Lula’s initial limitations on Bolsonaro’s gun policies.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Brazil: Lula tightens gun control amid surge in ownership
Monday, July 24th, 2023Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has signed an order to tighten gun controls in a bid to halt a surge in firearm ownership.
Under Lula’s far-right predecessor, Jair Bolsonaro, there was an almost seven-fold rise in registered users.
Limits will be placed on stockpiles of guns and ammunition, while certain weapons, including nine millimetre handguns, will be prohibited.
The new controls fulfil a campaign promise by Lula.
The president blamed a wave of political violence during last year’s presidential election on looser gun controls.
“We will continue to fight for fewer weapons in our country. Only the police and the army must be well-armed,” Lula said while unveiling the new stricter measures.
The announcement comes after several recent school shootings in a country that registered more than five murders per hour on average in 2022, according to the Public Security Forum, an NGO.
Brazil has almost 800,000 registered gun owners, up from less than 120,000 in 2018 when Mr Bolsonaro was elected, according to the 2023 Brazilian Yearbook of Public Security.
The country has no constitutional right to bear arms.
But under an executive decree passed by Mr Bolsonaro in 2019 Brazilians were entitled to own up to four guns, while others were granted permission to carry loaded firearms in public under certain conditions.
The decree also raised the amount of ammunition people could buy from 50 to 5,000 cartridges for permitted weapons and up to 1,000 cartridges for use in restricted weapons.
The new restrictions will see a registered hunter granted permission to own six weapons, instead of the previous 30 – including up to 15 restricted firearms.
“It is one thing for a citizen to have a gun at home for protection and assurance … but we cannot allow there to be arsenals of weapons in people’s hands,” Lula said in his speech.
Supervision of civilian weapons is being transferred from the army to Brazil’s federal police, after criticism of weak oversight.
Gun owners who bought their weapons under Mr Bolsonaro will not be forced to give them up, but a buyback program could start this year.
Mr Bolsonaro argues that guns make Brazil safer, pointing to a lower murder rate during his time in office.
The former president has been barred from running for office for eight years after being found guilty of abusing his power ahead of last year’s presidential poll.
He had been accused of undermining Brazilian democracy by falsely claiming that the electronic ballots used were vulnerable to hacking and fraud.
The bitterly fought election went into a run-off on 30 October and was won by a narrow margin by Lula.
Mr Bolsonaro never publicly acknowledged his defeat and left Brazil for Florida two days before Lula was sworn in as president.
The former president’s supporters, who refused to accept the outcome of the election, stormed Brazil’s Congress, the presidential palace and the building housing the Supreme Court on 8 January.
Gun ownership went up. Killings went down. Brazil debates why.
Friday, December 23rd, 2022BALNEÁRIO CAMBORIÚ, Brazil — Take away the açaí smoothies and the skewers of barbecued Brazilian meat and the four-day Texas ExpoTiro herecould be a gun show anywhere in the United States.
Firearms dealers from all over the world have rented booths to market Glock pistols and AR-15s, and gun rights advocates are offering lectures on how to confront violent urban crime.
“This is a triumph of liberty!” said retired military police chief Marcelo Venera, the executive director of the two-year-old expo, the largest gun show in the country and the first open to civilians. “We are here to show that we are good people and there is nothing wrong with loving guns!”
The gun owners of Brazil are proclaiming victory these days. Private gun ownership, once tightly restricted in Latin America’s largest country, has grown at least sixfold in the four years since President Jair Bolsonaro began relaxing the rules.
What’s more, gun enthusiasts say, it’s working: The homicide rate in Brazil — one of the world’s most violent countries — has fallen more than 27 percent since 2017.
“Everyone said there would be more homicides when Bolsonaro loosened the restrictions,” said Paulo da Silva, 25, attending the gun show with friends. “But it turned out to be the opposite!”
Not so fast, criminologists say. They’ve spent the past four years trying to understand the unexpected decline — and say it has little to do with Bolsonaro or his decrees.
Private gun ownership still remains tightly restricted in Brazil, as compared with the United States, and the majority of the population says civilians should not be allowed to own firearms. But the changes here have fueled a new debate over the benefits and harms of allowing more access.
Research consistently shows that when private gun ownership goes up, killings follow. Analysts say it’s too early to draw conclusions from what they’re calling a global test case for what happens when strict gun rules are suddenly lifted. But many say the drop here has more to do with organized-crime trends, investment in policing and demographics.
Much violent crime in Brazil, and homicides in particular, stems from turf battles between the well-armed drug cartels that control favelas, or slums, throughout the country. The victims are predominantly poor young men of color. In 2017, a major war between the country’s two biggest cartels drovegun-related homicides to record levels.
But since then, conflict between First Capital Command and Red Command has calmed considerably, said Roberto Uchôa, a former federal police officer and member of the Brazilian Public Security Forum. First Capital Command now dominates São Paulo, Brazil’s most populous state. In Rio de Janeiro, Red Command now clashes mostly with militias run by police, not rival gangs. As a result, the country’s northeast, ground zero for the groups’ 2017 war for new territory, has quieted.
Bolsonaro has also reaped the benefits of a decade of investment in policing, said Isabel Figueiredo, also a member of the Brazilian Public Security Forum, a nonprofit research group that has advocated for tougher gun laws. Presidents Dilma Rousseff and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva professionalized local police forces and improved data collection and training, leading to a steady drop in homicides in several states. Lula, who was president from 2003 to 2010, defeated Bolsonaro in October to win a third term; he takes office in January.
Brazil’s aging population is also a factor, analysts said. Roughly half of homicide victims here are between 12 and 29 years old. A decade ago, that age group represented 31 percent of the population. Today it represents roughly 27 percent. There’s no comprehensive data on the age of perpetrators, but criminologists say victims and perpetrators tend to be the same age. Demographically, older Brazilians are aging out of crime faster than younger ones are aging in.
In the United States, decades of research has found a strong correlation between gun ownership and homicide rates, suicides, accidental shootings and shootings by law enforcement. Every 1 percent increase in firearm ownership is associated with a 0.6 percent increase in overall homicide rates and a 0.9 percent increase in firearm homicide rates, according to Daniel W. Webster, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and co-director of its Center for Gun Violence Solutions.
Gun ownership in Brazil is far more limited than in the United States, where there’s more than one gun per person. In Brazil, there are more than 48 people per gun.
Still fewer Brazilians are allowed to carry guns outside the home. Violence is linked more closely to carrying than to ownership.
Webster called the belief that arming more civilians makes society safer “a fantasy that is put forward by the gun lobby” — and is not grounded in any data.
The Brazilian Public Security Forum found that 6,000 deaths could have been prevented if Bolsonaro had not made guns more accessible.
The Instituto Sou da Paz, a Sao Paulo-based nongovernmental organization that advocates for gun control, notes that school shootings, still rare here, have become more frequent since 2019. Of the 12 school shootings here since 2002, five have occurred in the past four years.
Suicides are up 29 percent since 2017, according to public data; Figueiredo and other analysts here believe this is related to the spike in gun ownership. Brazil does not compile data on accidental shootings or shootingsby law enforcement.
“This drop in homicides is really, really big,” Figueiredo said. “But it has nothing to do with Bolsonaro’s policies. If anything, his policies have cost thousands of lives.”
At Texas ExpoTiro —Venera says he and his wife named the gun show for America’s “most gun-loving state” — the firearm fans see it differently. The conservative southern state of Santa Catarina is Bolsonaro country; it delivered the third-highest percentage of votes for the incumbent in the October election.
In another echo of the United States, many here claim that the electionwas “stolen” and that Lula is a criminal who won’t actually assume the presidency on Jan. 1.
Andin a country where police cannot always be trusted to respond effectively, Santa Catarina is also a place where people say they believe they should be able to take personal safety into their own hands. Gun rights advocates, including Bolsonaro himself, say reducing controls on guns has turned Brazil into a far safer place for its 215 million citizens. Bolsonaro’s son Eduardo made the argument this year in a speech at a gun show in California, evidence of growing ties between right-wing movements in the two countries.
“What’s happened with firearms is the same as what happened with the microwave oven,” said Juliana Lopes, a military police major and shooting instructor. “It entered people’s homes … and has become a survival tool.”
Since Bolsonaro took office, the number of shooting clubs here has doubled to more than 2,000. A new lobbying group modeled on the National Rifle Association just got its president elected to Congress. Online, an emerging generation of gun rights influencers has garnered hundreds of thousands of followers. The stock price of Taurus, Brazil’s largest gun manufacturer, went up 200 percent.
Lula’s advisers have said he plans to reverse many of Bolsonaro’s decrees. But they have also acknowledged that once you recognize rights, it is difficult to take them away.
Paulo Bonoso attended the gun show with his wife, Erika, and friends. Seven or eight years ago, the 43-year-old oceanographer said, he was opposed to civilians owning guns. He said Brazilians had been “brainwashed” into hating guns — evensales of realistic-looking toy guns, he noted, are banned.
Then he started to “open” his mind, he said, reading the writings of conservative Brazilian philosopher and self-defense advocate Olavo de Carvalho and questioning conventional wisdom. He became interested in getting a firearm. But before Bolsonaro, he said, it was “too much of a hassle” to buy one.
Bolsonaro’s changes, delivered in nearly three dozen presidential decrees, included reducing taxes on imported weapons, allowing civilians to purchase assault rifles and increasing the number of firearms registered sport shooters could own from 16 to 60.
He also dropped a rule requiring would-be purchasers to justify their need for a firearm to their local police department. Previously, a civilian who wanted to buy a gun needed to submit an application that substantiated their personal level of risk — describing in detail whether they lived in a condominium complex with a doorman or a secure gate, for example. Police had wide discretion on whether to grant or deny the license.
“You could go through this exhausting and expensive process, only to hear a ‘no’ at the end of it,” Bonoso said. “Because some sheriff decided your home was too safe.”
In 2020, Paulo, Erika and their two school-age sons moved from Rio Janeiro, where they say Erika was robbed 16 times, to a familybeach house in Santa Catarina. They began to buy guns — a Taurus revolver, pistol and shotgun and a Glock G17 semiautomatic for him; a Taurus G2C pistol and a couple of revolvers for her. They were planning to buy an AR-15, T4 or other type of semiautomatic when the Brazilian government blocked sales of semiautomatic weapons in September, citing heightened risk during the election period.
Several expo attendees said they needed a gun because they live in a rural area where the police presence is minimal. Others said they just like them. In a region populated by many people of German descent, they said, guns have long been part of the local culture. Lula, they said, suppressed the will of the people when he tried to prohibit civilians from owning guns entirely in 2005. He didn’t get thefull ban, but lawmakers ended up passing some of the most stringent gun regulations in the world.
Many said they admire the gun culture of the United States — the expo even included a talk on guns in Texas delivered by a member of the Houston-based Brazil-Texas Chamber of Commerce.
Still, a dozen people interviewed at the gun show by The Washington Post said they appreciated that Brazil continues to place far more restrictions on would-be buyers than the United States does. Brazilians must show proof of income and a residence where the firearms must be located. They must undergo a basic psychological evaluation and register with the police and a shooting club.
Brazilians still have more restrictions on carrying guns outside the home. Gun owners are allowed to carry a gun only if they are on their way to a shooting club. Webster said gun homicides and accidental deaths in the United States are tied more closely to carrying than to possession.
Another key difference: Guns are roughly three times as expensive in Brazil as in the United States, which makes private ownership primarily an enthusiasm of people with higher incomes.
U.S. citizens owned more than 393 million firearms in 2018,or 1.2 per person,according to the Small Arms Survey, a Geneva-based research organization. Brazilians owned 4.4 million in 2021, or 0.02 per person, according to the Security Forum.
The United States has a much more“developed” gun culture than Brazil, Venera said. Brazilians aren’t ready to drop the restrictions altogether, he said, but he hopes they will be soon: “You just can’t give a car to someone who can’t drive.”
Venera is not concerned that legal gun sales will help arm the cartels. Criminals have always had guns, he said, and they prefer automatic weapons. “Only civilians couldn’t defend themselves,” he said.
The Instituto Sou da Paz reported this year that most of the 33,000 firearms used in crimes in São Paulo state between 2011 and 2020 were purchased legally. Uchôa says that drug traffickers do generally prefer fully automatic weapons, which remain illegal here, but that street criminals tend to use revolvers and handguns because they are easier to conceal.
The flowering of gun culture here has prompted the Bonosos to open a shooting club in their small beach town of Imbituba. Inspired by the American West, they are calling the club Comanche, after the Native American tribe of the southern Great Plains. The club is set to open next month, at the same time as Lula’s inauguration.
But now, after 18 months preparing for the launch, they worry that the new president will clamp down again.
“We could lose our rights and be sent back to zero,” he said.
Germany to tighten gun laws after suspected coup plot, interior minister says
Monday, December 12th, 2022BERLIN, Dec 11 (Reuters) – Germany plans to tighten its gun laws in the wake of a suspected plot by a far-right group to violently overthrow the government and install a minor royal as national leader, its interior minister said in an interview published on Sunday.
German police last week arrested 25 people suspected of involvement in the plot, which has shocked many in one of Europe’s most stable democracies.
Prosecutors allege that many of the suspects were members of the “Reichsbuerger” (Citizens of the Reich) movement, which does not believe in the existence of the modern German state, according to prosecutors.
Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, in an interview with “Bild am Sonntag” newspaper, warned that the Reichsbuerger represented a rising threat to Germany given it had expanded by 2,000 to 23,000 people in the past year.
“These are not harmless crazy people but suspected terrorists who are now sitting in pre-trial detention,” Faeser was quoted as saying.
Prosecutors have said the suspects included individuals with weapons and knowledge of how to use them. They had attempted to recruit current and former army members and had stockpiled weapons.
“We need all authorities to exert maximum pressure” to remove their weapons, Faeser was quoted as saying, which was why the government would “shortly further tighten gun laws”.
Prior to the raids, authorities had already confiscated weapons from more than 1,000 Reichsbuerger members. However, at least another 500 are still believed to hold gun licenses in a country where the private possession of firearms is rare.
The fact senior civil service members – such as former lawmaker and Berlin judge Birgit Malsack-Winkemann – were among those arrested on suspicion of plotting has particularly shaken many in Germany.
Jochen Lober, the lawyer who defended her in a legal case in October where the Berlin government tried to force her to retire as judge, declined to comment on her arrest.
The Berlin branch of the far-right Alternative for Germany party, of which she is a member, said it did not know which lawyer was representing her and could not comment on her specific case until the investigation yielded results.
The interior ministry also wants to tighten disciplinary procedure for civil service members so it can more quickly fire them or withdraw their pension in the case of serious misconduct, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. At the moment such procedures can last for years.
ÉTATS-UNIS: LE LOBBY DES ARMES LOUE UN “HÉROS” QUI A ABATTU UN TIREUR DANS UN CENTRE COMMERCIAL
Tuesday, July 19th, 2022Un jeune américain a tué dimanche un homme de 30 ans et un couple attablé dans un espace de restauration et fait deux blessés, avant d’être abattu parun client de 22 ans qui portait un pistolet sans permis comme l’y autorise depuis peu la loi locale.
Le lobby américain des armes a salué lundi les actes “héroïques” d’un civil qui, avec son pistolet, a abattu un tueur dans un centre commercial, s’emparant de cet événement pour promouvoir sa cause en dépit des statistiques montrant les effets dévastateurs de la prolifération des armes à feu.
Dimanche soir, Jonathan Sapirman, un jeune homme de 20 ans dont le mobile reste inconnu, a ouvert le feu avec un fusil semi-automatique dans les travées d’une galerie commerciale de l’Indiana.
Une histoire récupérée par le puissant lobby NRA
Il a tué un homme de 30 ans et un couple attablé dans un espace de restauration et fait deux blessés, avant d’être abattu par Elisjsha Dicken, un client de 22 ans qui portait un pistolet sans permis comme l’y autorise depuis peu la loi locale.
“Beaucoup plus de gens seraient morts la nuit dernière si ce citoyen armé et responsable n’avait pas réagi très vite, deux minutes après les premiers tirs”, a déclaré le chef de la police de Greenwood, James Ison, lors d’une conférence de presse.
Le tireur, qui semble avoir préparé ses actes puisqu’il a noyé son téléphone dans les toilettes et brûlé son ordinateur dans un four avant de passer à l’acte, disposait en effet d’un second fusil d’assaut, d’un pistolet et de nombreuses munitions, a-t-il révélé.
Le puissant lobby National Rifle Association (NRA) s’est immédiatement saisi de ce drame pour réaffirmer qu’armer la population était bon pour la sécurité publique. “Nous le redisons: la seule façon d’arrêter une mauvaise personne armée est d’armer une bonne personne”, a-t-il tweeté.
Le serpent de mer des armes à feu aux États-Unis
Une autre association de défense du droit au port d’armes, le CCRKBA, a repris le même credo: “Nous portons des armes pour nous défendre et défendre les autres face aux criminels et aux fous”, a déclaré son patron Alan Gottlieb dans un communiqué.
“Soyons clairs: si les armes renforçaient notre sécurité, l’Amérique serait le pays le plus sûr au monde”, a rétorqué Kris Brown, présidente de l’association Brady Campaign, qui milite pour un meilleur encadrement des armes à feu.
Dans la même veine, Shannon Watts, fondatrice de l’organisation Moms Demand Action, a reproduit des graphiques plaçant les Etats-Unis en tête des pays développés en termes d’armes par habitant mais aussi de morts par arme à feu.
Plus d’armes en circulation que de personnes aux États-Unis
Près de 400 millions d’armes étaient en circulation dans la population civile aux Etats-Unis en 2017, soit 120 armes pour 100 personnes, selon le projet Small Arms Survey.
Plus de 24.000 personnes ont été tuées par balle depuis le début de l’année, dont 13.000 par suicide, d’après le site Gun Violence Archive, qui a recensé sur la période 354 fusillades ayant fait au moins quatre victimes.SUR LE MÊME SUJET
Plusieurs d’entre elles, dans une école du Texas ou un supermarché fréquenté par des Afro-Américains, ont particulièrement choqué le pays, dont les élus ont, pour la première fois en 30 ans, réussi à s’entendre en juin sur une – modeste – réforme des lois sur les armes.
H.G. avec AFP
SAF Urges Support of Ukrainian Gun Owners
Monday, February 28th, 2022“The whole world is watching, but gun owners around the world can actually be helping,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation. “We’re calling on our fellow gun owners and rights activists to support Zbroya, the Ukranian Gun Owners Association (UGOA).
UGOA is a member organization of the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights(IAPCAR), which SAF spearheaded and helped organize more than a decade ago. Now, more than ever, gun owners in Ukraine are in dire need of support, because civilian arms rights has never been more important in that nation.
“Our brother and sister gun owners in the Ukraine are fighting for their lives,” Gottlieb said, “and now is the time for gun owners across the country and around the world to step up and help them in their hour of need.”
Contributions may be made directly to UGOA by visiting the Zbroya page at the IAPCAR website, Gottlieb noted. Open the page and in the upper right hand corner, click on the red “Donate” icon, and follow instructions.
“When IAPCAR was founded,” Gottlieb recalled, “we stressed the importance of civilian arms rights because when a nation is threatened with its very existence, responsibility for that nation’s defense invariably falls to the people, the patriots willing to take up arms and stand on the front lines of freedom.
“If anyone wonders why the right to keep and bear arms is so important,” he observed, “they only need to watch the evening news for the answer. More than 200 years ago, our fledgling nation had to fight for its very existence. Times have changed, but for the people of Ukraine, the circumstances are very much the same. This young nation is battling raw aggression, and that fight involves our fellow gun owners. It’s time to do more than just sit and watch this tragedy unfold on television. Help us help our friends and allies in Ukraine.”
Donations may be made here.
Czechs To Allow Gun Ownership For Self-Defense
Thursday, July 22nd, 2021By Tom Knighton
In far too many places and far too many minds, self-defense isn’t a valid reason to own a gun. Hunting is apparently fine, but defending yourself against a predator? Not so much.
This thinking is especially common in Europe, where gun ownership is heavily restricted. I mean, as bad as we think Massachusetts or New Jersey is, Europe has it worse.
Yet in the Czech Republic, they’re at least accepting that self-defense is a valid reason to want to own a gun.
Prague, Jul 21 (EFE).- The Czech Parliament approved Wednesday a constitutional amendment recognizing the right to use arms in self-defense and to protect others, bucking the trend of stricter gun regulation in the European Union, CT24 television reported.
The upper house ratified the new article of the constitution, which had already passed the lower house.
The amendment states that “the right to defend one’s life or the life of others, even with the use of weapons, is guaranteed.”
This runs counter to the anti-gun rights push we’ve seen in much of the rest of the European Union.
It should also be noted that unlike much of Europe, the Czech Republic has a concealed carry permit system in place. While the country requires licenses to possess a firearm, they actually issue those licenses to some as young as 15 (not the concealed carry license, though). It’s actually not bad by European standards.
Now, let’s be clear. While I applaud the Czech Republic for this move, they still really have a lot of work left to do. Requiring licenses, for example, is ridiculous. It’s damn sure nothing any gun rights supporter in the US would tolerate, that’s for sure.
But this isn’t the United States.
For Europe, this is huge. Understanding that the right to self-defense is an inherent right of all human beings is absolutely an essential step in recognizing the inherent right for all human beings to keep and bear arms. What the Czech Republic is doing here is potentially laying a foundation that can be built upon.
The biggest obstacle they’ll face is the European Union, which doesn’t permit member states to have true gun rights recognition. Nations like the Czech Republic would need to leave the Union in order to do that.
However, it sounds like they’re already bumping up to the imposed limits and may keep pushing. That’s a very good thing, of course, and the European Union could use a good wake-up call on this.
Crime doesn’t stop because you take away a tool the bad guys like. At most, you force them to use a different tool.
In the process, though, you take away what may be the only tool their potential victims could potentially use to protect themselves. Maybe the Czech Republic can push the rest of Europe to wake the hell up and recognize that gun rights are human rights.
Then again, the European Union hasn’t really shown me that they actually respect any real, fundamental human right to speak of, so why would this be any different?
Biden considera endurecer el control de armas tras dos últimos tiroteos
Wednesday, March 24th, 2021Una acción ejecutiva para endurecer el control de armas pudiera ser ejecutada por la administración estadounidense a raíz de dos tiroteos ocurridos en días recientes. Desde la Casa Blanca aseguran que el tema está en discusión, aunque no hay fecha concreta de la puesta en marcha.
«Eso ha estado en discusión y seguirá estando en discusión», fue la afirmación hecha a los medios por la portavoz de la Casa Blanca, Jen Psaki. Enmarcado en los planes de la nueva administración, desde la Cámara de Representantes aprobaron a mediados de marzo dos proyectos de ley destinados a fortalecer las leyes de armas. Ahora estas deberán pasar por el Senado.
Uno de los proyectos amplía el período de verificaciones de antecedentes, de 3 días a 20. La modificación surgió porque la ley actual, estipula que la venta de armas puede continuar si una verificación de antecedentes demora más de tres días.
Joe Biden se pronunció después del tiroteo —en un supermercado de Colorado— que dejó 10 muertos., entre ellos, un agente de policía. Aún se desconocen los motivos del tiroteo y las autoridades ya supervisaron la casa del sospechoso, según el reporte de France 24. Esto reforzó la idea de la Casa Blanca para considerar nuevas medidas.
¿Control o más derechos de armas?
Expertos en el tema indicaron a Fox News que Biden podría endurecer el control de armas sin necesidad de acudir al Congreso, usando su autoridad para limitar el comercio.
El presidente de EEUU podría recurrir a esta medida si el arma de fuego, el cargador o la munición se están importando, dijo a ese medio Alan Gottlieb, fundador de la Fundación de la Segunda Enmienda.
Las últimas medidas tomadas desde el Congreso han recibido el respaldo parcial de la bancada republicana. Ocho republicanos de la Cámara baja respaldaron el segundo proyecto de ley que ampliaría los requisitos de verificación de antecedentes a las armas compradas a través de Internet, en ferias de armas o mediante otras transacciones privadas.
Pero también surgen voces detractores. Por ejemplo, la Asociación Nacional del Rifle denunció la acción de la Cámara al aprobar los proyectos, defendiendo que deberían aprobarse medidas de derechos de armas, de acuerdo al portal NPR.
«Estos proyectos de ley son un intento transparente de los defensores del control de armas en el Congreso para restringir los derechos de los estadounidenses respetuosos de la ley con el pretexto de abordar la cultura criminal violenta en Estados Unidos», afirmó Jason Ouimet, directivo de la asociación.
Incidentes en Colorado y Atlanta
El tiroteo en Colorado ocurrió en un supermercado de Boulder. Las autoridades rodearon el supermercado media hora después de los primeros disparos, buscando comunicarse con el atacante. Posteriormente se lo llevaron esposado.
En Atlanta había ocurrido otro incidente seis días antes. Ocho personas murieron cuando un hombre abrió fuego en un negocios de masajes. El sospechoso fue detenido a unos 240 kilómetros al sur de Atlanta, pocas horas después de los tiroteos, señaló el informe de The New York Times.
El asunto de las armas cobra más fuerza en Estados Unidos dado estos últimos hechos. Dependerá del gobierno estadounidense decidir cómo manejarlo, tomando en cuenta los argumentos alrededor del escabroso tema.
Portuguese Gun Rights Group Joins Growing International Coalition Against Gun Control
Tuesday, May 7th, 2019The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) announced today that Portuguese gun rights group Associação Nacional da Arma de Portugal (ANARMA) have joined the international coalition of 33 associations in 23 countries dedicated to defending civilian firearms rights.
ANARMA’s membership in the civilian arms rights coalition expands the European membership to twelve groups from ten different EU and non-EU countries.
“We’re on the side of everyday people in all countries that wish to exercise their right to use firearms for legitimate purposes, including self-defense,” The Second Amendment Foundation’s founder Alan Gottlieb who serves as IAPCAR’s President said. “We’re very pleased to have ANARMA as our newest ally in the fight against extremist groups and individuals attempting to diminish firearms and self-defense rights.”
Blake Jardim, ANARMA’s President recently issued a statement about his organization joining IAPCAR.
“As a Portuguese gun rights association, we are very proud to be a member-association of IAPCAR due to its long history of being a staunch defender of the right to keep and bear arms throughout the world. We shall stand side by side with other national associations in order to effectively oppose all anti-gun legislation that may be proposed by transnational bodies such as the United Nations or the European Union.”
IAPCAR and its affiliates have opposed restrictive EU firearms regulations. They have organized tens of thousands of individuals across Europe in opposition to the new restrictions.
IAPCAR Director Julianne Versnel, who is also the Second Amendment Foundation’s Director of Operations, has submitted testimony as well as testified at the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) meetings objecting to the exclusion of civilian arms rights from the ATT. “Nothing that is in an Arms Trade Treaty should affect a woman’s right to defend herself,” Versnel told the delegates.
The IAPCAR civilian arms rights coalition is focused on opposition to the ATT, which has passed the U.N. General Assembly and was made available for countries to sign on. The ATT does not acknowledge or protect civilian arms rights or recognize the right to self-defense in its enforceable language.
The United States just withdrew from the U. N. Arms Trade Treaty with was never ratified by the United States Senate as required by the U.S. Constitution.
Gun control advocates warn ‘chain reaction’ eroding Howard’s gun laws
Tuesday, August 15th, 2017John Howard’s gun laws are collapsing, gun control advocates say, as they compile a stocktake on states and territories’ compliance with the National Firearms Agreement.
The agreement — which is non-binding, and underpinned by state and territory firearms laws — was negotiated by the then prime minister in 1996 after 35 people died in the Port Arthur massacre.
Preliminary findings from Gun Control Australia’s report on the issue indicate a “chain reaction” has been speeding up since 2008. The organisation’s chair, Samantha Lee, told the ABC that changes often began with gun lobby wins in NSW.
“As one of the bigger states passes laws to water down their legislation, the other states are following suit … the result being, our national approach to gun control is eroding,” Ms Lee said.
The audit is set to be released next month, and comes as states and territories are moving to implement an update of the agreement signed by the Council of Australian Governments (COAG) last December.
The main outcome of that review was tougher restrictions on lever-action shotguns, after an uproar about the arrival of a new weapon, the Turkish-made Adler A110.
The Adler came in 5- and 7-shot versions, with the latter banned for import by federal justice minister Michael Keenan in 2015.
Shooters were outraged at the ban, believing there was no new technology in the Adler, and no evidence that lever-action shotguns were being used in crime.
Backlash against Adler ban threatens revised national deal
The backlash from shooters has been so strong that some states and territories may baulk at implementing the revised national agreement. So far, only NSW and the ACT have implemented it.
Coalition governments have fractured over the ban, with several federal National Party MPs supporting a disallowance motion by Senator David Leyonhjelm in November, and Liberal MLC Peter Phelps crossing the floor when the enabling legislation reached the NSW Parliament in May.
NSW Police Minister Troy Grant took a public stand against the tougher restrictions until he resigned as deputy premier late last year, at which point NSW fell into line with other states and signed up to the revised agreement.
Mr Grant said at the time that he was standing up for the rights of law-abiding gun owners, and did not believe there was any evidence that lever-action shotguns were more dangerous than other weapons available to recreational shooters.
But Background Briefing can reveal that before his resignation, he received — and then overrode — confidential advice about the contentious laws from his own police force.
The heavily redacted advice, signed off by the NSW Police Firearms Registry and obtained under freedom of information laws by NSW Greens justice spokesperson David Shoebridge, says that improved technology means that lever-action shotguns “are now similar, in terms of their rapidity, to pump-action shotguns”.
Pump-action shotguns are highly restricted under the National Firearms Agreement.
Although the document did not make any recommendation, Mr Shoebridge said the clear implication of the expert police opinion was that circulation of lever-action shotguns should be just as restricted.
Queensland MP Katter vows to block new agreement
In Queensland, pro-gun state MP Robbie Katter has vowed to move a disallowance motion against any legislation implementing the revised agreement and giving effect to the Adler ban.
The member for Mount Isa — who shares the balance of power in Queensland — said the ban was political opportunism by the Federal Government.
“If it wasn’t so serious,” Mr Katter said, “it would be laughable that you’re going to cut bloody farmers down from seven shots to five shots when you’re shooting pigs, that that’s going to make people safe in the cities.”
Mr Katter’s tactic threatens to further fragment the national gun laws.
Ms Lee from Gun Control Australia said gun politics were especially fraught in Queensland, where firearms laws were weakened in 2012 by the conservative Newman government.
“The gun lobby had the ear of [then premier] Campbell Newman,” she said.
“He set up an advisory council up there just stacked with gun lobby advocates, and he said that he was pushing to get rid of red tape, but how we see it is that he’s actually really significantly watered down gun laws in Queensland.”
We’ll see what it means for public safety: Leyonhjelm
Senator Leyonhjelm, a pro-gun Liberal Democrat, said he believed it was likely that Queensland would not follow through with the revised agreement.
He told the ABC he would be “perfectly happy” if Australia went back to the situation before 1996, when the national gun laws were introduced.
“If, as a result of Queensland not signing up to this COAG agreement regarding lever-action shotguns, because of that, the National Firearms Agreement starts to lose relevance, all it will do is take us back to situation that applied 20 years ago when the states did their own things,” he said.
“What we will see is some states taking a fairly strong approach and some states taking a less strong approach, and we will see what the result is in terms of public safety.
“My view is we will see no difference between them in public safety because I think in the context of the gun laws in Australia gun control laws and gun violence are independent variables … they are not related.”
Joyce criticised for tweet on massacre anniversary
Ms Lee said pressure from an ascendant gun lobby had been having an effect on the National Party in particular.
She pointed to a tweet by then acting prime minister Barnaby Joyce, who wanted the 5-shot Adler to remain available for recreational shooters, on April 28, 2017 — the 21st anniversary of the Port Arthur massacre.
The tweet shows a meeting two days earlier with Robert Nioa, whose company imports the Adler into Australia.
Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-11/gun-control-advocates-warn-chain-reaction-eroding-national-deal/8793890
Car plows into pizzeria near Paris, killing 12-year-old girl
Tuesday, August 15th, 2017A car plowed into the outdoor terrace of a pizzeria in the small town of Sept-Sorts east of Paris on Monday, killing a 12-year-old girl and seriously injuring several other people.
The driver deliberately targeted the diners, said a local prosecutor who announced he was ruling out terrorism and opening a murder investigation.
“There is no doubt that he voluntarily decided to create what happened,” prosecutor Eric de Valroger told reporters at the scene of the incident.
No weapon was found in the vehicle, the prosecutor added.
Interior Ministry spokesman Pierre-Henry Brandet told Reuters the driver was a “depressive” aged 32 and described him as an unstable character.
The incident occurred on a warm summer’s evening on the eve of a national holiday and witnesses said the outdoor eating area was busy.
A photograph published on social media showed a gray BMW car surrounded by upturned tables in the outdoor seating area of a restaurant. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the image.
Brandet said five victims were being treated in hospital for life-threatening injuries. Eight others suffered minor injuries and seven were treated for shock.
“Everyone on the terrace was hit,” one witness told BFM TV.
A police source said the driver lived in a neighboring village to Sept-Sorts, about 41 km (25.6 miles) to the east of Paris, and had tried to commit suicide on Sunday.
The incident occurred less than a week after an Algerian national was arrested on suspicion of deliberately ramming a hire car into a group of soldiers on a patrol in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret, injuring six of them.
The soldiers were part of Operation Sentinel, launched in the wake of Islamist attacks in Paris in early 2015. The Levallois-Perret attack was the 15th on troops and police in the last two-and-a-half years, many of them Islamic State-inspired.
Source: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-attacks-france-idUSKCN1AU28Q
Burglars shot by elderly homeowner sparking gun control debate in Israel
Friday, July 21st, 2017An 82-year-old Holocaust survivor in Beit Yitzhak, near Netanya, shot two suspected burglars who entered his home on Monday night, killing one.
The incident sparked criticism of the police for not doing enough to combat burglaries, and calls for loosened gun restrictions from one Knesset member.
The suspects, ages 30 and 34, are from Tulkarm, not far from Beit Yitzhak in the Palestinian Authority. “An initial investigation by police officers revealed that a homeowner on Sadot Road in Moshav Beit Yitzhak heard noises in his house. When he entered the room, he noticed two suspects with burglary tools in their hands,” police said on Monday night. “The owner of the house fired at them. One person was killed and the other was evacuated to the hospital in moderate condition.”
Following the incident on Monday, there was an outpouring of criticism of the police.
Residents told Channel 2 that burglary is a daily phenomenon and that they feel like it is the “Wild West.”
Rami Bello, chairman of the town’s infrastructure committee, said that Beit Yitzhak is “a burglar’s paradise.”
“Our moshav is very large, and in the agricultural areas there are burglars who watch the houses and break into them every day,” Bello said in an interview with Radio 103 FM on Tuesday.
Police say, however, that they have dedicated large forces to dealing with the burglary problem and have seen a dramatic drop in property crime in the last year. In March the police arrested 15 people on suspicion of burglary in the Tel Aviv District. “In recent months we have seen sophisticated actions that have brought the arrests of hundreds of actors in criminal networks throughout Israel,” Police Commissioner Insp.- Gen. Roni Alsheich said in March after the arrests. “Many citizens in Israel will sleep with confidence and conduct their business as usual without fear, thanks to this extensive activity.”
Meanwhile residents voiced support for the actions of the elderly homeowner. One told Channel 2 that “maybe now the burglars in the area will be afraid.”
Likud MK Amir Ohana said the shooter “deserved a medal” for “returning security to his family, home and community.”
Ohana said he seeking to design a policy to increase access to firearms.
While firearms are frequently visible in public in Israel, being carried by soldiers and police officers, the country has strict gun control regulations for civilians. Those seeking a gun must pass background checks and mental and physical exams, and must have a security reason for needing a firearm.
Source: http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Burglars-shot-by-elderly-homeowner-sparking-gun-control-debate-in-Israel-499401
Over 500 women obtained arms licenses in Egypt
Friday, July 21st, 2017More than 500 women in Egypt carry a license to use weapons for self-defense in accordance with the law, according to official Public Security Sector statistics.
The majority of females who obtained the licenses are former MPs or prominent businesswomen.
According to the official figures, 160,328 male citizens obtained arms licenses, nationwide.
The Interior Ministry examines all males and females before granting them licences.
The Ministry specified that conditions for obtaining an arms license, whether for a man or a woman, include being at least 21 years of age, free of psychiatric or neurological illnesses, and free of criminal charges.
Individuals can submit requests for licenses to police stations, while private security companies can submit their requests to the Public Security Sector of the Interior Ministry.
Informed sources told Al-Masry Al-Youm that Jihan al-Sadat, wife of late President Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, and Suzanne Mubarak, wife of former President Mohamad Hosni Mubarak, are among the women granted arms licenses.
Mubarak took two pistol shooting courses — one in Egypt and the other in the Royal Arms Club in London, the sources added.
Edited translation from Al-Masry Al-Youm
Source: http://www.egyptindependent.com/over-500-women-obtained-arms-licenses-egypt/
After London Attack, British Gun Activists Call For Right To Bear Arms
Friday, June 16th, 2017The fringe movement is revving up its call for looser gun laws in response to the recent string of terror attacks on British soil. British activists are advocating for looser gun laws in response to the Saturday night ISIS terror attack that killed eight people and wounded nearly fifty others in central London. “These tragedies may have been the eye opener to just how ineffective our laws are,” Dave Ewing, a representative from the gun ownership advocacy group, Firearms-UK, told Vocativ.
Firearms-UK, along with other advocacy groups like Arm UK Citizens, Legalise Guns in the UK, and England Wants Its Guns Back, have flocked to social media to slam the British government for maintaining harsh restrictions on gun ownership in response to the attack at London Bridge, which was the third terror attack on British soil in as many months.
They accuse the government of leaving its citizens exposed to violent terrorists and criminals, while politicians enjoy “24 hour armed bodyguards protecting them while they continue to sell the lie that firearms are not suitable for personal protection,” said a Firearms-UK Facebook post published in the wake of the London Bridge attack.
Gun ownership is heavily restricted in Britain and is among the tightest in Europe. After a school shooting that killed 15 children and their teacher in 1996, the British government legislated bans on assault rifles and handguns and heightened background checks for other types of firearms. Illicit gun ownership is also relatively low in Britain, which does not have the porous borders of its neighbors.
The British “gun rights” movement, therefore, remains fringe when compared to the U.S., where carrying guns is enshrined in the constitutional Second Amendment. British gun advocates call for modest reforms to gun laws that would allow the government to retain strict oversight on gun ownership, extensive background checks and mandatory weapons training, but would still permit gun owners to use their weapons in self-defense.
Ewing, from Firearms-UK, said that his movement has gained steady momentum as it’s moved online, where British members can connect and communicate with their many American counterparts who are eager to push their pro-gun agenda abroad.
Many Brits, and their American supporters, were outraged when after the Saturday attack, police sent out a tweet warning people in the area to run, hide, then call authorities. Officers at the scene also shouted at bystanders to disperse, a response that security experts say likely saved lives.
“In the US you are advised to Run, hide FIGHT if you are attacked. In the UK it is run, hide, tell and this shows just how the authorities care so little for us. We are not running from school bullys, we are not all able to run or hide and might not have time to tell [sic],” read a recent post on the Firearms-UK Facebook page. One commenter posted a Texas-produced instructional video on surviving an active shooter event.
Following the London attack, dozens of social media posts written by Americans argued that the British need less gun control in order to prevent future attacks.
“I’m very fond of my country’s oldest, staunchest ally, and I’m sick to the back of my teeth of watching thugs commit these atrocities with impunity” said an American who said he carried concealed weapons, writing in the closed Facebook group England Wants Its Guns Back. “Y’all have what it takes, in admirable quantity, to prevail against these fanatics. Your government merely needs to stop throttling it to death.”
Source: http://www.vocativ.com/435513/after-london-attack-british-gun-activists-call-for-right-to-bear-arms/
At L.A.-area gun store, Chinese immigrants exercise an unfamiliar right to bear arms
Thursday, January 12th, 2017Tony Gao emerges from a gun store in the City of Industry with something he could have never gotten in his native China: a handgun license.
He passed the firearm safety test on his third try — he says the store’s Chinese translation of the test is a little off — but still, he’s a little nervous.
“Are you sure police won’t try to get me?” Gao, 58, asks.
Private gun ownership is generally banned in China. So when Chinese immigrants arrive in the U.S., many are curious about owning firearms.
In Los Angeles, Chinese immigrants frequent Gun Effects, a firearms store housed in a City of Industry strip mall that includes a boba tea spot, a massage parlor and a dinosaur-themed Taiwanese restaurant.
On a recent weekday, a line formed at a bilingual English and Chinese sign-in sheet as Tom Petty crooned over the store speakers. A few customers puzzled over a Chinese translation of the handgun test beneath an empty wall where the store once displayed assault weapons — all of which were snapped up before California’s tough new gun control measures take effect Jan. 1. The legislation was signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in July in the wake of simmering outrage over mass shootings in San Bernardino and Orlando, Fla.
Across the state, sales have surged for semiautomatic rifles with bullet buttons, devices that allow for quick switching of ammunition cartridges and are banned under new law. Overall firearms sales increased by 40% over last year, according to the state Department of Justice.
In November, voters also approved Proposition 63, which outlaws the possession of magazines with more than 10 rounds, expands background checks for those buying bullets and makes it a crime to fail to report a lost or stolen gun.
At Gun Effects, Chinese buyers have shown up in droves to buy the store’s stock of soon-to-be restricted firearms.
Kai Kang, 48, of Irvine, lined up to purchase a scope for one of his guns. He remembers being curious about owning a gun when he came to America about a decade ago. In China he was in the military, but he never thought about owning a gun for his personal use.
Once he had his green card, he decided to try it out. Gun collecting eventually became a hobby. He goes to shooting ranges with his friends and keeps guns in his house for protection.
“I have short guns, long guns, handguns, AR-15s, rifles. I bought one, then I just kept buying more,” Kang said.
Gun Effects’ popularity with Chinese customers could have something to do with its Chinese ownership and bilingual services. The store’s owner, Dennis Lin, was born in Guangdong, China, to a dim sum chef and his wife. He came to the U.S. when he was 3 years old.
Lin, 29, grew up playing with airsoft guns and started a business selling gun accessories online after graduating from college. When the business grew, he opened a store.
Business was slow at first. He placed online advertisements, but they failed to increase demand. Still, about a year ago, Chinese customers began to show up in large numbers.
“I don’t even know how this happened, really,” Lin said. “In the past, most of our business has been with non-Chinese customers.”
Now about 40 percent of customers are Chinese, Lin said. He hired two Chinese-speaking employees and ramped up his study of Mandarin. He also travels to China several times a year to learn more about Chinese culture, which he never had much connection to as a kid.
In China, he’s careful never to say that he sells guns for a living.
“They do get nervous,” Lin said. “It’s like a taboo.”
Chinese customers often have questions about legality and safety, said Queenie Yang, one of the store’s Chinese-speaking employees. And many of them need time to get comfortable with even holding a gun.
One Chinese customer new to the country started shaking when he held a gun for the first time, Lin said. When he handed the gun back to Lin, it was soaked with sweat.
“I just tell them don’t be scared. It’s legal here,” Lin said.
Gao said that in China he never thought of owning a gun, and he admitted to being a little afraid of them. But he lives in America now, and he’s mostly retired and a little bored. His friends go to shooting ranges to pass the time and he decided to join them.
“I’m just doing this for fun. I don’t think everyone should have a gun,” Gao said.
Gao’s stance mirrors national trends. Asian Americans have the lowest rates of gun ownership among all demographic groups, according to exit polls conducted during the 2008 presidential election. And a 2016 survey of Asian American registered voters by APIAVote found that 77 percent wanted stricter gun control laws. Even Gao said he wouldn’t support legalizing private gun ownership in China.
Jason He, another Chinese customer, agreed. He thinks it would be unwise for China to legalize private gun ownership, and expressed support for California’s new assault weapon restrictions.
Still, when his name was called from the wait list, he peppered one of the gun store’s Chinese-speaking employees with questions about weights, how to practice, and what kind of gun his wife should buy. He’s looking for a handgun and a long gun for his house, nothing too fancy or expensive.
Policy and politics aside, He said he has always wanted a gun.
“In China,” He said, “you only see guns on TV.”
Source: http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-headlines-chinese-gun-store-20161228-story.html
Australia agrees to first national gun amnesty in 20 years
Tuesday, November 8th, 2016CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia will allow gun owners to hand in illegal firearms without penalty next year as concerns grow over gun crimes involving such weapons, a federal minister said Friday.
Australia’s police and justice ministers agreed at a meeting to start a nationwide gun amnesty from the middle of 2017, Justice Minister Michael Keenan said.
“Australia is world-renowned for the strength of our firearm laws, but illegal firearms do remain a deadly weapon of choice for organized criminals,” Keenan told reporters.
It will be the first Australia-wide amnesty since a gun buy-back program in 1996 that followed a lone gunman killing 35 people in Tasmania state, Sydney University gun policy analyst Philip Alpers said.
That tragedy galvanized the government to legislate tough restrictions on rapid-fire weapons and to buy back almost 700,000 newly outlawed guns.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows the nation has since imported almost 1.2 million legal guns, although none of them are military-style semi-automatic assault rifles that are now banned from public ownership.
An Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission report released Friday estimated there could be as many as 600,000 unregistered guns in Australia. There are 2.89 million registered guns among 24 million Australians, an increase of 9.3 percent in the past five years, the report said.
Most illegal guns in Australia were legally owned before 1996 when guns did not have to be registered. They were not handed in during the buy-back and there are no records that they even exist, the report said.
The market for illegal guns is partly driven by Middle Eastern crime gangs, outlaw motorbike clubs and other groups that traffic illegal commodities such as drugs, the report said.
It said that guns can be bought easily in the United States and sent to “countries such as Australia with relative anonymity, especially where transactions are made using emerging technologies and business practices, such as the darknet and freight-forwarding services.”
Alpers said overseas experience suggested that the Australian amnesty would collect only “rubbish guns” that were not valued by either legitimate gun owners or criminals.
The government plans to crack down on illegal guns by introducing a mandatory five-year minimum prison term for gun traffickers, as well as boosting screening of international mail, air and sea cargo.
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/australia-agrees-first-national-gun-amnesty-20-years-061128858.html
Mexicans have the right to own guns, but few do
Wednesday, October 12th, 2016MEXICO CITY – There’s just one place in all of Mexico where you can legally buy a gun. It’s tucked away in an anonymous building on an army base in the capital, staffed by soldiers.
Those who enter must surrender any cell phones, tablets or cameras, remove caps and pass through a metal detector. Weapons are kept in locked glass cases, unlike many of the 50,000-plus U.S. gun shops where used-gun racks on showroom floors allow easy access and clerks are happy to let you heft an unloaded firearm.
Mexico’s constitution guarantees citizens’ right to own a handgun and hunting rifles for self-defense and sport. Legally getting your hands on one, however, requires clearing a series of bureaucratic hurdles far stricter than in the U.S. and, for many customers, traveling great distances to reach the country’s lone gun store.
In fact, most of Mexico’s 120 million inhabitants probably don’t even know about the Directorate of Arms and Munitions Sales – it’s prohibited from advertising any of its goods or the mere fact that it exists.
But that hasn’t stopped sales from booming, in parallel with a large and active black-market trade for contraband weapons flooding south from the U.S.
According to army records, the store sold 549 guns in 2000. For 2015, sales had risen to 10,115, an increase reflecting the rise in concern about personal safety during a surge in violent deaths in Mexico.
Sales spiked most dramatically after 2006, when then-President Felipe Calderon took office and declared war on Mexico’s drug cartels. The country recorded more than 164,000 killings between 2007 and 2014, according to official statistics.
At the gun store, 27 brands are on offer, from the American Colt, Austria’s Glock and Italy’s Beretta to the locally made Mendoza and Trejo.
Although gun ownership is enshrined in the constitution, the provision also empowers the government to regulate the types of weapons that are permitted and under what conditions. Mexicans can legally purchase one handgun for home protection, while members of hunting or shooting clubs can acquire up to nine rifles of no more than .30 caliber and shotguns up to 12 gauge, said the store’s manager, Col. Eduardo Tellez Moreno.
But unlike those who run U.S. gun shops, Tellez would rather no one buy what he’s selling.
“It’s preferred not to have a gun, even at home, because there could be accidents or worse, accidents within families due to the mishandling of weapons. It’s like having a match close to a fire,” Tellez said. “It’s an obligation of the state to provide security to the people who live in the country, not for you to take justice into your own hands.”
Some people aren’t confident about authorities’ ability to provide security.
On a recent day, Mexico City resident Alejandro Lozano came to pick up a hunting rifle after waiting about a week while his documents were processed. He said he keeps a handgun at home, but wishes he could legally carry it to protect himself from violent robberies targeting bus passengers, motorists at stoplights and customers emerging from banks and ATMs.
“It’s not difficult” to get a gun, Lozano said. But “we would like it better that they would let us carry like in the United States, that they let us carry whatever caliber we choose.”
At least six separate documents are required to buy a gun: a birth certificate, a letter confirming employment, proof of a clean criminal record from the attorney general’s office in the applicant’s home state, a utility bill with current address, a copy of a government-issued ID and a federal social security number.
Gun owners must register every weapon they have, and people say it’s nearly impossible to secure a concealed carry permit, something that’s allowed in the majority of U.S. states.
Luciano Segurajauregui Alvarez, a gun advocate who shoots recreationally and competitively, said those permits are routinely denied.
“If I put my papers in … they’re going to take about three to four, even six months, and then send me a letter telling me that it’s the obligation of the state to provide security for all people in Mexico, so your permit is denied,” said Segurajauregui, who is a professor of design at Mexico’s Metropolitan Autonomous University.
He called that idiotic. “You can’t assign a soldier to preserve the security of each and every one of the people,” he said.
Gun advocates say relaxing gun restrictions would help private citizens protect themselves from heavily armed gangs that terrorize and extort people in various parts of the country.
Many Mexicans perceive government security forces as unable to do that job, and often actually being in cahoots with the cartels. Since 2013, civilian “self-defense” militias have sprung up in some rural areas as communities became fed up by corruption, organized crime and a failure by police and military forces to keep them safe from drug gangs.
“To see us alone, to see us unprotected by the government, what did we have to do as citizens? Take up arms to defend our families and our own lives,” said Hipolito Mora, a co-founder of a militia in Michoacan, one of the country’s most restive states.
Yet, while Mexico has a homicide rate more than five times higher than in the U.S., such sentiments have brought no widespread debate about gun rights, and there is no political push to ease firearm restrictions.
“I think it’s a non-issue,” said Alejandro Hope, a security analyst in Mexico City. “The extreme liberal regime around gun control that exists in the United States is seen as a bizarre phenomenon. That carrying guns is seen as a major human right is bizarre.”
Mexico’s lone gun store sold 52,147 firearms in 2009-14, a figure dwarfed by the black market trade that’s largely fueled by illegal American imports. Mexican law bars guns from entering without an “extraordinary import authorization,” but enforcement is spotty: 73,684 of the 104,850 guns confiscated in Mexico during the same period were traced to the U.S., according to the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
There are no current statistics on the number of weapons held by Mexicans. The Geneva-based Small Arms Survey says Mexicans owned 15.5 million firearms in 2007, of which 4.5 million were properly registered with the army.
On the black market, buyers get access to the same kind of high-caliber weapons used by cartels and can avoid paperwork, waiting periods and travel.
For residents in the northwestern city of Tijuana, for example, it’s much simpler to buy a gun that has been purchased in one of San Diego’s 15 or so gun shops and smuggled into Mexico instead of going 1,700 miles to Mexico City.
Segurajauregui said gun advocates want the military to open stores in each of Mexico’s 31 states in addition to the capital, but there is no sign that’s in the works.
“Gun reform in Mexico has always been a hot potato,” he said. “Nobody wants to touch it. Nobody.”
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mexicans-have-the-right-to-own-guns-but-few-do/
Russians, Their Guns And the State
Wednesday, September 28th, 2016U.S. gun enthusiasts live in constant fear of the federal government confiscating their weapons. For Russian gun owners, such a fear may be about to become a reality. On April 14, President Vladimir Putin, announced the formation of a new National Guard, and declared one of its key fuctions would be to control firearms.
“We are creating the National Guard to limit the circulation of weapons in the country,” he told the Russian people during his annual “direct line” national call-in show. What wasn’t clear was whether Putin was referring to guns legally owned by law-abiding Russians or to the stockpiles of illegal weapons flowing throughout Russia, fueled by the numerous wars on its borders.
Russia has a short history of private gun ownership — it was rare during the Soviet era — but the country’s stillborn civil society has started to push for greater access to firearms. Despite the government’s apparent willingness to make concessions, statistics still show that many gun-owning Russians prefer to skirt the bureaucracy and keep their unregistered guns off the radar — for one reason or another.
Up until now, the Kremlin had shown little sign of obvious concern. Yet, as millions of unchecked firearms flow through a nation reeling from economic crisis, some of their calculations are changing.
According to the most recent international surveys, roughly 9 percent of Russians own a firearm. Of the estimated 13 million guns in civilian hands, only around 60 percent are legally registered.
If Putin indeed intends to use the National Guard to track down these weapons, it wouldn’t be without precedent. “We have already seen a progressive tightening of the rules for citizens and private security firms alike,” says Mark Galeotti, an expert in Russian security services and criminal affairs. “But even after attempts to clean up the registration of firearms, there are many illegal guns in circulation in Russia.”
There are, however, reasons to doubt the National Guard has really been set up to search for guns. They have no investigative capacity and the only way to fulfill such a task would be to conduct house-to-house searches, an invasive and labor intensive process.
The types of illegal weapon used for the most serious crimes in Russia — contract killings, terrorism and similar types of activity — are often not unregistered shotguns, but military-issue firearms that Russian citizens don’t have access to. “In other words,” says Galeotti, “they are stolen from official stocks, essentially through corruption.”
Internet Shopping
You don’t need to be a corrupt policeman or military officer to procure weapons in Russia. There are many other options, ranging from the physical black markets peppered around Moscow to more modern, darker sources. These are the markets based in far-flung corners of the Internet, absent from the usual indexing services like Google or Yandex.
Those with the requisite technical savvy can get their hands on almost anything they want, provided they know where to look. One source, on condition of strict anonymity, directed The Moscow Times to one such online black market.
The process of getting there requires navigating to the labyrinthine depths of the dark web, and inputting a complicated chain of letters and numbers. Once there, you can access anything from drugs and weapons to information on building bombs. All transactions are facilitated anonymously via the Bitcoin electronic crypto-currency.
Such markets provide troves of information for would-be gun criminals. For example, one forum explains to first time buyers that a gun bought in central Russia costs up to $3,000, while weapons in Crimea are closer to $2,000.
If Interior Ministry statistics are any guide, Russians are more likely than ever to attempt to procure illegal weapons. The ministry recorded 27,000 violations over the course of 2015, an all-time high. The trend coincided with a rising crime rate of 8.6 percent, according to Gazeta.ru.
Some illegal guns are antiques, others are hunting rifles, but they have not been registered. Black-market guns have proliferated while gun ownership laws restrict the number and type of gun legally available.
At a glance
‘Evening the Odds’
Maria Butina is the founder of Russia’s first gun rights advocacy group. A tall, red-headed Siberian native in her late 20s, Butina called the group “The Right to Bear Arms,” and it now boasts 10,000 members.
While the government looks at ways of increasing public safety by reducing gun onwnership, Butina’s movement argues the opposite is the only answer. When crime increases, they say, ordinary people should be armed.
“We know a simple truth,” says Butina. “More legal guns equal less crime. If a country bans guns, only criminals have access to them. We believe in evening the odds for the average Russian.”
Many types of weapons, such as pistols and revolvers, remain off-limits to the Russian public. When they were developed, gun ownership laws were designed to enable Russians to hunt.
The bureaucratic procedure to legally procure a gun is complicated.
Any Russian choosing to legally own a gun is initially limited to a single shotgun, which is subjet to a permit. That permit is only granted after a citizen undergoes background checks, investigations into their criminal history, neighborhood circumstances, mental health and invasive home inspections. They also submit to future snap inspections by police. Five years after receiving a shotgun permit, they can then buy a hunting rifle.
Butina’s group can claim moderate success in influencing government policy. Two years ago, they collected 100,000 signatures petitioning the government to pass the so-called castle doctrine law, legislation that grants citizens the right to defend themselves and their property from danger using lethal force.
The group has also provided legal defense for Russians like Yevgeny Kostirin, who killed an armed intruder, and Alexei Urazov, who severely injured an attacker in his apartment stairwell with a pneumatic pistol, a weapon legal in Russia. The gun advocacy group can boast legal victories in both cases, but their final triumph is yet to be secured. While the State Duma passed the castle doctrine bill in 2014, it is still to be signed into law by the president.
Putin’s comments on the National Guard suggest that the Kremlin isn’t as keen on the idea of armed citizens as Butina’s group would hope. But she is now backed by the Russian gun industry, which — if the U.S. model is any indication — can be a powerful ally.
Russia’s gun industry, which is actively targeting civilian gun markets abroad, is also pushing for increased access to firearms within Russia. Ruslan Pukhov, the head of Russia’s Association of Gunsmiths, is confident of progress. According to Pukhov, the clear trend for gun rights in Russia is toward liberalization. “It’s two steps forward and one step back,” he says.
Broader support among the Russian public is not, however, forthcoming. Though Butina claims that up to 44 percent of Russians now see the value of bearing arms, data from the independent pollster Levada Center indicates the opposite. A 2013 poll showed that 80 percent of Russians remain wary of liberalizing gun rights — these figures have remained constant since the poll was first run in 1991.
Butina is undeterred, saying the public “lacks proper understanding” of the role of guns in modern society.
“Some people think guns have a will of their own; that guns kill people, rather than bad people killing people,” she says. “Removing guns from criminals is all well and good, but the best ‘National Guard’ would be ordinary people with legal guns ready to defend the Motherland.”
Contact the author at m.bodner@imedia.ru. Follow the author on Twitter at @mattb0401.
Source: https://themoscowtimes.com/articles/russians-their-guns-and-the-state-52720
Moscow airport shop sells model Kalashnikov guns
Monday, August 22nd, 2016Travellers at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo international airport can now buy a model Kalashnikov assault rifle before they catch their flight.
A Kalashnikov boutique has opened at Sheremetyevo to promote the world-famous Russian gunmaker’s brand.
The shop’s souvenirs include camouflage gear and “I love AK” T-shirts.
The AK-47 assault rifle has a worldwide reputation for reliability. The Soviet bloc countries, and many guerrillas, relied on the gun for decades.
An airport official quoted by Reuters news agency said the model guns were clearly imitations and would not pose security problems.
Sheremetyevo is Russia’s biggest international airport, and handled more than 31 million passengers last year.
There is widespread international concern about replica weapons which can be mistaken for the real thing and potentially used by terrorists.
Kalashnikov souvenirs
Image copyrightAPA Russian state corporation, Rostec, owns 51% of the shares in the Kalashnikov concern, which makes the guns at Izhevsk, in central Russia.
In 2014 the EU and US added Kalashnikov to their lists of Russian arms manufacturers subject to sanctions because of Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula.
The airport shop is part of the firm’s drive to expand its civilian merchandise.
“Kalashnikov is one of the most popular brands that come to mind when people think of Russia,” said the firm’s marketing director Vladimir Dmitriyev, quoted by RIA Novosti news agency.
“So we are pleased to provide everyone with an opportunity to take home a souvenir with our brand on it.”
Source: http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-37143493
German right-wing leader backs citizens’ right to arm themselves
Monday, August 22nd, 2016BERLIN (Reuters) – The leader of the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has spoken out in favor of people arming themselves with guns and self-defense devices following a series of violent attacks last month.
The anti-immigrant AfD has won growing popular support in Germany due in part to Europe’s migrant crisis, which has seen more than 1 million refugees arrive over the past year, and it now has seats in eight of Germany’s 16 state assemblies.
After two Islamist attacks and a shooting rampage by a mentally unstable teenager last month, Germans are on edge and the AfD is expected to make a strong showing in votes next month in Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
“Many people are increasingly feeling unsafe. Every law-abiding citizen should be in a position to defend themselves, their family and their friends,” Frauke Petry told the Funke Media Group in an interview published on Saturday.
“We all know how long it takes until the police can get to the scene, especially in sparsely populated places,” she said.
Known for her fiery speeches to AfD supporters, Petry sparked an uproar earlier this year when she called for German police to be allowed to use firearms against illegal migrants.
Petry rejected calls to toughen up gun laws, saying this would affect respectable citizens and not those who acquire weapons in the so-called “dark net“, which is only accessible via special browsers.
Instead, she criticized “ruinous cuts” on police and said the state at lost its monopoly on the use of force in places.
Germany has some of the most stringent rules around gun control in Europe. Firearm owners must obtain a weapons licence for which applicants must generally be at least 18 years old and show they have they have a reason for needing a weapon.
Nonetheless, sexual assaults on women in Cologne at New Year and three fatal attacks have added to the feeling of vulnerability and prompted Germans to stock up on scare devices.
The number of Germans applying for so-called “small firearms license”, which are required to carry around blank guns and pepper spray, jumped 49 percent in the first half of 2016 to 402,301, according to federal statistics.
However, permits for firearms fell to 1.894 million as of the end of June compared to 1.898 million a year earlier.
(Reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Dominic Evans)
Source: https://www.yahoo.com/news/german-wing-leader-backs-citizens-arm-themselves-101701905.html?ref=gs
Venezuela crushes 2,000 guns in public, plans registry of bullets
Friday, August 19th, 2016(Reuters) – Venezuelan police crushed and chopped up nearly 2,000 shotguns and pistols in a Caracas city square on Wednesday, as the new interior minister relaunched a long-stalled gun control campaign in one of the world’s most crime-ridden countries.
Interior Minister Nestor Reverol said the event marked the renewal of efforts to disarm Venezuelans, through a combination of seizures and a voluntary program to swap guns for electrical goods.
Venezuela has the world’s second highest murder rate and the street gangs that plague its poor neighborhoods have become increasingly heavily armed in recent years, at a time when a deep recession has reduced resources available to police.
Gangs often get weapons from the police, either by stealing them or buying them from corrupt officers, experts say.
With inflation of 185 percent in 2015 and a currency collapse, police salaries have fallen far behind rising prices creating more incentives for corruption.
“We are going to bring disarmament and peace,” Reverol told reporters, while police officers drilled and sawed at rusty shotguns, home made pistols and some newer weapons.
Other guns were crushed in truck-mounted presses. Some members of the public watched, although more danced to a nearby sound system playing salsa music.
Venezuela has also bought laser technology to mark ammunition, Reverol said, in an attempt to keep a registry of the bullets given out to the South American nation’s many state and municipal police forces.
Experts say that much of the ammunition used in crimes in Venezuela is made at the country’s government munitions factory and sold on by corrupt police.
(Reporting by Frank Jack Daniel; Editing by David Gregorio)
Source: http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSKCN10S2I9
India Wants to Be One of the World’s Biggest Arms Exporters
Monday, August 15th, 2016India is seeking to boost arms exports 20-fold in a decade to $3 billion, a push that if successful would transform one of the world’s biggest importers into a major seller of defense equipment.
Steps by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to spur defense manufacturing, if properly implemented, open up the possibility of hitting that figure by 2025, Defense Production Secretary A. K. Gupta said. The challenge is to boost private-sector investment and technological expertise, he said.
“This will not only take us toward the goal of self-reliance in defense production, but will also create tremendous employment opportunities,” Gupta, one of the top bureaucrats in India’s Defense Ministry, said in the interview in New Delhi last month.
“India’s exports target seems ambitious,” said Deba R. Mohanty, a defense analyst and chairman of Indicia Research & Advisory in New Delhi. “If it’s able to meet such targets, then it will in all likelihood be a competitor to many countries, including China.”
The sectors where India has export potential include naval ships, helicopters and components for aircraft, according to consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.
China’s defense exports reached $1.5 billion in 2014, the eighth-largest in the world in a ranking dominated by the $23.7 billion sold by the U.S., according to IHS Inc. research. India imported $5.6 billion, the most after Saudi Arabia.
Climbing Shipments
India estimates exports of materiel more than doubled over the two fiscal years ended March 2015 to 9.9 billion rupees ($145 million).
Modi’s policy changes include fewer curbs on foreign investment in defense, looser export controls and a reworked procurement policy that’s set to encourage domestic output. His government has authorized about $65 billion of arms purchases since taking power in May 2014 and is targeting a major naval expansion with locally made ships.
The administration is also sharing the blueprints of state equipment — such as theRustom drone — with the private sector for the first time, to spur technological development and possible overseas sales.
Companies ranging from Larsen & Toubro Ltd., India’s biggest engineer, to Airbus Group SE sense opportunities from less onerous rules and the drive for modernization.
State Companies
But there’s a long way to go.
Modi in April scaled back a long-pending order for 126 Dassault Aviation SA Rafale warplanes, which stalled partly because the tender included the challenge of making 108 of the complex jets at India’s state-run Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd.
In the end, the premier opted for 36 Rafales from France in fly-away condition. France’s Safran SA subsequently shelved plans to make engine parts for Rafale aircraft in India. The episode shows the task Modi faces to catalyze a defense-industrial complex.
State companies account for more than 80 percent of defense production and are already stretched, according to Anurag Garg, a director of defense at Strategy&, a consulting group of PwC. Depending on the private sector to spur exports significantly would need companies to design weapons systems to sell abroad, and that’s no easy task, he said.
The government is trying to do its bit by improving the policy framework, but the push needs the support of industry, said Gupta from the Defense Ministry.
“Industry also needs to come up and accept the challenge,” he said.
Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-01-27/india-s-3-billion-arms-export-goal-puts-china-in-modi-s-sights
Kalashnikov designs superior assault rifle for Russian Special forces
Tuesday, August 9th, 2016Russian weapons manufacturer Kalashnikov has reportedly offered Russia’s Special Forces a brand new adaptive assault rifle, which outmatches all of its previous products.
The AK-400 is superior to the tried and true AK-74 and state-of-the-art AK-12 in terms of both precision and fire dispersion, a source within the Russian military industry told Izvestia newspaper. “AK-400 assault rifles were presented in late 2015 at a meeting organized by the Presidential Security Service. The products have interested customers, and they are now studying the offer,” he said. According to the source, the AK-12, which has been in service in the Russian military since 2014, doesn’t fully meet the requirements of elite Special Forces. “AK-12 is a weapon for the infantry, paratroopers, and reconnoiters. And the troops in the Special Forces need a more compact rifle, which – on the one hand – isn’t inferior to Ak-12 in precision and fire dispersion, but – on the other hand – is compact enough to storm buildings, planes, trains, and buses, as well as jump with a parachute and walk in the forest,” he explained.
The source didn’t share a lot of information about the AK-400, however, and all that is known about the assault rifle is that it has a length of approximately 940 millimeters and weighs slightly over 3 kilograms. The new Kalashnikov will have a special “cutoff” fire mode that releases bullets only when the trigger is pulled. It also has a retractable telescopic butt-stock that allows it to be shortened in a matter of seconds, allowing the rifle to be used inside of a car or even hidden under clothing.
The AK-400 is equipped with a Picatinny Rail, a mounting platform for various sights, pens, flashlights, and laser target designators. The assault rifle is intended for use by the Presidential Security Service, as well as Alpha, Vympel, and other Special Forces units in the Federal Security Service (FSB).
Source: https://www.rt.com/news/343695-kalashnikov-superior-assault-rifle/
India already had some of the world’s strictest gun laws. Now it’s tightened them.
Thursday, August 4th, 2016NEW DELHI — As mass shooting incidents in the United States rise, India has tightened its firearms regulations, making it even more difficult for common citizens to own a gun.
India already had some of the strictest gun laws in the world, a vestige of British colonial rule, which aimed to disarm its subjects. Indian law allows citizens to own and carry guns, but it is not a right enshrined in the constitution. Getting a gun license in India is a difficult task that can take years.
Now, in the most ambitious restructuring of arms rules in more than five decades, the government has made the laws even tougher. Prospective gun owners will have to show they have been trained, and they must carry their firearms only in holders and secure them in a “knocked down” condition in gun lockers at home. The government will declare new gun-free zones, in addition to schools, across the country. Even air guns will require an arms license.
The new gun restrictions are not a reaction to recent violence. The process has taken five years, but it quickened after Prime Minister Narendra Modi was elected in 2014. The rules were put into effect last month and will be presented in Parliament.
An official in the Ministry of Home Affairs, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the media, said the changes are intended “to bring in transparency in the arms-control regime, prevent, combat and eradicate illicit trade in small arms and light weapons . . . and bring in the contemporary practices in international laws.”
The changes have riled the nascent National Association for Gun Rights India.
“We are very disappointed. What the government is saying is that it cannot trust its citizens,” said Rahoul Rai, the group’s president.
The “last few years, we have discussed with the government steps to remove the harassment law-abiding citizens face in getting firearm licenses,” Rai said. “One shouldn’t have to jump through 25 hoops to get a license. Unfortunately, they have created a situation where people will get desperate and will end up getting illegal guns.”
From now on, an official who issues or denies a gun license will have to write down the reasons. Rai said that is unworkable because no bureaucrat will “stick his neck out.” Licenses are issued for three categories: self-defense, sports and crop protection.
The official said that “imminent” threat has been replaced with “anticipated” threat because the former was “difficult to prove” for applicants.
India shifted from century-old manual record-keeping recently and put into a national database information on about 2.6 million gun-license holders.
According to the National Crime Records Bureau, gun-
related deaths increased from 3,063 to 3,655 between 2010 and 2014. There were 10 times that number in 2013 in the United States.
But only 14 percent of the victims in 2014 in India were killed by licensed guns. The rest were killed by illegal weapons, largely prevalent in the hinterlands.
An American is 12 times more likely to be killed by a firearm than is an Indian, according to an analysis by the group IndiaSpend, based on a database collated by Gun Policy, a global gun watch group.
India, along with countries such as Australia, has among the tightest gun laws in the world. The United States has some of the most lenient.
Activists say India should not go the American way.
“Some Indians are inspired by the easy American culture of buying guns off the counter,” said Binalakshmi Nepram, founder of Control Arms Foundation of India. “We are a country that won independence from colonial rulers without firing a single shot. Making it easy for citizens to arm themselves would mean the state admits that it has failed to provide security.”
For the first time, however, the government has allowed citizens to own licensed electronic disabling devices such as taser guns — a step many say will boost women’s safety. After the fatal gang rape of a 23-year-old student in a moving bus in 2012, women have begun carrying pepper spray in their purses and learning martial arts. The government even introduced a lighter taser gun for women.
The official said such devices will also be used to guard banks, toll plazas and other public places.
Even as the new rules make it difficult for average citizens to own guns, they have cleared the way for local manufacturing of guns by private companies, in line with Modi’s push for defense production. In June, Modi allowed 100 percent foreign investment in the defense sector.
“This is the green signal we were waiting for,” said Ashok Wadhawan, president of manufacturing at Punj Lloyd, which has a partnership with Israel Weapon Industries. “At first, we will be selling them to the Indian army and the police. It is extremely prestigious for them to hold an Indian rifle instead of an imported rifle.”
But the most puzzling move for many is that air guns, blank-firing guns and paintball guns are now classified as weapons that will require a license, which is vexing to sport enthusiasts.
The official said that this was done to check “potential misuse,” because with some “machining and drilling” they could be converted into firearms.
“Overnight, my son is a criminal,” said Chandan Agarwal, a gun owner and entrepreneur.
Abhijeet Singh, a 43-year-old software engineer and gun owner who set up the Indians for Guns website, said, “Nobody has started a rebellion in any country with an air gun.”
Source: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/india-had-the-one-of-the-strictest-gun-laws-in-the-world-it-just-got-tighter/2016/08/01/affd9422-51da-11e6-b652-315ae5d4d4dd_story.html
Uganda’s gun control under scrutiny as armed crime rises
Monday, August 1st, 2016KAMPALA (HAN) July 30.2016. Public Diplomacy & Regional Security News. By IVAN R MUGISHA. Uganda’s gun control policies have come under scrutiny following a new study that shows the country has the highest number of armed crime incidents in the
The study, titled Analysis of Armed Crime Rates, released last Monday in Kigali, was conducted between 2010 and March this year by the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA) in conjunction with the African Development Bank.
The report shows that an alarming 43,512 armed crime incidents were reported in the country between 2010 and 2014, which is the highest in East Africa. The estimated total number of guns held by civilians in Uganda is 400,000, yet only about 3,000 are legally registered, according to Gun Policy statistics.
Uganda’s Police Commissioner Okello Makmot said the high incidence can be attributed to the country’s location “in the hub of a conflict zone, with various rebel groups from the neighbouring countries of the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan who are believed to sneak in unregistered arms into the country.”
He said that despite the government carrying out an intense exercise to disarm the Karamojong in the east of the country, Kenya and Sudan have not done the same, meaning arms can easily be sneaked in. Over 40,000 guns were recovered in the recent disarmament.
According to Oneste Mutsindashyaka, the executive secretary of RECSA, Rwandans are 80 times less likely to fall victim of armed crimes than Ugandans.
Rwanda experienced the least number of armed crimes, with only 421 incidents reported in the period under review.
Burundi reported 26,041 armed crime incidents — the second highest in the region — followed by Kenya with 11,827 and Tanzania with 9,646.
“Small arms circulation across the borders is a key driver of armed conflicts in the region. It is against this backdrop that RECSA has been implementing a number of projects in the region aimed at combating the proliferation and use of illicit firearms,” said Mr Mutsindashyaka.
Somorin Alufunso, a senior policy analyst at AfDB, said armed conflicts continue to destroy lives in the region and called on countries to implement policies aimed at eliminating illicit flow and use of firearms.
Each country has put in place mechanisms to curb armed crime, but not all are strictly implementing those mechanisms, which has led to armed crime being a serious threat to regional security, according to RECSA.
Source: http://www.geeskaafrika.com/21990/ugandas-gun-control-under-scrutiny-as-armed-crime-rises/#
German officials urge tightening of already strict gun laws
Thursday, July 28th, 2016MUNICH — Two days after the mass shooting by a violence-obsessed teen here, German politicians on Sunday urged tighter gun restrictions in a country that already has some of the toughest anti-gun laws in the world.
Germany has one of the lowest rates of gun-related deaths despite high levels of gun ownership. Even so, Friday’s shooting spree that left nine dead and dozens wounded prompted German lawmakers to say more needs to be done to prevent another massacre using firearms.
German Vice Chancellor Sigmar Gabriel told the Funke Mediengruppe newspaper chain that the country “must continue to do all we can to limit and strictly control access to deadly weapons.”
Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told the Bild am Sonntag newspaper, “We have to evaluate very carefully if and where further legal changes are needed.”
The gunman behind the attack outside a Munich shopping mall, Ali David Sonboly, 18, obtained his Glock pistol illegally and did not have a license, investigators said. He would have struggled to meet Germany’s stringent requirements for legal possession.
Applicants under 25 must undergo a series of tough checks that include whether the person has a history of mental health issues. They must also pass tests about gun knowledge and get approval for what the weapon will be used for. Unlike in the United States, there is no guaranteed right to bear arms.
Sonboly, born in Munich to parents who had emigrated from Iran, received both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric treatment last year to help him deal with depression and to deal with “fears of contact with others,” Thomas Steinkraus-Koch, of the Munich prosecutors’ office, said Sunday. The teen also had been planning the attack for more than a year, and a “manifesto” was found in his room, Baviarian investigator Robert Heimberger said.
The strict application process didn’t stop Sonboly from acquiring an illegal weapon, of course, but it appears to have helped Germany reduce gun-related deaths to 57 last year, down from more than 800 in 1995, according to the website GunPolicy.org. That compares with about 13,445 people killed in the United States by firearms in 2015, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
Source: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2016/07/23/german-gun-laws-among-worlds-strictest/87482162/
Ruling puts Pacific islanders in gun debate crosshairs
Wednesday, March 30th, 2016America’s heated gun debate has extended to a remote Pacific territory, with a court overturning a ban on handguns in the Northern Marianas after ruling it breached the US Constitution’s Second Amendment.
In a ruling greeted with dismay by the island territory’s leaders, the US District Court found the right to bear arms enshrined in the Second Amendment also applied to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI).
“The Second Amendment… (is) the law of the land in the CNMI as if it were a (US) state,” judge Ramona V. Manglona said in a written judgement released Monday.
The challenge to CNMI restrictions was backed by the Second Amendment Foundation pro-gun group, which hailed the decision as “a big win”.
Governor Ralph Torres said he was considering an appeal but would also look at introducing safety measures such as background checks and waiting times if the judgement stood.
Read full article at http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/afp/article-3515012/Ruling-puts-Pacific-islanders-gun-debate-crosshairs.html
Gun Sales Surge In Switzerland As Army Chief Warns “Arm Yourselves”
Monday, January 4th, 2016VIA Zerohedge.com
It would appear the people of Switzerland have been listening to their military leaders. Having recently been warned by the Swiss army chief of growing social unrest, SwissInfo reports applications for gun permits in Switzerland increased by 20% between 2014 and 2015, according to a survey conducted in 12 cantons. But while the army proposes “arm yourselves,” Swiss crime prevention officials warn against the false sense of security that guns bring.
Whereas in 2011 numerous people in Switzerland voluntarily gave up their firearms, today more and more people are purchasing guns.
Swiss army chief André Blattmann warned, “The threat of terror is rising, hybrid wars are being fought around the globe; the economic outlook is gloomy and the resulting migration flows of displaced persons and refugees have assumed unforeseen dimensions,” adding that “Social unrest can not be ruled out.”
He further recalled the situation around the two world wars in the last century and advised the people of Switzerland to arm themselves…
And, as SwissInfo reports, it appears they have…
Applications for gun permits in Switzerland increased by 20% between 2014 and 2015, according to a survey conducted in 12 cantons by Swiss public television, SRF.
The survey, published on Wednesday, showed that in the 12 (out of 26) cantons surveyed, the Swiss are increasingly interested in purchasing pistols, rifles and other firearms for private use.
The greatest increase – more than 70% – was measured in canton Vaud, with more than 4,200 applications in 2015, compared with 2,427 in 2014.
There is a general climate of uncertainty and an increased fear of intruders, said Pierre-Olivier Gaudard, head of crime prevention for canton Vaud.
But Martin Boess, director of Swiss crime prevention, warned against the false sense of security that guns bring.
“When there are more guns in circulation, there is a greater danger for society,” he said in an interview on the 10 vor 10 news programme. “That’s shown by experience in places like the United States. When there are more guns, there are more accidents with guns.”
In Switzerland, with more than 8 million inhabitants, there are about 2.5 million legal weapons, around half of which are used for Swiss military service.
* * *
And while the Swiss go about their legal business of arming themselves, President Obama is preparing to unleash another weapon – the executive order – to enact gun-control legislation.
Facing stiff resistance to gun-control legislation in Congress, Mr. Obama has signaled that he plans to act on his own. The president has directed administration officials to explore any steps he could take on guns without lawmakers’ help, and he said in his weekly address that he would sit down with Ms. Lynch on Monday “to discuss our options.”
“I get too many letters from parents, and teachers, and kids to sit around and do nothing,” Mr. Obama said in the address, which was released Friday morning.
Gun-control advocates who are familiar with the White House’s plans say Mr. Obama could lay out multiple executive actions as soon as next week, and administration officials have confirmed that recommendations for the president are nearing completion.
White House spokesman Eric Schultz said Mr. Obama asked his team to “scrub existing legal authorities” and assess actions that could be taken administratively.
Free-dom indeed.
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2016-01-01/gun-sales-surge-switzerland-army-chief-warns-arm-yourselves
ACT NOW: Oppose EU Firearms Proposal
Wednesday, December 16th, 2015There are two things you must do to oppose the new EU Firearms Ban Proposals:
First, write all of your MEP representatives (more information below).
Second, sign this petition from Firearms United
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This is a link to a document created by Colin Jenkins and contains contact details of all the MEP’s involved in the committee that is scrutinizing the EU Firearms proposal.
Please use the list carefully to send the committee members relevant and helpful emails that provide answers and information as well as dispelling untruths they may have been told or heard to help them make the decision we want.
This is excellent proactive work, thank you Colin.
Please click on the following image to open the document…
Colin’s original document can be found here
The futility of fighting terrorism with gun control
Wednesday, December 9th, 2015The worst terror attack in the United States since 9/11 has become the occasion for another frenzied, poorly informed push for new gun restrictions.
President Obama gave a prime-time address on the terror threat, in which he resolutely re-affirmed the status quo in the campaign against ISIS. Except that he hopes that gun control, one of the signal political and policy failures of our time, will now be deployed to help foil the apocalyptic terror group.
Almost every time there is a mass shooting, there is a rush to push old gun-control chestnuts regardless of their applicability.
The San Bernardino terror couple didn’t buy their guns at a gun show (making the effort to close the so-called gun-show loophole irrelevant); they weren’t on the terrorism watch list (so the proposal to ban people on the list from buying guns wouldn’t have stopped them); and Syed Farook passed a background check when he bought two handguns (rendering calls for universal background checks moot).
Read the rest at: http://nypost.com/2015/12/07/the-futility-of-fighting-terrorism-with-gun-control/
Brazil Set to Recognize Individual Gun Rights
Friday, November 20th, 2015Supporters say bill will recover lost rights
Brazil’s congress is set to vote on legislation that would eliminate many of its restrictive gun laws and recognize the right for individuals to own guns for self-protection.
“Brazil is an extremely violent country and the state has failed to resolve this problem,” Laudivio Carvalho of the Brazilian Democratic Movement Party, who wrote the legislation, told Time.
“The population needs the right to defend themselves, their family, and their property as they are the ones being attacked. Ninety percent of assaults are being carried out with illegal weapons.”
The bill would remove restrictions that require Brazilian citizens to obtain approval from government officials before purchasing firearms as well as lower the age of ownership from 25 to 21. It would also increase the number of firearms and amount of ammunition Brazilians can purchase each year. However, they would still be limited to nine firearms and 600 rounds of ammunition per year.
Read the rest of the article at: http://freebeacon.com/issues/brazil-set-to-recognize-individual-gun-rights/
Control of Firearms, Energy Union and Neighbourhood Policy Review
Friday, November 20th, 2015Today the European Commission proposed measures on the control of firearms, presented its first State of the Energy Union Report and its review of the European Neighbourhood Policy.
Stronger control of firearms
Today the European Commission adopted a package of measures to make it more difficult to acquire firearms in the European Union, easier to track legally held firearms, strengthen cooperation between Member States and to ensure that deactivated firearms are rendered irreversibly inoperable.
The package of measures on firearms adopted by the College of Commissioners today includes a revision of the Firearms Directive to tighten controls on the acquisition and possession of firearms; a Regulation on common minimum standards for deactivation of firearms. The Commission also announced that it will prepare an action plan against the illegal trafficking of weapons and explosives.
Originally presented in the European Security Agenda adopted in April 2015, the proposals have been significantly accelerated in light of recent events.
President Juncker said: “The recent terrorist attacks on Europe’s people and values were coordinated across borders, showing that we must work together to resist these threats. Today’s proposal, prepared jointly by Commissioners Bieńkowska and Avramopoulos, will help us tackle the threat of weapons falling into the hands of terrorists”. Internal Market and Industry Commissioner Bieńkowska and Commissioner for Migration, Home Affairs and Citizenship Avramopoulos added: “The adoption of the firearms package today is proof of the Commission’s determination to address the new reality we are confronted with”.
H/T: http://ec.europa.eu/news/2015/11/20151118_en.htm
Europa bewapent zich
Wednesday, November 18th, 2015De Europese Unie (EU) wankelt. Kortgeleden verklaarde Europees commissaris Frans Timmermans dat hij bezorgder dan ooit is over de toekomst van de EU. De migratiecrisis heeft verdeeldheid gezaaid onder de lidstaten en een oplossing voor het vraagstuk lijkt verder weg dan ooit. Veel Europeanen maken zich terecht zorgen over de massale volksverhuizing vanuit Afrika evenals het Midden-Oosten en vertrouwen niet langer blindelings op hun wereldvreemde en incompetente leiders. Deze onzekerheid manifesteert zich in een wapenwedloop; een fenomeen dat we sinds de Koude Oorlog niet meer hebben gezien.
Het Midden-Oosten staat in brand, de verhoudingen met Rusland zijn zeer gespannen en de terrorismedreiging is groter dan ooit. De vraag naar strijdkrachten en veiligheidsdiensten voorzien van adequaat materieel en financiering is groot, maar het tegenovergestelde blijkt waar: zowel de krijgsmacht als de veiligheidsdienst zijn kapotbezuinigd. Het Nederlandse leger beschikt niet eens over eigen tanks en soldaten moeten “pang pang” roepen tijdens trainingen wegens een gebrek aan munitie. Tussen 2012 en 2014 is er maar liefst 68 miljoen euro bezuinigd op de AIVD, dat terwijl de veiligheidsdienst gebukt gaat onder een personeelstekort. Zo is er onvoldoende personeel om (potentiële) jihadisten te schaduwen.
Toch kunnen we vaststellen dat er geen sprake is van een conventionele wapenwedloop. De stijging van de verkoop van wapens en andere artikelen in het kader van zelfverdediging wordt veroorzaakt door bezorgde burgers.
Dit fenomeen is goed zichtbaar in Oostenrijk, een land met een relatief liberale wapenwet. Aldaar vliegen vuurwapens als warme broodjes over de toonbank. Vooral shotguns alsook geweren zijn gewild en veel wapenwinkels zijn volledig uitverkocht. Verder is er een interessante ontwikkeling gaande met betrekking tot het klantenprofiel; een substantieel gedeelte van de wapens wordt gekocht door vrouwen.
In Tsjechië ontvouwt zich een vergelijkbaar scenario. Op een bevolking van ongeveer 10.5 miljoen zijn er 290.000 vergunninghouders die samen 785.000 vuurwapens bezitten. Dit aantal zal in de komende tijd echter explosief toenemen. De aanvraag voor wapenvergunningen is bijna verviervoudigd en de eigenaren van wapenwinkels geven aan dat dit voornamelijk te wijten valt aan de migratiecrisis.
Read the rest of the original article here: http://curiales.nl/2015/11/13/europa-vuurwapens-wapenwet/
Brazil eyes ‘Wild West’ gun ownership law
Friday, October 30th, 2015Rio de Janeiro (AFP) – Brazil, which has one of the highest murder tolls on the planet, could soon end most restrictions on gun ownership, risking what one critic called a “Wild West” scenario.
Under the law, anyone over 21, including people accused of crimes or convicted of less than serious crimes, would be allowed to purchase up to nine firearms a year and 50 rounds of ammunition a month.
State employees and public figures, ranging from government inspectors to politicians, would be authorized to carry arms, as would private citizens often in the public eye such as taxi drivers.
At present, weapons can only be bought legally by people obtaining a license on a case-by-case basis.
Read the rest of the story at Yahoo.com
Europe’s Rush to Buy Guns
Tuesday, October 27th, 2015Austrians are arming themselves at record rates in an effort to defend their households against feared attacks from Muslim invaders.
Tens of thousands of Muslim “refugees” have poured into Austria from Hungary and Slovenia in recent months on their way to Germany and Sweden, two wealthy European countries that have laid out the welcome mat for migrants. More than a million will end up in Germany alone by the end of this year, according to estimates from the German government.
Obtaining a working firearm and ammunition in Germany, Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands is practically impossible for the average citizen. Germany, for instance, requires a psychological evaluation, the purchase of liability insurance and verifiable compliance with strict firearms storage and safety rules. And self-defense is not even a valid reason to purchase a gun in these countries.
The laws in Austria, while still strict, are a bit less overbearing.
A Czech TV report confirms that long guns – shotguns and rifles – have been flying off the shelves in Austria, and Austrians who haven’t already purchased a gun may not have a chance to get one for some time. They’re all sold out.
And those arming themselves are primarily women.
Austrians Are Buying Guns
Monday, October 26th, 2015The flood of “refugees” into Austria is continuing without interruption. The Hungarian route has become less active, and traffic is now flowing at a rapid rate through Slovenia instead.
According to the following report from Czech Independent TV, Austrians — especially women — are responding to the presence of all these “New Austrians” by purchasing firearms at a record rate. Many thanks to Xanthippa for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling:
Italian mayor announces fund that will give anyone 250 euros towards the cost of a GUN
Thursday, October 22nd, 2015- Mayor of Borgosesia announced plans for a new firearm fund on Facebook
- Gianluca Buonanno vowed to pay citizens €250 towards the cost of a gun
- He said government’s ‘jail-emptying laws’ failing to protect ‘honest Italians’
- The €250 being offered is about 30 per cent of cost of a small pistol in Italy
An Italian mayor has vowed to pay citizens €250 towards the cost of a gun after accusing the country’s government of failing to protect ‘honest Italians’ with its ‘jail-emptying laws’.
Gianluca Buonanno, the Northern League mayor of Borgosesia in Piedmont, northern Italy, announced his plans for a new firearm fund on Facebook.
He said he was doing so to allow people to ‘defend themselves from delinquents, who the government is privileging’.
Buonanno, who serves as an MEP, has also asked the European Commission to set up a similar fund. The €250 being offered is about 30 per cent of the cost of a small pistol in Italy, according to La Repubblica.
Read full story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3283536/Italian-mayor-announces-fund-250-euros-cost-GUN.html?ITO=1490&
Noting Success Of U.S. Gun Culture, Panama Reverses Gun Control Laws
Thursday, September 17th, 2015The nation of Panama has looked at their rising crime rate and increased gang activity, and has decided that the only think that will stop bad guys with guns is law-abiding citizens with guns.
Criminals, by definition, don’t obey laws. And those intent on committing a crime with a gun will not be deterred by gun control laws. But, with few exceptions, even criminals believe in self-preservation, and are less likely to attack someone capable of fighting back. Hence, the importance of the right to arm and defend oneself and others.
These pro-Second Amendment arguments are familiar to us here in the United States, but the “more guns, less crime” experience of the U.S. is being trumpeted in a somewhat unlikely place: Panama. The Central American nation has been struggling with rising crime, gang activity and forged gun permits. In order to address these problems, and promote personal safety, the government is preparing to lift its ban on firearms imports, in place since 2012, so that citizens may better defend themselves.
Full article at BearingArms.com
Panama Lifts Ban on Gun Imports amid Rising Crime Wave
Friday, August 7th, 2015More Firearms Will Mean Fewer Homicides, Says Public Safety Minister
As Panama deals with increases in crime rates, forged gun permits, and rising gang activity, the government is set to lift the ban on firearm imports, in an effort to promote personal safety.
Public Safety Minister Rodolfo Aguilera said the country will follow in the footsteps of the United States and Switzerland, where the right to bear arms is believed to lead to fewer homicides.
“Everything seems to indicate that there is no direct correlation in the aphorism that says more guns mean more crime,” said Aguilera, who explained that relaxed gun laws have allowed the United States to reduce the homicide rate over the last 20 years.
IAPCAR And SAF Laud Puerto Rico Court Victory For Gun Rights
Thursday, June 25th, 2015A surprising victory for gun rights in Puerto Rico has eliminated the firearms registry and licensing requirements to purchase and carry in the Commonwealth, the Second Amendment Foundation has confirmed.
As of now, according to Sandra Barreras with Ladies of the Second Amendment (LSA), the group that brought the lawsuit, “there is no regulation to purchase or carry (and) all purchases will be handled in accordance with federal firearms regulations.” LSA is affiliated with SAF through the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR).
The class-action lawsuit challenged various articles in Puerto Rico’s gun law, which the court declared unconstitutional. Because of the ruling, Barreras said, Puerto Ricans may now carry openly or concealed without a permit, and they do not need to obtain a permit before purchasing a firearm.
This was a class action lawsuit involving more than 850 individual plaintiffs, she reported to SAF offices. The news was greeted with delight, especially because in reaching its decision, the court cited the Heller and McDonald Supreme Court cases, and the recent ruling in Palmer v. District of Columbia. Both the McDonald and Palmer cases were won by SAF.
“Cumbersome firearms regulations have never prevented criminals from getting their hands on guns,” noted SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “They have only inconvenienced law-abiding citizens, or deprived them outright from exercising their rights under the Second Amendment.”
Gottlieb said the lawsuit was brought in a Puerto Rican Commonwealth court, rather than a federal court. Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and thus is subject to federal court jurisdiction.
“This case turned out better than anyone had really anticipated,” he commented. “We’re very pleased to have played an advisory role in this case, and if there is a government appeal, we’ll definitely be there with whatever support we can provide to our good friends in Puerto Rico.”
Media Release – NFA WINS AGAIN AT SUPREME COURT OF CANADA
Thursday, April 16th, 2015Speaking from Prince George, BC, NFA President Sheldon Clare expressed the association’s pleasure at today’s decision of the SCC which struck down mandatory minimum sentencing in Regina v. Nur. “This is a great day and a very good decision for all Canadians,” Clare stated. “Once again judges will be able to use their discretion when sentencing and be able to make sentences proportional to the offence. It simply wasn’t right to have people at risk of mandatory prison terms for what amounts to paperwork or technical offences that are victimless crimes under Canadian firearms law. We are very grateful to our lawyer Solomon Friedman, of the Ottawa firm Edelson, Clifford, D’Angelo, Friedman for his work on our case, as we are to lawyer Guy Lavergne for his efforts on the victory for Quebec firearms owners on the recent registry case. We are now two wins and no losses at the Supreme Court of Canada. This situation is a clear demonstration of just how effective the NFA team is in these legal matters.”
Clare continued, “No other firearms organization in Canada has developed the expertise and resources to take these matters forward at such a level, and obtain these results. This circumstance is the result of years of hard work by volunteers leading the organization and a dedicated staff supporting those efforts. We are very pleased, both with this strong majority decision by the court, and also with the diverse nature of the interveners who participated to argue against mandatory minimum sentencing. As one can see the NFA is an independent organization that engages in critical analysis to the benefit of firearms owners. On the Quebec registry decision, we supported the federal government’s position, and in Regina v. Nur, we took a position opposing the federal government. On both matters our position was upheld as the right one, and we will continue to advocate with vigour for improving the rights of Canadian firearms owners.”
Canada’s National Firearms Association is this country’s largest and most effective advocacy organization representing the interests of firearms owners and users.
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For more information contact:
Kyrgyzstan Legalizes Firearms Use For Self-Defense
Thursday, April 16th, 2015BISHKEK — Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambaev has endorsed amendments to the country’s Criminal Code allowing individuals to use firearms in self-defense.
The presidential press service said on March 4 the amendments give Kyrgyz individuals the right to use firearms to protect their lives, health, and property against intruders.
The bill was initiated by lawmakers Feliks Kulov, Tatyana Levina, Eristina Kochkarova, Igor Gusarov, and Kanybek Osmonaliev from Ar-Namys (Dignity) party.
They argued that the amendments were needed because of what they called “insufficient measures by the government to protect private property” in Kyrgyzstan.
Ownership of hunting guns with a police-issued permit has been allowed for years in Kyrgyzstan, but their use in self-defense had been forbidden until now.
Charlie Hebdo Massacre: France Gun Control Debate Unlikely To Spring Up After Paris Shooting, Experts Say
Friday, January 9th, 2015Like many European Union nations, France has strict gun-control laws that make it hard for anyone, including law-abiding citizens, to own firearms. And it’s unlikely that will change after three gunmen opened fire at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo’s office in Paris on Wednesday, killing 12 people, including two police officers.
Gary Mauser, a professor at the Institute for Canadian Urban Research Studies at Simon Fraser University in British Columbia, who has written extensively on European gun control, said any proposals to change France’s gun laws after the massacre probably wouldn’t get very far. “The Europeans are unlikely to change legislation in order to encourage civilians to arm themselves for protection,” he said. “The armed guards at Charlie Hebdo were professionals and they were killed by the terrorists — and without wounding their attackers.”
Mark Barnes, director of the International Association for the Protection of Civil Arms Rights in Washington, D.C., said the gun-control debate is long over for Europe. “It’s certainly a logical question to ask, because it is so engrained in Europe that the state is responsible for protecting its citizens,” said Barnes. “What you have to recognize is that the right to self-defense is shaped much differently in Europe … It will be interesting to see if this does lead to a legitimate discussion.”
The most recent self-defense debate in France played out in 2013 after a 67-year-old jeweler shot and killed a 19-year-old man who robbed his store at gunpoint and beat him in the process. Stephan Turk, the jeweler, killed Anthony Asli with an unregistered gun and was charged with voluntary homicide for shooting Asli in the back as he ran from the store. Many in France defended Turk.
The right-wing National Front, whose candidate Marine La Pen finished third in the presidential race behind François Hollande and Nicolas Sarkozy in 2012, also defended Turk, saying his decision to defend himself was indicative of a lack of trust “in the state or the forces of order,” according to the New Yorker.
The Charlie Hebdo attack, however, involved illegal guns and probably won’t prompt policy changes, experts said. “Unfortunately, they don’t debate in Europe,” said Gottlieb. “They have no Second Amendment rights or anything like it, so as far as they are concerned, there is no debate.”
Before European gun-rights advocates can even think about repealing strict gun laws in their countries, they have to make the case for having a debate in the first place, he said. “[Those groups] are dealing with being able to just own firearms and trying to make self-defense a legitimate issue,” Gottlieb said. “You don’t just have the laws of individual countries, you have EU laws, too. … Part of the debate is ‘Should the EU get to dictate to countries or should member states be able to decide for themselves?’”
The EU requires member states to have a set of minimum gun-control laws, including stringent background-check laws, to ensure that a gun buyer is “not likely to be a danger to themselves, to public order or to public safety.” The EU considers a conviction for a past violent intentional crime as “indicative of such danger.” Member states are free to enact stricter gun-control laws.
There are an average of 31 guns per 100 people in France, making it the 11th highest in global gun ownership per capita, according to Deseret News. As a general rule, “firearms which have no legitimate sporting or recreational use are not permitted entry into France,” according to the French Embassy in Washington, D.C.
Despite strong gun-control laws across the EU, there is still some appetite for even stricter laws. A 2013 poll found 53 percent of Europeans wanted stricter laws on who can own, buy or sell guns. Roughly 58 percent wanted laws to be more uniform across the bloc. In an op-ed in late 2013, Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet called for more cooperation between EU nations to reduce smuggling by sharing information and closing down smuggling routes.
The gunmen who attacked the Charlie Hebdo offices used AK-47 Kalashnikov assault rifles, which are some of the cheapest and most ubiquitous assault rifles in the world. An AK-47 typically sells for around $1,100 to $1,800 in France on the black market, according to Bloomberg.
If there arises a debate in France following the Charlie Hebdo attack, said Barnes, it will be over national security and gun trafficking, not gun rights.
IAPCAR Representative Addresses UN General Assembly First Committee
Wednesday, October 29th, 2014UN General Assembly
First Committee
October 28, 2014
[Downloadable PDF of First Committee SAF-IAPCAR Statement]
Statement of the Second Amendment Foundation
I am Julianne Versnel of the Second Amendment Foundation. I would like to address the topic of violence against women and the natural right of self-defense, especially as it pertains to women.
Mr. Chairman, more people die every day from malaria than are murdered by small arms in three days.1
More women and children die from starvation each day than are murdered by small arms in a 15 day period.2
More women die3 each day due to urgent medical care4 being denied them by systems that allow their male relatives to refuse care every day than are murdered by small arms.
More women are living in isolation because of societal ostracization caused by physical and mental disfigurements inflicted on them by men each year than are murdered with small arms. The acid burn victims in India,5 the 12 year old dehumanized brides,6 in Afghanistan, the women raped by armed-gangs in Mexico,7 and the mutilated, and do not forget murdered, victims of honor violence that occurs even in Europe, the Americas and Australia8 are just a few examples of these unspeakable crimes against women.
Gender violence9 often is perpetrated by male familial members of their families who do so with immunity and impunity–and in many instances with governments turning a blind eye,–condoning or even endorsing–the violence. To quote Amnesty International: “Perpetrators of violence against women are rarely held accountable for their acts. Women who are victims of gender-related violence often have little recourse because many state agencies are themselves guilty of gender bias and discriminatory practices. Violence against women is so deeply embedded in society that it often fails to garner public censure and outrage.”10
Mr. Chairman, the United Nations recognizes the right of governments to defend themselves, and to possess the means of doing so. Yet this body perpetuates the situation that keeps the number of women victims growing by denying them, and in fact all human beings, the means to–and decrying even their right to—defend themselves. They are the victims not of small arms, but of political philosophies and state policies that say only governments are worthy of defending themselves. To argue that people have the right to live but not to defend their lives is to argue in favor of continuing to keep women at risk of criminal violence in places where government does little to protect them.
Mr. Chairman, this body must address the right of women to defend themselves and their right to have the physical means–including firearms—of doing so. Or, acknowledge the hypocrisy inherent in proclaiming support for women’s causes while keeping them vulnerable to male-perpetuated criminal violence.11
Thank you.
Endnotes
1. According to UNODC statistics there are 538 homicides worldwide each day. See http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/statistics/Homicide/Globa_study_on_homicide_2011_web.pdf. There are an estimated 1718 deaths from malaria every day. See http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/malaria/en/ According to UN estimates there will be almost 10,000 cases per week of Ebola. With an anticipated 70% mortality rate, there would be 1000 deaths per day from this disease.
2. According to http://www.wfp.org/hunger/stats, 8493 children die each day from hunger.
3. 315 thousand women die in developing countries from hemorrhage at childbirth each year, 863 each day. See http://www.wfp.org/hunger/who-are.This does not include death from disease and other causes where a male family member will not allow a female family member to receive medical care. For example, in some parts of Africa, a midwife cannot even be called to help with a birth without male permission.
4. There are an estimate 2-4 million women with an obstetric fistula in Africa. There are between 50 and 100 thousand more cases per year. This serious medical condition is caused by a lack of essential medical care. See http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/obstetric_fistula/en/
5. There are an estimated one thousand acid attacks each year. See http://techcrunch.com/2013/08/02/acid-victims-crowdfund-treatment/.
6. One in four girls globally are child brides; they are married before the age of 15. These girls are more likely to have a large number of children, a low level of education, and less likely to receive medical care during pregnancy. See http://data.unicef.org/corecode/uploads/document6/uploaded_pdfs/corecode/Child-Marriage-Brochure-7_17-HR_164.pdf)
7. See http://www.ipsnews.net/2014/06/mexico-rape-victims-face-prison-time-for-self-defence/ and http://globalvoicesonline.org/2013/11/26/machismo-and-old-prejudices-keep-mexican-rape-victims-silent/
8. See http://www.meforum.org/2646/worldwide-trends-in-honor-killings. In 2000, the UN estimated that there were approximately 5000 honor murders per year. This figure only includes killings, not mutilation. See http://nypost.com/2014/06/26/honor-killings-daughter-worked-with-feds-to-catch-father-making-threats/, http://www.mapsofworld.com/poll/is-honor-killing-honorable-facts-infographic-text.html
9. “There is one universal truth, applicable to all countries, cultures and communities: violence against women is never acceptable, never excusable, never tolerable.”
United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon (2008)
10. See http://www.amnestyusa.org/our-work/issues/women-s-rights/violence-against-women/violence-against-women-information for complete quote.
11. Additionally:
• Women are by natural usually pacifists. They are the first to agree to non-violence policies and the first to be victimized by those policies.
• Women are statistically going to be victimized.
• The current policies have created and institutionalized a policy of violence against women.
• There is a cultural norm that allows women to expect safety in public but not in private, and increasingly not even in public.
• Violence against women is female reality. Over the past eight years, at least 40,000 women were killed in India alone in dowry deaths despite several new legislative actions in recent years.
• The lack of access to small arms does not stop violence against women. Rather it enables its escalation as perpetrators know that their victims are unable to defend themselves.
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, The Declaration on the Elimination of Violence Against Women and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) are violated by not allowing women a means to self-defense.
• There are numerous other reasons for and causes of femicide: gender selection abortions, female genital mutilation, human trafficking, murder of female babies at birth, etc. that are not addressed.
• It is estimated that 35.6% percent of women globally have experienced physical or sexual violence during their lifetimes. This is more than 1.2 billion women. As the 2011 Global Study on Homicide shows, gender-based violence affects a large number of women worldwide and represents a serious threat to the harmonious development of societies.
JEWS FOR THE PRESERVATION OF FIREARMS OWNERSHIP JOINS INTERNATIONAL COALITION AGAINST GUN CONTROL
Wednesday, September 10th, 2014The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) announced today that Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership (JPFO) have joined the international coalition of 30 associations in 21 countries dedicated to defending civilian firearms rights.
JPFO was founded in 1989 and initially aimed at educating the Jewish community about the historical evils that Jews and other minorities have suffered when they have been disarmed, JPFO has always welcomed persons of all religious beliefs who share the common goal of opposing and reversing victim disarmament policies, while advancing liberty for all.
By joining IAPCAR, JPFO will now be able to increase the reach of its activities worldwide.
“We stand for the rights of people in all countries, of any religion or race that wish to exercise their right to use firearms for legitimate purposes, including self-defense,” IAPCAR’s Executive Director Philip Watson said. “I am personally very happy to have JPFO as our newest ally in the fight against totalitarian countries and the United Nations attempts to advance treaties and policies that limit people’s access to the means of the human right of self-defense.
“The addition of JPFO to the IAPCAR coalition is another important step for the preservation of firearms rights in the battle against international gun control forces,” said Alan Gottlieb, IAPCAR’s co-founder and new board member of JPFO.
“Religious minorities have the most to lose when nations start to eliminate the means of self-defense,” Gottlieb said. “We should never forget the past history of genocide when nations disarm their people.”
IAPCAR Director Julianne Versnel, who is also the Second Amendment Foundation’s Director of Operations, submitted testimony to the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) objecting to not protecting civilian arms rights in the ATT. “Nothing that is in an Arms Trade Treaty should affect a woman’s right to defend herself,” Versnel told the delegates.
The IAPCAR civilian arms rights coalition is focused on opposition to the ATT, which has passed the U.N. General Assembly and has been made available for individual countries to ratify. The ATT does not acknowledge or protect civilian arms rights or recognize the right to self-defense in its enforceable language.
The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (www.iapcar.org) is the only worldwide political action group focusing on the human right to keep and bear arms. Founded in 2010, IAPCAR has grown to 30 major gun-rights organizations in 21 countries and conducts campaigns designed to inform the public and promote the right of self-defense and gun-ownership.
UN on ‘Collision Course’ with Civilian Arms Rights
Thursday, June 19th, 2014The United Nations is “on a collision course” with the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment and the natural right of all people to defend themselves,” the Second Amendment Foundation said today in a statement to the U.N.’s Programme of Action (POA) meeting in New York.
SAF Operations Director Julianne Versnel told the committee that “the POA and other UN efforts repeatedly and vociferously discuss gender issues.”
“They acknowledge that women are disproportionally the victims of horrendous violence, sometimes even perpetrated by their own governments or others in power,” Versnel said. “Yet, they turn a blind eye to the reality that women have a right to defend themselves and are capable of doing so. The Programme of Action seems unable to acknowledge anything beyond the simplistic notion that civilian firearms are inherently evil. The right of women, indeed the right of men and women, to self-defense is a human right.”
The U.N. has failed to recognize this human right, she stated, whether it deals with POA activities, the infamous Arms Trade Treaty or even its own Human Rights Council.
“This is not a geographically limited issue and a growing number of organizations consider it vital,” she said. “In fact, the Second Amendment Foundation along 20 other civilian firearms rights groups from six continents came together in 2008 to form the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms (IAPCAR). IAPCAR intends to vigorously pursue the right to self-defense in every possible venue.”
Versnel criticized a 2006 report by Barbara Frey with the UN Human Rights Council that “refused the idea that there is a right to have arms for self-defense and furthermore rejected any concept of self-defense as a human right. It also went on to say that states had a duty to engage in gun control. The kind of gun controls makes self-defense impossible.”
Frey’s report was titled Prevention of Human Rights Violations Committed with Small Arms and Light Weapons.
“These conclusions were outrageous,” Versnel stated. “These erroneous concepts have spread at the UN. It appears that Peru introduced a resolution at the UN Human Rights Council, based on the Frey report that, in essence, demanded that all states institute strict civilian gun control. NGOs are starting to base their opposition to firearms on the Frey report at the expense of recognizing an individual’s right to self-defense.”
While acknowledging that the question cannot be resolved quickly, Versnel promised to “debate this in any venue, at any time, at any place.”
Gunowners in Peru gain small victory against anti-gun odds
Wednesday, May 28th, 2014Original story via: TheGunMag.com
by Art Merrill
Anti-gun rights and anti-hunting groups from the US and abroad are very active in Central and South America, with the intent to outflank and overrun US gun owners from that direction. But a fledgling movement to fight the complete eradication of hunting and civilian gun ownership in the Southern Hemisphere has succeeded in introducing legislation in Peru to instead expand the rights of owners under a draconian gun control system.
“We achieved a landmark … when a Peruvian congressman introduced a bill favoring the position of the firearms community,” said J. Thomas Saldias, coordinator of the Coalicion por un Peru Libre de Armas ILEGALES (Coalition for a Peru Free of ILLEGAL Firearms). “The bill is significant because it’s the first bill in the region that favors the position of shooters and hunters.”
The bill is a beginning on a very long road to secure some firearms rights that gunowners in the US will find familiar, and some they would consider restrictive and invasive; but in Latin American countries like Peru, where ownership is strictly controlled and limited to only four firearms per person, any inroad at all is a positive step. The bill now before the Peruvian Congress stipulates the establishment of:
• A national registry of convicted felons, with the purpose of denying them possession of firearms, similar to the NICS check in the US;
• Mandatory training for all gun owners, both in firearms handling and in current laws;
• Using the US ATF definition of “antique” and “collectible,” and removing the current requirement that such firearms be de-milled by drilling the chambers;
• A registration card for each firearm with no expiration date;
• A CCW permit, and
• Requiring military members to register their personal firearms with the same government agency as civilians, rather than with their military branch.
Peru is not alone. Other Latin Americans are trying to rally against an organized and methodical assault on gun ownership orchestrated by Oxfam International, International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), Open Society, the Latin American Parliament (Parliamentary Forum on Small Arms) and the Latin American Coalition for the Prevention of Gun Violence (CLAVE).
“Even some governments, such as the governments of Belgium, UK, Australia, Norway and Sweden have been very proactive in promoting coercive measures in our region,” Saldias said.
According to Saldias, finances for these anti-rights and anti-hunting forces also stream from North American sources, such as: the Rockefeller Foundation; Compton Foundation; John and Catherine McArthur Foundation; Samuel Rubin Foundation, and the Ploughshares Fund.
Saldias said Small Arms Control, with more than 100 member organizations operating offices in 120 countries, is the most active anti-rights group in Mexico. “It is led by Rebecca Peters, an Australian native who moved to New York,” Saldias said. “She is directly funded by [anti-rights billionaire] George Soros.”
Foreign anti-rights influences are so powerful in Latin America that the Coalition had been working since May 2013 to get backing for their bill in the Peruvian Congress. The Coalition finally got in the door of Congressman Juan Carlos Eguren last November and Eguren introduced the bill Mar. 14.
Seeing the bill pass as written may be too much to expect, but its introduction alone is a victory. “The most important thing about this bill is that it reverses a trend that has been always restrictive and confiscatory,” Saldias said.
Brazilian disarmament: an undisputed failure
Wednesday, May 28th, 2014Brazilian disarmament: an undisputed failure
By Fabricio Rebelo
The public security field should be immune to ideological experiments, because it’s subjects are individuals, the citizens who make up the population of a country. Thus, when the experiment fails, it is this subject that ends up dying, and this is, unfortunately, what’s going on in Brazil again and again.
The country chose the wrong path when it perceived the serious homicidal violence framework in which it was immersed, seeking solutions that were far from the real cause of the problem and that, only, intended to transfer the responsibility for it to society. The results were catastrophic and, today, the Brazilian killer framework is the worst since it began to be measured almost 35 years ago.
The data are available on the 2014 Edition Preview “Map of violence”, the country’s most trusted and who has official recognition by the Ministry of Justice, for it is based on the Mortality information System (SIM), from the Ministry of Health. According to that, the country of the Soccer World Cup and the next Olympic Games has reached, in 2012, the most recent year with recorded data, its absolute annual homicides record: 56,337 victims, with the highest historical rate since the beginning of the registry (in 1980), amazing 29 murders per 100 K inhabitants.
Those are impressive numbers, higher, even, than those of countries at war. The explanation, although it can include more complex aspects, like everything else in public safety, features a predominant factor to the further the severity of the frame: the error of the civilian disarmament.
The disarmament concept was officially introduced in Brazil in 1997, when the first effectively restrictive of gun-bearing law was enacted (bill # 9,437/97), through which the National System of Weapons-SINARM, intended for strict control of legal weapons circulation, was also created. A few years later, at the end of 2003, the law became even more restrictive, with the “Disarmament Statute”, which had as its major goal precisely to reduce the amount of murders in the country. It was, actually, putting into practice of a disarmament ideology drawn up by the UN long before, although without any proven positive example.
Obviously, it was to no avail. The murders, as seen, have not been reduced, but, on the contrary, they’ve reached their highest number, and what was said to be a magic solution became an unquestioned and grandiose failure. Establishing the prohibition of the possession, as well as carry-on, as a general rule, the Disarmament Statute began to take effect in 2004, the year in which 48,374 homicides were recorded in Brazil . Four years later, with the near extinction of the legal arms trade practice, the numbers came to 50,113 (2008) and since then, there have been on a upward climb until the record of 56,337, registered in 2012.
In the same period, the number of registered weapons in the country plummeted. Of the approximately 8 million records that made up the initial SINARM framework, today there are only about 600 K, due to the great restrictions imposed on the citizen, even for the renewal of those permits that already existed. The law thus does not contribute to the reduction of homicides, but it has actually provoked a massive uncontrolled circulation of arms in the country, producing an effect diametrically opposed to the desired one. The practical reality of the ideological disarmament experiment ended up indicating that the reduction of weapons legally in circulation generates an increase in the amount of intentionally violent deaths.
This increase is not hard to understand. The problem is that disarmament policies in Brazil or in other countries, only have the possibility to affect the crimes of passion, those treated in the “Global Study on Homicide-2014” by the UN itself as “interpersonal” crimes”, committed on impulse and for which the legal possession of a firearm could be a facilitator. However, the participation of these crimes in the total amount of homicides in Brazil is minute, as in the country, according to the same study, the predominant cause for murders is the usual practice of criminal activity-homicides related to other criminals activities, namely, the Brazilian murders are in direct relation with other crimes, mainly drug trafficking and theft.
While Brazil insisted on disarmament policies that only made the citizens vulnerable, the country failed to battle the criminal activities of which the murders actually stem. Without being in the focus of public security policies and with society turning gradually helpless, crime was strengthened and, with that, more and more deaths are being recorded.
This framework is extremely worrying. The increased rate of homicides from 2011 to 2012 reached 7% and their absolute number has already settled in 50 Ks for 5 years. If the focus is not changed and public security policies fail to see the responsibly citizen armed as an ally rather than an enemy, the year 2016 might bring some more records to Brazil, however without any connection with the Olympic Games that are going to happen here, but having everything to do with those who, victimized by criminals, won’t be able to attend them.
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Fabricio Rebelo, Bachelor of Law, is a researcher in public safety for the Movimento Viva Brazil NGO: http://www.mvb.org.br/
MANILA: SC gets 2 petitions vs gun control law
Wednesday, March 26th, 2014MANILA – Two petitions have been filed with the Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday that seek to nullify certain provisions of Republic Act (RA) No. 10591, also known as the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act of 2013.
The law, signed on May 25, 2013, has become controversial for imposing stricter requirements for obtaining firearm licenses, and stiffer penalties for violators.
The Peaceful Respondent Owners of Guns, Inc. (Progun) filed its petition against the Philippine National Police (PNP), alleging grave abuse of discretion on the part of the PNP for ordering the centralization of all firearms requirements, testing, and licensing in its headquarters in Camp Crame, Quezon City.
The group said this is “arbitrary, whimsical, and so difficult to comply with,” considering that there are 1.5 million licensed gun owners in the country spread all over the regions.
Progun also hit the law for being violative of the constitutional guarantee against unreasonable searches, for providing that “all firearms applicants and owners under compulsion to ‘waive’ their right [to] the privacy of their homes and allow the police to enter their dwelling under the guise of inspection.”
National gun control lobby pushes for a dangerous weapons search in Tasmania
Friday, March 21st, 2014Via ABC.NET.AU
The national gun control lobby wants more resources put into finding dangerous weapons hidden in the Tasmanian community.
On Monday police in Devonport seized a semi-automatic assault rifle and other unregistered firearms from a local property.
Only a few assault rifles have been seized in Tasmania since they were outlawed after the Port Arthur massacre in 1996.
Detective senior sergeant Joanne Stolp says police believe there are more in the community.
“They have just never come to light because either searches haven’t been conducted or people have forgotten about them lying around,” she said.
Roland Browne from Gun Control Australia says police need more resources to find the guns.
“They are liable to be stolen, we can’t rely on people handing them in,” he said.
Police say no semi-automatic rifles have been used in crimes in Tasmania since 1996.
‘Coordinated attacks’ by global anti-gunners gain sweeping victories at America’s doorstep
Tuesday, January 21st, 2014by Art Merrill | TGM Correspondent (Original Article Via TheGunMag.com)
Meeting fierce opposition on frontal assaults against America’s strong pro-rights defenses, anti-gun forces have successfully penetrated the US back door of Latin American countries, where they intend a domino effect of harsh restrictions and bans to eventually topple gun ownership in the US.
“The anti-gun and anti-hunting groups are well organized and well-funded in the region and they are gaining momentum,” said J. Thomas Saldias, executive director of the Latin American Coalition for Legal Firearms (CALL). “We have already several countries in which hunting has been banned; in the majority, gun ownership is under attack. Unfortunately, we are facing tremendous adversaries with no assistance or funding from the firearms industry.”
Small pro-gun rights groups in seven Latin American nations—Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru and Uruguay—have banded together as CALL to raise awareness and fight for gun ownership. According to Saldias, CALL is struggling against the very step-by-step model that anti-gun organizations employ in the US and elsewhere in their goal to eventually completely disarm the civilian populace.
“Their idea is to put up so many barriers that you get tired of fighting,” Saldias said.
The difference is that they are succeeding in Latin America.
Total Bans
Here are some of Saldias’ examples of increasing restrictions Latin American gun owners have recently experienced:
-Peru has limited gun ownership to only four firearms, 2 handguns and two long guns—period.
-Bolivia passed a “temporary” ban on importing firearms and ammunition, and Ecuador then followed suit. Bolivia’s ban is in its third year, but Ecuador dropped the ban.
-In Argentina the government publishes gun owners’ names and addresses on a public access website.
-In Chile, citizens can buy and possess firearms, but all firearms are legally the property of the government, which can recall them at any time by Presidential decree.
-According to the Venezuelan Hunting Federation, before Chavez came to power they used to sell over 20,000 hunting licenses per year; now, that number is less than 1,000.
-Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic have totally banned all hunting.
-Paraguay narrowly missed passing legislation to ban lead hunting ammo and now the same proposal is in front of Argentine legislators. Such a ban would be disastrous. “There are no alternatives to lead ammunition in Latin America,” Saldias said. “A ban would effectively end all hunting.”
No Pro-Rights Lobby
Identical proposed legislation is being repeated in country after country, Saldias said, proving a coordinated attack by organized anti-gun forces.
“In fact,” he said, “once the hunting ban had passed in Costa Rica, immediately the same project was presented in Argentina.”
The anti-rights legislation is being introduced and backed by deep pockets, including IANSA (the international lobbying organization intent on banning all private gun ownership worldwide through the United Nations), several US non-profit foundations and the governments of Australia, Belgium, Norway and the UK, Saldias said.
Latin American citizens are a vulnerable target for anti-gun interests and repressive governments because, Saldias said, they have no pro-gun rights lobbying powers at all.
“No one is lobbying legislators [for pro-gun rights],” Saldias said. Lacking any voice or legal clout, gun owners have no recourse. “Everybody hides, everybody runs away,” he said.
CALL formed in the image of US pro-gun rights groups like SAF to give gun owners a chance to stand their ground and fight back via legal action and lobbying. Lobbying requires money, and many Latin American economies don’t have a large middle class—or any middle class at all—that is typically a major source of donations for pro-rights causes, such as in the US. Without opposition lobbying, the anti-gun factions have made rapid progress infiltrating their agenda into Latin American legislation.
Who Cares?
Why should we care about these internal issues in Latin American countries? After all, we have our own Second Amendment battles to fight here at home. Because apart from pure altruism, the desire to help others fighting the same ideological fight as one’s own, history shows that isolationism ultimately fails 100% of the time. To protect US interests President Monroe in 1823 presented what became known as the Monroe Doctrine, a declaration that any interference into the Americas by European nations would be considered an act of aggression. Whether or not this doctrine is applicable in fact or in principle to the foreign groups and governments orchestrating legislative outcomes in Latin America today, Saldias pointed out the threat to US citizens is very close to home.
“What happens in your own back yard influences you more than when further away,” he said.
Banning gun ownership in Latin America will also have a major economic impact on the US firearms and the outdoors industry, Saldias said. All businesses must either grow, stagnate or wither away; Latin American countries represent vast potential markets for the US outdoors industry, both in direct sales and in the countless additional North American hunters who would outfit themselves to hunt down south if given the opportunity. Because the industry is committed to firearms rights in the US, Saldias hopes that industry leaders will understand the commercial loss and threat to North Americans’ rights if the anti-rights forces completely prevail in Central and South America.
A CALL TO ACTION
According to Saldias, CALL is tackling three serious challenges simultaneously: unifying the many different pro-gun rights groups from the independent Latin American nations; sharing information and human resources among them, and a lack of funds and financial streams. The first two challenges CALL will have to work out on its own. CALL is turning to its northern neighbor for assistance with the third.
“It is to our mutual benefit that the [US outdoors] industry help us,” Saldias pointed out. Without that assistance, the pervasive and accelerating encroachment of total civilian disarmament and criminalizing of hunting now occurring in Latin America will become an enormous political weapon against both the US shooting sports industry and US citizens alike.
CALL is still in its formative stages and debuted in the US at a National Shooting Sports Foundation’s SHOT Show press conference in January 2014. Working with the assistance of Safari Club International (SCI) and the World Forum on Shooting Activities (WFSA), CALL hopes to soon have solid backing from the US outdoors industry in their fight to stop the global anti-gun forces and regain their lost freedoms.
SIDEBAR
CALL’s objectives
The International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) is rapidly succeeding in advancing its agenda to completely disarm all civilians in Latin America by making access to firearms increasingly complex and costly for law-abiding citizens. In response, the Latin American Coalition for Legal Firearms (CALL) has objectives that sound familiar to North American gun owners; among them are:
-To promote education and training in the safe and responsible use of firearms;
-To promote sport shooting and hunting, and wildlife conservation, and
-To promote the universal right to self-defense.
CALL has a facebook community at http://www.facebook.com/armaslegales
SIDEBAR
Who is WFSA?
The World Forum on Shooting Activities (WFSA) is an international association of about 50 member organizations dedicated to shooting, hunting and pro-gun rights. It is a non-governmental organization (NGO) recognized by the UN Economic and Social Council.
According to information on the WFSA website, “The WFSA is a pro-active advocacy organization, working in concert with international bodies, national governments and regulatory authorities, for the worldwide promotion and preservation of sport shooting activities.” The stated purpose is, “to further the study, preservation, promotion and protection of sport shooting activities on every continent.”
Member groups in the US include the Second Amendment Foundation, Safari Club International, National Rifle Association, National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association and National Shooting Sports Foundation. http://www.wfsa.net/
French Gun Rights Group Joins Growing International Coalition Against Gun Control
Tuesday, December 24th, 2013The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) announced today that French gun rights group National Union of Owners Arms Hunting and Shooting (UNPACT) have joined the international coalition of 29 associations in 21 countries dedicated to defending civilian firearms rights.
UNPACT’s membership in the civilian arms rights coalition expands the European membership to eleven groups from eleven different EU and non-EU countries.
“We’re on the side of everyday people in all countries that wish to exercise their right to use firearms for legitimate purposes, including self-defense,” IAPCAR’s Executive Director Philip Watson said. “We’re very pleased to have UNPACT as our newest ally in the fight against extremist groups and individuals attempting to diminish firearms and self-defense rights.”
Gilles Proffit, UNPACT’s Secretary General recently issued a statement critical of an EU ‘White Paper’ proposing new regulatory schemes aimed at curtailing the legitimate ownership of commonly used firearms.
“European citizens cannot and shall not any further trust people, be they designated or elected, who do not trust them,” Proffit said. “They have long memories and will remind voters in all EU countries of this incredible matter in due course every time a national or European ballot comes up.”
IAPCAR and its affiliates issued a call to action last May on the newly proposed EU firearms regulations. The result of public input across Europe was over 92 percent opposed to the new restrictions.
IAPCAR Director Julianne Versnel, who is also the Second Amendment Foundation’s Director of Operations, submitted testimony to the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) meeting in March objecting to the exclusion of civilian arms rights from the ATT. “Nothing that is in an Arms Trade Treaty should affect a woman’s right to defend herself,” Versnel told the delegates.
The IAPCAR civilian arms rights coalition is focused on opposition to the ATT, which has passed the U.N. General Assembly and was made available for countries to sign on June 3. The ATT does not acknowledge or protect civilian arms rights or recognize the right to self-defense in its enforceable language.
The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (www.iapcar.org) is the only worldwide political action group focusing on the human right to keep and bear arms. Founded in 2010, IAPCAR has grown to 29 major gun-rights organizations in 21 countries and conducts campaigns designed to inform the public and promote the right of self-defense and gun-ownership.
Civilian Arms Rights News: Philippines, Iceland, Uganda
Wednesday, December 4th, 2013Philippines Launches Digital System for Gun Licensing
Uganda: Senior Lord’s Resistance Army Commander Dead
EU fires first salvo for stricter gun control
Thursday, November 14th, 2013(Video available at linked story)
Gun crime is on the rise in Europe with the Schengen open border policy making it easier for criminals to move weapons across the continent.
In addition, Brussels says as many as 500,000 legally registered guns have been lost or stolen.
The European Union wants action, however any tightening of EU gun laws is likely to impact on registered owners.
Europe’s gun lobby is dead set against stricter regulation arguing that criminals already operate outside the law and more stringent measures will in no way stem the flow of black market weaponry.
Gun Trade World Article: Arms Trade Treaty Under Scrutiny
Monday, November 11th, 2013Feature story in November 2013 print edition of Gun Trade World.
Available online linked here.
THREE GROUPS JOIN GROWING INTERNATIONAL COALITION AGAINST GUN CONTROL
Monday, November 11th, 2013The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) announced today that civilian arms rights groups in the Ukraine, Moldova, and Belarus have joined the international coalition of 28 associations in 20 countries dedicated to the preservation and defense of civilian firearms rights.
After meeting in Moscow for the second Right to Arms Congress the Ukrainian Gun Owners Association, Moldova’s Practical Shooting Association, and the Association of Practical Shooting in Belarus agreed join the growing coalition of civilian arms rights organizations.
“The global coalition of like-minded civilian arms rights groups is unified with greater strength in Europe now more than ever before,” IAPCAR’s Executive Director Philip Watson said. “I think most people agree with the right of self-defense, that’s why our coalition just continues to grow.”
The three groups will expand the European membership of IAPCAR to ten groups from ten different EU and non-EU countries.
IAPCAR directors Julianne Versnel and Alan Gottlieb attended and addressed the two day Right to Arms Congress in Moscow Russia held on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1. The conference was hosted by Russia’s IAPCAR affiliate Right to Arms, and featured pro civilian arms rights speakers and exhibitions from Russia and around the world.
A representative to the U.N., Versnel, who is also the Second Amendment Foundation’s Director of Operations, submitted testimony to the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) meeting in March objecting to the exclusion of civilian arms rights from the ATT. “Nothing that is in an Arms Trade Treaty should affect a woman’s right to defend herself,” Versnel told the delegates.
The IAPCAR civilian arms rights coalition is focused on opposition to the ATT, which has passed the U.N. General Assembly and was made available for countries to sign on June 3. The ATT does not acknowledge or protect civilian arms rights or recognize the right to self-defense in its enforceable language.
The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (www.iapcar.org) is the only worldwide political action group focusing on the human right to keep and bear arms. Founded in 2010, IAPCAR has grown to 28 major gun-rights organizations in 20 countries and conducts campaigns designed to inform the public and promote the right of self-defense and gun-ownership.
Russian Gun Rights Congress
Wednesday, November 6th, 2013The II Congress of the movement of The Right to Arms was held on Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 2013. IAPCAR Directors Julianne Versnel and Alan Gottlieb attended and addressed the conference. Also in attendance was Gary Burris, President of U.S. IAPCAR affiliate group LSSA. Representatives of various regions of Russia, political parties, countries, associations, and public officials, met to discuss issues of international cooperation, the development of weapons of culture and improvement of state regulation in the field of weapons legislation.
Articles and pictures on the conference also available from the IAPCAR affiliate Right to Arms here and here.
Russian Gun Rights Congress
By Gary Burris, LSSA President
The Lone Star Shooting Association (LSSA) was invited to speak at the All-Russian Gun Rights Congress held in Moscow, Russia, on 31 October 2013. Chairman of that organization, Maria Butina, invited a number of the members of the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) to the meeting. Our good friends Alan Gottlieb and Julianne Versnel were there representing the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA) as well as IAPCAR.
Maria asked me to address the Gun Rights Congress on a series of questions regarding American citizens’ gun rights.
Here in the USA we have to constantly be on guard to protect our gun rights guaranteed by the Second Amendment to our Constitution. In my opinion there are three main groups of people who are a threat to our human right of self-preservation and self-defense.
First there is the ignorant group. I believe this to be the largest group and perhaps the easiest to deal with. The people in this group are for the most part well intentioned. They are under the false assumption that if you had laws restricting the use of firearms by law-abiding citizens then violent crimes involving firearms will stop. Logic and statistics will go a long way in correcting this misconception, after all criminals do not obey laws by definition. So, part of the mission of LSSA is to inform the public and educate them in the use of firearms for recreational and self-defense purposes.
The second group is just plain stupid. I once had a boss who told me that you could fix ignorance with education but that you cannot fix stupid. This group is the most dangerous when it comes to attacking our human right to self-preservation. Typically members of this group are liberal politicians who feel the need to impose their will on the people. And of course they have a large following of stupid people. Even when the majority of citizens who elected them to office are in favor of gun rights, they (being elite and knowing what is best for the masses) will endeavor to remove the citizens’ rights and freedoms “for their own good.” The conclusion is that it is a waste of time to try to deal with this group.
The last group is apathetic. They seem to live in their own world and cannot be bothered with what they consider to be mundane issues that don’t involve them. Often they realize too late that they have lost a freedom by doing nothing. This group is recognizable by their absence from the voting booth. Members of this group are typically young and more concerned about their social media tweet or Facebook image than they are about their right to bear arms. The LSSA youth training program is trying to address this issue.
Now we come to the issues facing Russian citizens. Maria and her organization are doing a great job in their fight for gun rights. This is the current situation for gun owners in Russia:
- Citizens can own and carry pistols that shoot rubber bullets with up to 91 Joules of energy (non-lethal) but must have permission from the police to carry concealed.
- Citizens cannot own pistols or revolvers and keep them at home nor can they carry them if they shoot real bullets.
- Citizens can own and keep at home long guns for self-defense. This includes shotguns, rifles, teargas, non-lethal and air-soft.
- No specific caliber restrictions but magazine capacity is restricted to 10.
- A Russian citizen must own a smooth bore long gun for a minimum of 5 years without having any legal issues before he is able to purchase a rifled firearm.
The purchase of firearms by Russian civilians is regulated by a 1996 law “On Weapons.” This law is vague and gaps in the law are covered by orders of the Minister of Interior and government regulations. This creates a bureaucracy of red tape and forms the civilian must navigate in order to purchase a firearm.
Unlike here in the USA where the media is anti-gun for the most part, Russians are fortunate in that the media seems to be neutral on the issue of ownership of firearms by civilians. Russian media appears to be more representative of the citizens and are therefore eager to learn about the ownership and use of firearms.
It is illegal to advertize firearms in Russia so you will not find a sales brochure insert in your local paper nor will you see anything on TV related to the purchase of firearms. For this reason a large portion of the public is unaware of laws and their rights to own a firearm. And as usual if people are uninformed about their rights to self-defense they tend to oppose ownership of firearms.
So what is the path forward for Russian citizens and what can others do to help them in their quest for the freedom of self-defense? Obviously, Maria and her organization must continue with their efforts. Several powerful Russian politicians were in attendance at the Gun Rights Congress and support Maria’s work. This is a great step in the right direction because gun rights are clearly political issues around the world. Recognizing that self-preservation is a human right is the first step in securing the right of self-defense.
I noted that there have been some IPSC and IDPA matches in Russia. IPSC tends to be run and gun where IDPA is more practical. LSSA is a combination of the two with fewer rules, easier scoring system and a lot of fun. I would like to see shooting clubs in Russia start holding LSSA 3-gun matches. Take the example of Italy that held over 50 LSSA matches last year. Some were shotgun or rifle only and others were a combination of the two. In the coming year they will hold pistol only and a combination of all three types of guns in the same match. LSSA even has a set of rules for air-soft matches. Rules are very simple and membership is only 5 Euros per year. Additionally, LSSA was able to prevent the Italian bill 29/2012 from becoming law that would have restricted ownership of military look alike firearms, i.e. the AR-15. Because we used these firearms in shooting competitions we were able to show that they are used for sporting activities and should not therefore be restricted. The proposed law was withdrawn from consideration by the Italian authorities.
The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (http://iapcar.org/) is the only worldwide political action group focusing on the human right to keep and bear arms. Founded in 2010, IAPCAR has grown to 25 major gun-rights organizations and conducts operations designed to inform the public and promote the right of self-defense and gun-ownership.
Main Conference
Alan Gottlieb, SAF, CCRKBA, IAPCAR
Julianne Versnel, SAF, IAPCAR
Gary Burris, LSSA
Alexander Torshin, First Deputy Chairman of the Federation Council
IAPCAR Directors to speak at conference on international experience in the area of regulation of civilian weapons and justified self-defense
Wednesday, October 23rd, 201331 October – 1 November, 2013
Location: event-hall «InfoSpace»
Moscow, 1 Zachatievskiy lane 4
Metro Kropotkinskaya, Park Kultury
CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD INFO AND AGENDA (Adobe Acrobat Reader Required)
Exclusive: After Westgate, Interpol Chief Ponders ‘Armed Citizenry’
Tuesday, October 22nd, 2013Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble said today the U.S. and the rest of the democratic world is at a security crossroads in the wake of last month’s deadly al-Shabab attack at a shopping mall in Nairobi, Kenya – and suggested an answer could be in arming civilians.
In an exclusive interview with ABC News, Noble said there are really only two choices for protecting open societies from attacks like the one on Westgate mall where so-called “soft targets” are hit: either create secure perimeters around the locations or allow civilians to carry their own guns to protect themselves.
“Societies have to think about how they’re going to approach the problem,” Noble said. “One is to say we want an armed citizenry; you can see the reason for that. Another is to say the enclaves are so secure that in order to get into the soft target you’re going to have to pass through extraordinary security.”
Noble’s comments came only moments after the official opening of the 82nd annual gathering of the Interpol’s governing body, the General Assembly. The session is being held in Cartagena, Colombia, and is being used to highlight strides over the last decade in Colombia’s battle against the notorious drug cartels that used to be the real power in the country.
FULL ARTICLE AVAILABLE HERE: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/exclusive-westgate-interpol-chief-ponders-armed-citizenry/story?id=20637341&singlePage=true
Over 100 Women Take Up Arms in Mexico to Defend Community
Thursday, August 22nd, 2013Via: Latin American Herald Tribune
The women signed up over the past four days with the UPOEG, Xaltianguis community self-defense force commander Miguel Angel Jimenez said
MEXICO CITY – More than 100 women in the southern Mexican town of Xaltianguis have taken up arms to protect their community from organized crime groups, a local self-defense force official said Monday.
The women signed up over the past four days with the Union of Peoples and Organizations of Guerrero State, or UPOEG, Xaltianguis community self-defense force commander Miguel Angel Jimenez told reporters.
“We have an average of nine groups” of community police, with each one made up of 12 women who will work in the daytime in the neighborhoods of Xaltianguis, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the resort city of Acapulco, Jimenez said.
[Click here to view full article]
Taking Stock of the UN Arms Trade Treaty
Tuesday, July 9th, 2013The Arms Trade Treaty As Gateway Framework For National Small Arms Control And Disarmament
By Jeff Moran | Geneva
Image: (c) Jeff Moran
On 20 June Ambassador Roberto Moritán (Argentina), the former President of the 2012 UN ATT Conference and Chairman of the pre-negotiations process, spoke as part of a public briefing on the ATT at the United Nations in Geneva titled “The Arms Trade Treaty: Past, Present, Future.”
Amb. Moritán explained the ATT should not be seen as a static treaty, like others within the traditional arms control and disarmament field. Instead, he explained that the ATT is best understood as an ongoing process and a framework…dynamic and expandable with amendments and additional protocols perhaps. Additional protocols were understood to mean distinct treaties negotiated in addition to the ATT. An example of a disarmament treaty with additional protocols of would be the 1980 Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons.
Expanding on this theme, Amb. Moritán stated the current “scope,” “parameters,” and “criteria” within the existing treaty “need additional negotiation.” In particular, he said the scope of the treaty should be expanded over time in light of technological developments, and cited scientific achievements in robotics as one reason for this. He concluded by stating “the ATT has to lead to negotiations in conventional weapons. Negotiations of conventional weapons cannot continue to be a taboo in the United, Nations.”
If the ATT is to become a broader framework for ongoing negotiations on conventional arms control and disarmament, it is only a matter of time before the volume of the UN small arms control discussion turns up. This was hinted at during the follow-on presentation by Sarah Parker of the Small Arms Survey, the UN’s go-to resource for small arms control research and policy development.
Ms. Parker presented a PowerPoint version of a report she published earlier this month called: “The Arms Trade Treaty: A Step Forward in Small Arms Control?”. She explained in her report that while “the ATT has contributed several missing pieces to the framework of controls governing the international transfer of small arms,” it nonetheless has “provisions that are, in many cases, weaker than existing commitments on small arms transfers agreed more than a decade ago.” The key takeway: the ATT needs more work with respect to controlling and documenting international small arms transfers at the very least.
But normative developments within the ATT and broader small arms process framework will not likely be limited to controlling and documenting international small arms transfers. Given the history of the ATT negotiations and the small arms process, restrictions on transfers of small arms to “non-state actors” or “private actors” (diplomatic homonyms that often mean rebel groups, private corporations, or individuals) will probably reappear on the UN agenda through implementation and expansion of the ATT framework. So might global restrictions in the form of national controls on civilian access or even outright prohibitions on civilian possession of certain types of small arms.
In this direction, a coalition of UN agencies and contracted small arms control advocates have been quietly developing a series International Small Arms Control Standards (ISACS) since 2008. Some ISACs were released last year, but the project coordinator reports remaining ones are going to be released this year. Privately, diplomats and ISACS advocates confirm that these will be “of use” and that many states hope a critical mass of these standards become the basis for future negotiations to amend the ATT. Amendments to the ATT can be voted on six years after the instrument enters into force, and during meetings of States Parties only every third year thereafter. Decisions on amendments will not be made by consensus, but through a three-fourths majority vote of States Parties in the room.
Two ISACS are thought to be of particular interest to those seeking to amend the ATT. The first is ISACS number 03.20, “National Controls Over The International Transfer Of Small Arms And Light Weapons.” Among other things, 03.20 has a provision that prohibits international transfers to private actors without “end-user certification.” The second is ISACS number 03.30,“National Controls Over the Access of Civilians to Small Arms and Light Weapons.” Among other things, 03.30 requires national registration of firearms and owners, prohibitions on civilian possession of certain weapons Americans can already legally and legitimately possess with additional licensing, and even has language advocating for national home inspections of private gun collections for “safety compliance.” This second standard was written by Dr. Ed Laurance, who is a former strategic planner for IANSA. IANSA stands for the International Action Network on Small Arms, which, according to page 3 of its foundation document, is committed to “reducing the availability of weapons to civilians in all societies.” (More information on draft versions of ISACS 03.30 and 03.20 and other ISACS involving national controls can be found here.)
If the ATT negotiations to date and the 112 signatories to the 2006 Geneva Declaration are any indicator, most if not a three-quarters majority of UN member states would endorse “private actors,” “end-user certification,” and “civilian access” appearing on the UN’s small arms control and disarmament agenda with the ATT. In fact, Ms. Parker, along with her colleague Markus Wilson, even suggest in their small arms process guide for diplomats that a prohibition on transfers to private or non-state actors and prohibitions on civilian possession would have already become established, if not binding, international norms by now were it not for the singular opposition of the United States during the 2001 UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, which resulted in the politically binding Program of Action (PoA).
Of course, the ATT can and should do much good to help establish badly needed import/export controls with respect to conventional weapons in States currently lacking them. The ATT should also and rightly compel appropriate humanitarian criteria into exporting State decision making where such criteria are missing or weak. But can anybody deny at this point that the ATT is also a giant milestone towards global small arms control and disarmament, toward “reducing the availability of weapons to civilians in all societies?” The truth is that a legally binding ATT, among other things, can and most likely will be revised and expanded to substantially achieve all that the politically-binding PoA was hoped to achieve but hasn’t, and then some.
At bottom, if the US is already the “gold standard” in terms of export controls and already applies humanitarian criteria in international weapons transfers, why again is it so imperative the US sign the ATT? Some key diplomats suggest the US signature is necessary to create a symbolic demonstration of communitarian international engagement, and that this would help encourage other key states to do the same. But if the American payment terms for signing and ratifying the ATT include a balloon payment 6 years from entry into force ultimately requiring a roll-back of American civil arms rights and privileges, perhaps the US ought not sign the treaty after all. Instead, perhaps the US and other states should focus less on international trade controls and focus more on addressing root causes of armed violence in the developing or fragile states most affected by it, namely, lack of rule of law, weak if not incompetent local governance, and corruption. Even Sarah Parker has apparently, finally, admitted in the conclusion of her aforementioned report:
“Small arms related problems have less to do with inadequate international transfer controls and more to do with controlling small arms already within their territories.”
Ms. Parker’s remark is supported by prior research making the stronger point that, in fact, for most countries around the globe, particularly for most developing or fragile states, a combination of deficient domestic regulation of legal firearms possession with theft, and loss or corrupt sale from official inventories is a more serious problem than illicit trafficking across borders.[*] Though the timing of Ms. Parker’s apparent admission (after the conclusion of the ATT negotiations) may raise certain ethical questions to some, her acknowledgement is nonetheless welcomed by this author in the spirit of it being better late than never.
Note
[*] This author first called attention to the apparent overselling of the ATT’s benefits in this regard in 2012. See http://tsmworldwide.com/dishonest-humanitarianism/ at notes 17, 18, and 19, which address research invalidating the overhyped claim by many ATT proponents, including the UN Office of Disarmament Affairs, that there was ever and still is a large problem of international trafficking of small arms. Real scholarship shows, contrary to ATT advocacy campaigning message, that the problem of international trafficking of small arms is actually quite small, and isolated to specific troubled states or sub-regions. Key source: Owen Greene and Nicholas Marsh, eds. Small Arms, Crime and Conflict: Global Governance and the Threat of Armed Violence. Routledge: 2012. P. 90-91.
About The Author
Jeff Moran lives in Geneva, Switzerland and is a consultant specializing in the ethical and responsible development of the international defense, security, and shooting sports industries at TSM Worldwide LLC. Previously Mr. Moran was a strategic marketing leader for a multi-billion dollar business unit of a public defense & aerospace company and an American military diplomat. He is currently studying weapons law within the Executive LL.M. Program of the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. Mr. Moran has an Executive Master in International Negotiations and Policymaking from the Graduate Institute of Geneva, an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School, and a BSFS from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
Distribution Notices
© TSM Worldwide LLC. Online republication and redistribution are authorized when this entire publication (including title, byline, images, notes, hyper-links, and distribution note) and linkable URL http://tsmworldwide.com/taking-stock-of-the-arms-trade-treaty/ are included. See other published items at http://tsmworldwide.com/category/published/
Israel: Taking Away the Licensed Guns
Monday, July 1st, 2013Original Story Via: Yeshiva World Israel
When licensed gun owners in Israel receive their renewal, they are now informed they will have to justify the reason for holding a handgun. Minister of Public Security Yitzchak Aharonovich and others appear determined to reduce the number of handguns held by citizens.
That means if one was granted a handgun license because one lives in a community in Yehuda and Shomron, and one then moves over the Green Line to “Israel proper”, one may lose the handgun license. It does not matter if a gun holder is a soldier or officer serving in the IDF reserves, he will lose his weapon.
Unlike in some countries when one is given a license and one can purchase handguns, in Israel, it is a license for a specific handgun and only for that handgun. In addition to losing a licensed weapon, there will be a financial loss as well for a pistol such as a Glock ® which can cost upwards of 5,000 NIS in Israel will then have to be forfeited or sold. A store buying a second hand weapon realizing the owner must sell is unlikely to pay a fair market value for the weapon. As more and more people are compelled to get rid of their weapons, there will be a surplus of handguns, resulting in the value dropping even more.
The recent shooting spree in a Beersheva bank that left a number of people dead was carried out by a veteran of the military, a decorated officer, and this significantly boosted the voice of gun control advocates, who are not pleased that less handguns will be held in Israel.
Opponents insist that statistically speaking, the incidents of such events involving licensed handgun owners are miniscule – explaining there is no justification to confiscate licensed weapons from law abiding citizens. These people explain this is not the United States but the Mideast and having a handgun is wise and perhaps even essential.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/General+News/174042/Israel%3A-Taking-Away-the-Licensed-Guns.html
A warning from Brits on gun ban
Friday, June 7th, 2013Via: Philly.com
By Alan Gottlieb
When the British newspaper the Telegraph asked readers which of six suggested measures they would like to see introduced in the House of Commons, the response was surprisingly tilted toward one significant proposal.
Of the six suggestions, which included setting a flat tax and placing a term limit on the office of prime minister, what drew more than 86 percent of reader support was a proposal to repeal the handgun ban of 1997. This is an unscientific poll, but the results should signal to U.S. gun prohibitionists that their habitual use of the United Kingdom as an example of domestic tranquility where guns are concerned just took a direct hit in the credibility department.
Full article available at: http://articles.philly.com/2013-06-06/news/39791252_1_handgun-ban-alan-gottlieb-flat-tax
Alan Gottlieb is chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms and founder of the Second Amendment Foundation.
U.S. skips signing ceremony for U.N. arms treaty
Monday, June 3rd, 2013Original Story Via: The Washington Times
The White House stepped back from its open support for the U.N. arms treaty, deciding not to attend a public signing ceremony for the document in New York on Monday morning after all.
The United Nations was hosting a 10:30 a.m. ceremony with representatives from the United Kingdom, France, Mexico, the Democratic Republic of Congo and roughly 60 other nations to sign the international weapons treaty. But the U.S. decided not to show, according toBloomberg.
“I suspect they probably took a decision that, politically, it made sense not to completely alienate people in Congress on something that, in their opinion, doesn’t matter when they sign it as long as they sign it,” said Adotei Akwei, Amnesty International USA’s managing director for government relations.
The treaty, decried by the National Rifle Association’s 4.5 million members
as an infringement to the Second Amendment, isn’t likely to pass the Senate. President Obama was the first president to support it, but isn’t rushing to sign it, given its controversy and his need to generate enough political capital for its ratification in the Senate.
“We are conducting a thorough review of the treaty text to determine whether to sign the treaty,” said Laura Lucas, spokeswoman for the White House National
Security Council.
Mr. Akwei said the tone for the treaty among politicos on Capitol Hill was “absolutely toxic” and that U.S. ratification is a “long-term strategy” that can take up to 15 years, Bloomberg reported.
US State Dept. Press Release: “US Welcomes Opening of Arms Trade Treaty for Signature”
Monday, June 3rd, 2013Press Statement
Secretary of State
The United States welcomes the opening of the Arms Trade Treaty for signature, and we look forward to signing it as soon as the process of conforming the official translations is completed satisfactorily.
The Treaty is an important contribution to efforts to stem the illicit trade in conventional weapons, which fuels conflict, empowers violent extremists, and contributes to violations of human rights. The Treaty will require the parties to implement strict controls, of the kind the United States already has in place, on the international transfer of conventional arms to prevent their diversion and misuse and create greater international cooperation against black market arms merchants. The ATT will not undermine the legitimate international trade in conventional weapons, interfere with national sovereignty, or infringe on the rights of American citizens, including our Second Amendment rights.
We commend the Presidents of the two UN negotiating conferences – Roberto Garcia Moritan of Argentina and Peter Woolcott of Australia –for their leadership in bringing this agreement to fruition. We also congratulate all the states that helped achieve an effective, implementable Treaty that will reduce the risk that international transfers of conventional arms will be used to carry out the world’s worst crimes.
Britain wants its guns back
Thursday, May 30th, 2013A Daily Telegraph online poll has revealed that over 80 percent of Brits would rather a repeal on the hand gun ban over various other “new law” choices
by The Commentator on 29 May 2013 
Last Friday the Daily Telegraph, Britain’s most widely read broadsheet newspaper, issued an online poll asking members of the public which proposal they would like to see introduced as a Private Members’ Bill in the UK’s Parliament.
Private Members’ Bills are introduced by Members of Parliament or Peers who are not government ministers.
The choices include term limits for Prime Ministers, a flat tax, a law to encourage the ‘greening’ of public spaces and the repealing of Britain’s hand gun ban. Following the Dunblane massacre in 1996, in which 16 schoolchildren were killed, Parliament passed The Firearms Act of 1997, which essentially banned handguns for the atrocity.
But Britons seem unconvinced by the law. The proposer, known as “Colliemum” asked, “…why should only criminals be ‘allowed’ to possess guns and shoot unarmed, defenceless citizens and police officers?”
While the poll continues, so far over 80 percent of the 11,000+ respondents have told the Telegraph that they want to see the handgun ban repealed. The news comes as America contemplates its own new laws on gun ownership, with British talk show host Piers Morgan claiming to back a UK-style ban for the United States.
While gun crime soared after the British ban in 1997, rates of gun violence have fallen, especially in British cities, following more spending by police forces into tackling gun crime. Police in England and Wales recorded 5,911 firearms offences in 2011/12, a reduction of 42 percent compared with nine years earlier, according to the Office for National Statistics.
But statistics from the United States show that guns are used by citizens to defend themselves around eighty times more often than they are used to take a life. A recent study published in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy concluded that there is a negative correlation between gun ownership and violent crime in countries internationally, that is, “where firearms are most dense violent crime rates are lowest, and where guns are least dense violent crime rates are highest.”
British versus American statistics perhaps displays nothing more than one country investing more in the government response to criminality, while the other maintains a citizen-based response.
Two other options were presented in the Telegraph poll, which were the closing of the child maintenance loophole and a banning of spitting in public. The full results as of 01:36am on Wednesday 29th May, can be seen on the right.
For an up to date look at the poll, click through to the Telegraph’s website, here.
http://www.thecommentator.com/article/3644/britain_wants_its_guns_back
In tense Mexico state, vigilantes refuse to drop guns
Thursday, May 23rd, 2013Original Story Via: za.news.yahoo.com
By Leticia Pineda | AFP – Wed, May 22, 2013
Farmers wearing bulletproof jackets and toting assault rifles ride in pick-up trucks emblazoned with the word “self-defense” to protect this rural western Mexico town from the Knights Templar drug cartel.
The federal government deployed thousands of troops to the state of Michoacan this week, but in some towns like Coalcoman, population 10,000, vigilantes are refusing to put down their weapons until they feel safe again.
“We won’t drop our guard until we see results,” Antonio Rodriguez, a 37-year-old avocado grower and member of the community force, told AFP.
Last week, Coalcoman residents packed the main square to give their support to the 200-strong vigilante patrol, making it the latest Michoacan town to take up arms in recent months to fight off the extorsion and violence perpetrated by gangsters.
The town lies in a region called Tierra Caliente, or Hot Land, known as a hotbed of cartel activity.
The vigilantes carry handguns and hunting rifles, but a few were seen Wednesday roaming around with AR-15 semi-automatic rifles. In other towns many wear masks to protect their identities.
“We got tired of paying the quota,” said Adriana, a 32-year-old woman working in a pharmacy.
The “cuota” is extorsion money charged by the Knights Templar every week or month from business owners, farmers, taxi drivers and even mayors.
“The one who didn’t pay would be kidnapped and ‘bang, bang,’ they’d kill him,” said Adriana, squeezing her finger as if pulling a trigger.
In recent months, the self-defense groups detained people they accused of working with the cartels and clashed with drug traffickers. The gangsters responded by besieging towns and preventing food deliveries.
Michoacan was the first state to see troops when then president Felipe Calderon deployed soldiers and marines across the nation to crack down on cartels in 2006.
But gang violence surged throughout Mexico, leaving 70,000 people in its wake by the time Calderon left office in December, and a powerful new cartel, the Knights Templar, emerged in Michoacan.
The government of President Enrique Pena Nieto sent around 4,000 soldiers and marines this week along with 1,000 federal police, vowing that they would stay until peace is restored in the troubled state.
Military surveillance planes fly over towns while soldiers man checkpoints in Tierra Caliente. But self-defense groups still staff their own road blocks in some parts despite the military presence.
“They should first disarm organized crime, then the people,” said a young man wearing a bulletproof jacket and a white T-shirt inscribed with the words “self-defense group” in the back.
Late Tuesday, a vigilante patrol detained one man they accused of being a thief in Coalcoman. He was beaten and paraded in the town square with a bloody face in front of residents a dozens of federal police.
The road linking Coalcoman to the village of Buenavista is littered with the charred remains of buses and other vehicles that were used by the Knights Templar to block the delivery of food, medicine and other goods.
At the entrance of Buenavista, a sign greets drivers with the words: “Welcome to the village of Buenavista, free of quotas and Knights Templar.”
A checkpoint was installed on a white altar with a red cross that was built by the Knights Templar on the side of the road in honor of Nazario Moreno, alias “El Chayo,” a drug lord that the government believes was killed in a clash in 2010.
His body was never found and the religion-inspired Knights Templar revere him like a saint. The words “Saint Nazario” are painted on the Buenavista altar, which is riddled with bullet marks.
Buenavista’s vigilantes said the area became safer once they took up arms. They just want the authorities to get rid of the cartel.
“If they want, we’ll take them to the town, street, gully or lair where they’re hiding,” said one of the armed civilians.
The Knights Templar cartel has accused the vigilantes of being backed by their enemies, the Jalisco Nueva Generacion cartel, which is linked to the Sinaloa syndicate led by Mexico’s most wanted man, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman.
The cartel, which is an offshoot of the faded crime syndicate La Familia Michoacana, describes itself as an “insurgent” group. Its members must follow an honor code based on the group’s interpretation of religion.
The self-defense militias deny any links to narco-traffickers, but Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos suggested on Tuesday that some were getting support from dubious groups.
http://za.news.yahoo.com/tense-mexico-state-vigilantes-refuse-drop-guns-194140641.html
NMLRA Speaks Out at UN
Wednesday, May 22nd, 2013Via: TheGunMag.com
by James C. Fulmer | Past President, NMLRA
Becky Waterman, NMLRA president,
speaking at the UN.
The National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year. Founded in 1933 during the Great Depression, the NMLRA has grown and changed with the times, moving into the 21st century while holding on to the past. The NMLRA continues to promote this country’s firearm heritage through shooting, hunting and competition with muzzleloading rifles, pistols and shotguns. Last year during the September NMLRA Board of Directors’ meeting the directors voted in the first woman president of the NMLRA, Becky Waterman. She was born into an NMLRA family and grew up living and breathing muzzleloading firearms and American heritage.
During the 2013 SHOT Show in Las Vegas, as newly elected president of NMLRA, Becky met with Tom Mason, secretariat of the World Forum on Shooting Activities in America (WFSA).
The NMLRA is an associate member of the WFSA and has worked with them in the past. Here the NMLRA again offered to give any assistance to the WFSA.
The WFSA is an association of hunting, shooting and industry organizations.
For over 15 years the WFSA and its member associations have attended every major UN conference affecting hunting or sport shooting. The WFSA is an official United Nations Non-governmental Organization (NGO) recognized by the Economic and Social Council of the UN General Assembly. It is one of the few NGOs in the world to be invited to speak before one of the five committees of the UN General Assembly.
When the WFSA asked the NMLRA to speak at the UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty on March 21, the NMLRA didn’t hesitate to represent and defend the muzzleloading shooting sport at the world level.
NMLRA President Rebecca Waterman and NMLRA Managing Director Morgan Mundell made the trip to the UN in New York City. Here late Thursday afternoon with many other members of WFSA the president of the NMLRA presented the following remarks before the UN: “Mr. President, I am Rebecca Waterman, President of the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association, an association member of World Forum on Shooting Activities. Our primary membership is in the United States, but I believe I speak for the many, many users of antique and muzzle loading arms in other jurisdictions.
“Mr. President, I will be extremely brief. I wish to address the question of the inclusion of antique firearms and their replicas, which most muzzleloaders are, within the scope of the ATT.
“Mr. President, there is no need or justification for the inclusion of antique firearms within the category of small arms. There is substantial international commerce in antique firearms and their replicas, but by no stretch of the imagination are they some kind of threat that should be included within the ATT.
“Mr. President, examining the record, we have not found one mention of antique firearms and their replicas being perceived as a threat.
“Mr. President, subjecting the international commerce in antique firearms and their replicas to an ATT will be an unjustified and unnecessary burden on that commerce.
“Indeed, Mr. President, this very issue was addressed during the drafting of the UN Firearms Protocol.
Article 3 (a) excludes antique firearms from the Protocol. It says, and I quote, ‘Antique firearms and their replicas shall be defined in accordance with domestic law. In no case, however, shall antique firearms include firearms manufactured after 1899.’ “Mr. President, we have submitted a version of this Firearms Protocol language to effectuate the exclusion of antique firearms and their replicas from the ATT.
“We sincerely hope that you and this body will follow the precedent of the Firearms Protocol.” The UN Arms Trade Treaty was followed by the media. The Shooting Wire, The Outdoor Wire, the National Shooting Sports Foundation and many, many others including this publication. They all gave excellent coverage to the treaty in many press releases. The sad part about all this is why would the National Muzzle Loading Rifle Association even have to attend? Why has common sense become so un-common? In the treaty itself it reads, “This Treaty shall apply to all conventional arms within the following categories: Battle Tanks; Armored combat vehicles; Large-caliber artillery systems; Combat aircraft; Attack helicopters; Warships; Missiles and missile launchers; and small arms and light weapons.”
Why would it be so hard to separate out antique or replica muzzleloading firearms from other modern military small arms and light weapons?
The Treaty will be talked about and discussed by everybody over the next few weeks. The National Shooting Sports Foundation’s Senior Vice-President and General Counsel Lawrence Keane stated, “We hope that the Members of the US Senate are closely watching the White House abandon its principles and promises in the rush to ramrod the flawed treaty into effect.
Not only will they later be asked to ratify this attack on our constitution and sovereignty, but they will also be lavished with new promises from the administration in its drive to push a broad gun control agenda through the US Senate when it returns from recess. They would be right to question those promises strongly.”
What this all means to the reader is be informed! Read, watch, listen, get your facts and act. I am sure in the next few weeks you will be asked to contact your state senator. Do it! This is not about letting the other person do it; you are the other person. If you are reading this and don’t vote, change that: get registered—your vote counts. Talk to everybody you know, and if they are not registered to vote, get them registered. It is time for common sense. It is time for action.
Call to action in the EU
Tuesday, May 21st, 2013Italian IAPCAR member group FISAT, has sent an important call to action.
Attempts are underway by the European Union to further restrict the right of civilians to have certain firearms.
It is vitally important to the firearms rights community stand together internationally.
There are three important things we can each do:
1. Read the alert from FISAT below and follow the instructions to participate in the EU survey.
2. Post this alert on your website and send it to all of your members and supporters.
3. Ask all your supporters to send this call to action to all of their friends.
I personally want to thank all of you for your unwavering support of civilian arms rights. It is a privilege to work with you.
– Philip Watson, IAPCAR Executive Director
[Important Message Below Via FISAT President Simone Ciucchi]
Dear friends and gun rights activists,
Joining the call of British Shooting Sports Council we ask to IAPCAR and all gun rights association in its organization, to participate to the online survey organized by European Union Commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom.
The menace to semiautomatic firearms in private hands is IMMINENT, as the online survey maliciously suggests a possible link between private possession of firearms and their use for criminal or terrorist purposes, being nothing else than another attempt to disarm honest citizens for the sake of added “firearms security”.
The questions are utterly misleading.
Question C.2 suggests that the list of prohibited firearms should be extended (it is understood that the Commission is referring to semiautomatic rifles and possibly also to semiautomatic shotguns and handguns).
Question C.4 pursues the mandatory use of locking devices in firearms (imagine the impact if this was made retrospective).
Question C.7 would provide a justification to introduce compulsory mental health tests and suppress the current derogation that allows people under the age of 18 to hunt and sport-shoot if they have parental permission or guidance.
We can expect for sure that the various anti-gun EU associations will take action to orchestrate a deliberate number of answers resulting in a public call for tighter gun control.
Deadline for participation is June 17th 2013.
This can’t happen and we ask you to take part to the online survey in the following steps:
Please follow the following steps:
- Go to: http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=ReduceFirearmsRisk
- Choose your language in the icon that is in the upper right part of the screen.
- Indicate your country, whether you are an individual or an organization and your name or the name of your organization.
- Answer the questions by clicking on option “1” for each one of them. You do not need to answer the optional questions that request additional comments (questions B.4, C.11, D.5 and E.6).
- After having answered the questions, as a security measure to avoid computer-generated replies, you will have to type in the numbers and/or letters that will be displayed in your screen and validate them.
- Your answers will have been submitted by then. You can view them and/or save them as a PDF.
All of the European associations, especially Swedish ones, can contact the proposer of this survey in the person of European Commissioner Ms. Cecilia Malmstrom which can be contacted at these sites, possibly to explain her that firearms of private honest citizens are not to be confused with the ones of criminals and terrorists:
http://ec.europa.eu/commission_2010-2014/malmstrom/contact/contact-me_en.htm
https://twitter.com/malmstromeu
https://www.facebook.com/MalmstromEU
Swedish citizens in particular can also contact her party, Folkpartiet liberalerna (Liberal People’s Party), to let them know what you think, at the following site and email:
http://www.folkpartiet.se/ — info@folkpartiet.se
While EU citiziens can contact Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (A.L.D.E.):
http://web.cor.europa.eu/alde/contact-us/Pages/default.aspx
Asking their respective national parties NOT to support Maelmstrom initiatives, you can find various parties members of ALDE at the following page:
http://www.alde.eu/alde-group/alde-across-europe-map-member-state/
We thank you for your help, immediate action is necessary for the protection of our common gun rights.
Best regards,
Simone Ciucchi – FISAT President
May 2013
Bologna, Italy
—Additional Message Below Via BSSC President David Penn—
Via: The British Sports Shooting Council (BSSC)
EU Public Consultation on firearms
This EU Consultation Document on a common approach to reducing the harm caused by criminal use of firearms in the EU can be found on http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=ReduceFirearmsRisk
It is one part of a number of EU firearms-related initiatives, including the ratification by the EU of the UN Vienna Firearms Protocol, the much-publicised comments by EU Home Affairs Commissioner Cecilia Malmström suggesting a link between legal ownership of firearms and illicit trafficking, the preparation of a report by the Commission on possible further amendments to the EU Directive 91/477/EEC on control of the acquisition and possession of weapons and of course the EU’s active role in the UN’s recent adoption of a text for an Conventional Arms Trade Treaty.
The intention of this consultation is to obtain some appearance of legitimacy for further restrictions on the legal ownership, use and acquisition of firearms by civilians. We may anticipate that organisations opposed to recreational firearms use, hunting or gun collecting will orchestrate large numbers of replies. It is therefore essential that shooting organisations and their individual members complete and submit responses to provide an effective counter-argument and counter-weight. If the majority of responses are supportive of our interests, it would be difficult for the Commission to use public opinion as a reason for seeking further restrictions.
The deadline for replies is the 17th June 2013.
All the questions have at least some relevance to legal ownership. Most of the questions are biased and are written in a way that seeks to pre-determine the response and push the respondent into agreeing that some EU action is needed even though national legislation on all issues addressed in the questions already exists.
Question C.2 suggests that the list of prohibited firearms should be extended (it is understood that the Commission is referring to semiautomatic rifles and possibly also to semiautomatic shotguns and handguns).
Question C.4 pursues the mandatory use of locking devices in firearms. Imagine the impact if this was made retrospective.
Question C.7 would provide a justification to introduce compulsory mental health tests and suppress the current derogation that allows people under the age of 18 to hunt and sport-shoot if they have parental permission or guidance. This derogation was hard-won with Britain taking a leading role in negotiating it. If this were lost it would be a severe blow to the future of our sport.
Question C.8 aims at requiring that all firearms and ammunition be subject to authorisation, which would have negative implications not only in countries where there is a formal distinction between authorisation and declaration of firearms but also in countries where there are flexible arrangements for certain hunting firearms. In Britain, it could result in the introduction of tighter controls on shotguns and shotgun cartridges.
Question D.2 could result in a general requirement to store firearms in an approved safe. What would happen if the EU specification for a gun cabinet exceeded the British Standard currently the norm in Britain?
It is not necessary to answer the optional questions that request additional free-text comments (questions B.4, C.11, D.5 and E.6). It is necessary to click on Option 1 in response to all the multiple choice questions. While this may seem extreme in some instances, the questions are biased and are designed to elicit your agreement that action by the EU is necessary.
If you do decide to make further comments, you may wish to consider referring to the EU principle of ‘subsidiarity’, enshrined in Article 5 of the Treaty on European Union. This is the principle whereby the Union does not take action (except in the areas that fall within its exclusive competence), unless it is more effective than action taken at national, regional or local level. Civilian firearms control is most appropriately dealt with at national level, given the variety of shooting and hunting traditions among the member states.
Please follow the following steps:
1.Go to http://ec.europa.eu/yourvoice/ipm/forms/dispatch?form=ReduceFirearmsRisk
2.Choose your language in the icon that is in the upper right part of the screen.
3. Indicate your country, whether you are an individual or an organisation and your name or the name of your organisation.
4. Answer the questions by clicking on option “1” for each one of them. You do not need to answer the optional questions that request additional comments (questions B.4, C.11, D.5 and E.6).
5. After having answered the questions, as a security measure to avoid computer-generated replies, you will have to type in the numbers and/or letters that will be displayed in your screen and validate them.
6. Your answers will have been submitted by then. You can view them and/or save them as a PDF.
Thank you for taking the time to respond to this consultation.
David Penn
Secretary, British Shooting Sports Council
23/4/2013
The Real Truth About Gun Homicides
Monday, May 20th, 2013The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) global map of homicide rate shows lower rates in countries with higher gun ownership.
Source UNODC
Brazil: Disarmament Failed
Monday, May 20th, 2013Bene Barbosa, of Movimento Viva Brasil, criticizes the Disarmament Statute and blames impunity for the high levels of violence in Brazil
In an interview to the journal A Tribuna, he talked about the raise in the number of homicides, impunity and the total failure of civil disarmament.
He pointed out that the 2013 Brazilian Violence Map demonstrates that in a 30 year period, the deaths involving firearms went up by 346%.
Most of the firearms used in crime are not registered with the government, which alone raises questions about the effectiveness of the Brazilian Disarmament Statute, which will have its 10th anniversary this year.
A TRIBUNA – How do you evaluate the 2013 Brazilian Violence Map, recently made available?
BENE BARBOSA – The Map shows a significant increase in the number of homicides, largely influenced by impunity and drugs. This demonstrates that the national public security policy, based soley on civil disarmament measures, has failed in combating the issue of violence.
A TRIBUNA – What effect does the Disarmament Statute have in relation to public security and violence?
BENE BARBOSA – Absolutely nothing. The Disarmament Statue is totally ineffective when it comes to reducing the violence levels. In fact, we have recently been in Brasilia to propose a new piece of legislation which guarantees the Brazilian Citizen’s right to defend himself. If the criminals are able to use guns, why not the honest citizens? It is not fair to preclude the working man or woman to keep and bear arms to defend himself and his family, when the police is not able to provide security 24 hours a day.
A TRIBUNA – Why did the murder rate go up after the Disarmament Statue was enforced, instead of going down?
BENE BARBOSA – Because the Disarmament Statute guarantees more safety to criminal activities. If a bandit invades a house, the chance he will face armed resistance is much smaller, creating an incentive for all types of criminal activities. The Disarmament Statute only targets the legal firearms, bought by honest, law abiding citizens. Our current gun law has disarmed the working man and woman, but has not affected the criminals, whom carry on buying their guns on the streets, without any restrictions.
A TRIBUNA – What is the main cause for the increase in homicides?
BENE BARBOSA – Certainly, impunity. Of every 100 murders, only 8 are punished. This is the greatest incentive for criminals, who know that in Brazil, they can kill and get away with it.
A TRIBUNA – What is needed to reduce the murder rate in Brazil?
BENE BARBOSA – First of all, we need a large investment in the investigative departments of our police forces. There are numerous measures needed to reduce the Brazilian impunity issue, ensuring that crimes are adequately investigated and punished. For instance, Brazil currently has 350 thousand prison warrants that have not been enforced.
A TRIBUNA – How about ostensive policing? Does Brazil currently have adequate policing on the streets?
BENE BARBOSA – It is not sufficient. We currently have a too smaller Military Police personal. This gives the people a sense of insecurity, and the criminals a sense of the opposite. The State Governments have to invest a lot more, and it is the Federal Government’s duty to provide more funds.
A TRIBUNA – Do you agree with the proposition that fewer firearms in the hand of civilian will represent fewer homicides in the country?
BENE BARBOSA – I don’t agree in the slightest. The basis for that is that 10 years of disarmament policies have only contributed to a large increase in the levels of gun crime.
A TRIBUNA – In what measure do disarmament policies contribute to public security?
BENE BARBOSA – They don’t. There is not one single case of a country that has put forward this kind of restrictive legislation that has experienced any positive results.
A TRIBUNA – So disarmament is a false solution for public security issues?
BENE BARBOSA – Civil disarmament is a false promise. Those who pushed it forward know this, and used the measure to provide a false response to the peoples claim for a safes society.
A TRIBUNA – Are you familiar with the public security status of the Sate of Espirito Santo?
BENE BARBOSA – I know it is one of the most violent States in Brazil. It has recently been superseded by the State of Alagoas, but must still hold the 2nd or 3rd position in the national ranking. The State of Alagoas in currently the most violent and is also the champion in all the civil disarmament campaigns. The population of Alagoas largely adhered in the civil disarmament campaigns and has since experienced a significant increase in their violence levels, making the state into the most insecure of the country. Just one more piece of evidence that civil disarmament doesn’t work.
A TRIBUNA – Why does a small State like Espirito Santo have such high violence levels?
BENE BARBOSA – Because of the same factors that exist in the rest of the country. Impunity, drug use, organized crime, among others, all contribute to a more violent society.
Brazilian Group Movimento Viva Brasil Joins IAPCAR Coalition
Friday, May 10th, 2013The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) announced today that Brazilian gun rights group Movimento Viva Brasil has joined the international coalition of 25 groups in 16 different countries dedicated to the preservation and defense of civilian firearms rights.
“Our international alliance of like-minded civilian arms rights groups has a strong representation in Brazil now,” IAPCAR’s Executive Director Philip Watson said. “Movimento Viva Brasil brings another voice to the movement for civilian arms rights.”
Movimento Viva Brasil was involved in the coalition that defeated the nation-wide gun control referendum in 2005 with 64% of the voters casting their ballot against the measure.
Bene Barbosa, president of Movimento Viva Brasil, stated that their organization wants to help “visualize the true and utter failure of the gun-control measures enforced in Brazil, as well as contribute to the strengthening of a worldwide effort to protect civilian gun-rights.”
IAPCAR co-founder Julianne Versnel praised IAPCAR’s newest group for their accomplishments and hard work. “Their record speaks for itself. They’ve been effective and unwavering in defending the rights of Brazilians to defend themselves.”
As a representative to the United Nations, Versnel, who is also the Second Amendment Foundation’s Director of Operations, submitted testimony to the UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) meeting in March objecting to the exclusion of civilian arms rights from the ATT. “Nothing that is in an Arms Trade Treaty should affect a woman’s right to defend herself,” Versnel told the delegates.
The IAPCAR gun rights coalition is focused on opposition to the ATT, which has passed the UN General Assembly and will be available for countries to sign on June 3. The ATT does not acknowledge or protect civilian arms rights or recognize the right to self-defense in its enforceable language.v
Movimento Viva Brazil may be accessed on the Internet via: (www.mvb.org.br/)
The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (www.iapcar.com) is the only worldwide political action group focusing on the human right to keep and bear arms. Founded in 2010, IAPCAR has grown to 25 major gun-rights organizations and conducts campaigns designed to inform the public and promote the right of self-defense and gun-ownership.
Synopsis of Movimento Viva Brasil Referendum Victory
Thursday, May 9th, 2013Via: www.mvb.org.br
When Movimento Viva Brasil was founded, in August 2004, it represented not only the wishes but also the hopes of a group of idealists who had always fought for their civil rights, especially the right to bear arms.
Lead by Bene Barbosa, a mid-school teacher, dedicated defender of people’s civil rights and individual freedoms for more than 10 years, Movimento Viva Brasil started a serious discussion about the lack of effective national security policies, which was being masked by some people with a Disarmament Campaign of the law abiding citizens.
Movimento Viva Brasil was founded with the objective of showing and informing the Brazilian population about what in fact was behind the Disarmament Campaign, brought forward by the Disarmament Statute, and to put an end to the fallacies suggested by the anti-gun supporters, in defense of the Referendum and the Prohibition Campaign.
The Congress
The battle that took place in the National Congress was long and hard. Always present in Brasilia, Movimento Viva Brasil followed all the steps to the MP’s voting that approved the referendum. It also worked together with the few politicians that questioned the Disarmament Statute and the absurd idea of taking gun-rights from the people.
On several occasions, the national and regional coordination of Movimento Viva Brasil tried to arrange a meeting with Senator Renan Calheiros, President of the Brazilian Senate, to discuss the Disarmament Statute, the campaign and the Referendum, but was never received by the Senator.
At the House of Representatives however, Movimento Viva Brasil was received by the then President of the House, Severino Cavalcanti, together with many other entities and associations for human rights, families of victims of violence, people of the countryside, sporting shooters (of which Brazil once won a gold medal in the Olympic Games), and several others, determined not to lose their right to purchase firearms and ammunition.
It was one of the most remarkable moments in our fight. The banner “Disarming the citizen is not the solution” was printed on T-shirts of all those who were present at the Cabinet of the House of Representatives President.
The press
It had always been part of Movimento Viva Brasiil’s policies to inform the population about the facts of the Referendum, but it had a lot of difficulty in getting the necessary ink and airtime, due to the posture of the mainstream media, practically made up by people willing to defend the more “politically correct” position. Unfortunately a large part of the Brazilian press was not interested in listening to what Movimento Viva Brasil had to say, despite all the information and statistics that were offered for journalists to analyze.
However, thanks to an excellent communication strategy, Movimento Viva Brasil conquered space in the regional communication channels and in the Internet, from where broadcasted information reached the population and opinion-makers.
Movimento Viva Brasil gradually gained visibility as a sound source of information and had a positive participation in a series of interviews and debates on television and radio.
Parallel to that, various other idealists from different regions of the country gathered together and joined the fight. Movimento Viva Brasil managed to gather some voluntary regional coordinators in different States, being then able to create a solid information web. The president of Movimento Viva Brasil himself, traveled around the country, participating in interviews and debates, public audiences, visiting trade unions and institutions.
The Parliamentary front
A lot of effort had to be directed towards the Members of Parliament during the Referendum’s approval process, unfortunately not enough to avoid the Referendum itself. A great mass of government’s allies in the Congress, together with NGO’s financed by foreign money, put all their effort into the approval of the Referendum. And it was the Brazilian population, eager for realistic and effective measures towards public security, that had to pay approximately R$ 600 million to go to the polls.
In March 2005, even before the Referendum was approved by the Congress, Movimento Viva Brasil and Alberto Fraga MP created the Non-partisan Committee for Self Defense Rights (Comitê Suprapartidário Pela Legítima Defesa), which later became the Parliamentary Front for Self Defense Rights (Frente Parlamentar pelo Direito à Legítima Defesa), supporting the “NO” Vote campaign, against prohibition.
Opinion polls started to show the voting intentions of the population. Some sectors of the media however, with the clear intention of confusing the electorate about their vote, misled the population into believing that the election was about Disarmament, and that if Prohibition was passed, the crime levels would have a considerable drop. For some time, these lies succeeded, and voting intention polls indicated that 80% of the electorate tended to vote “YES” (in favor of the prohibition).
The turning point
We would have to be very efficient in informing the electorate about the realistic information about what was really behind the Referendum, so that they knew exactly what they were voting for, or against. Our PR, Chico Santa Rita, was in charge of all campaign publicity matters and was determined that the arguments should focus on civil rights and individual freedom. From then on, the lies, fallacies, fake numbers, and manipulated statistics used by the anti-gun campaigners started to be exposed. Quickly, most citizens had realized what the Referendum was all about, and were determined not to give up their rights, particularly when their right to make choices was at stake.
It was then that we had what could be called the “turning point”. Opinion polls started to show that voting intentions were now on an equal basis, and the media could no longer continue to manipulate the facts. By then, Movimento Viva Brasil had become a sound source of information for journalists covering the event. The “NO” Vote was starting to gain strength, especially after the free TV and radio campaigns were under way.
After only twenty days of free national TV and radio campaign and two days before the voting, opinion polls indicated that 49% of the electorate already intended to vote “NO” towards prohibition, against 45% tended towards the “YES” Vote.
The victory
During the days that preceded the election, there were no end of demonstrations and protests, clearly showing what a great part of the Brazilian population intended to vote for on the 23rd of October.
Brazilians were prepared to say one big “NO” to the prohibition of the legal sales of firearms and ammunition – 64% of the population did so.
‘India abstained from ATT, will ensure no harm on national interest’
Wednesday, May 8th, 2013Original Story Via: Zeenews.India.com
New Delhi: India abstained from the Arms Trade Treaty adopted by the United Nations and the government will take all measures to ensure that it does not impact national interest, the Lok Sabha was informed on Monday.
In a written reply to the House, Defence Minister A K Antony also said India’s position in this regard has been placed on record at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
“India abstained from the draft Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which was adopted at UNGA session on April 2, as it does not meet out requirements,” he said. The ATT aims at regulating the international trade in conventional arms, from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships.
Antony said the government will take all necessary measures to ensure that the Treaty does not adversely impact the national interest.
In reply to a question on import of defence items, he said procurement is made from various indigenous as well as foreign sources, including the United States, in accordance with the Defence Procurement Procedure.
“Defence equipment has been imported from various countries, including Russia, USA, Israel, France, United Kingdom, Germany, Poland. The imports cover various types of weapon systems and platforms,” he said.
Some of the recently concluded defence deals with foreign vendors are for Konkurs Missiles, UBK Invar Missiles, Basic Trainer Aircraft, MI-17 V5 helicopters, Sonobuoys, Torpedoes and Surveillance Radar Systems, Antony said.
On steps taken to prevent spying activities of China, Antony said, “BSF has been continuously monitoring and gathering intelligence inputs relating to all Chinese activities along Indo-Pak border and sharing the same with other Indian intelligence agencies concerned for appropriate preventive measures.”
Replying a question whether neighbouring countries, including China, have constructed roads in Indian territory, he said, “No construction of roads by neighbouring countries has taken place in territory under possession of India.”
Answering a query on cyber security, he said, “While threats of cyber attacks have increased, adequate safeguards to protect systems through air gapped computers and intranets have been undertaken.”
He also said the Defence Services have established Cyber Emergency Response Teams (CERTs) to prevent and react to cyber attacks.
PTI
Belmonte: Gun control to be taken up in 16th Congress
Friday, April 26th, 2013Original story by (philstar.com)
MANILA, Philippines – After a recent survey showed that 3 out of 4 Filipinos support a gun control policy, Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said on Friday that the issue would be taken up in the next Congress.
Reiterating his call for a strict gun control, Belmonte said the matter “would most likely” be among the many concerns to be raised when the 16th Congress opens in July.
Earlier this year, Belmonte said the country certainly needs greater firearms control. A total ban except for those in the military, police and security agencies, was only ideal as long as illegal firearms thrive, he added.
Meanwhile, one of the authors of a gun control measure filed in the lower house stressed the need for “comprehensive, sustainable and stricter” regulations on all types of firearms and its components.
Marikina City 1st District Representative Marcelino Teodoro said the proliferation of firearms is becoming rampant, making it easier for criminal entities to perform acts of violence.
“A gun control law must be upheld and fully enforced upon by the concerned agencies and supported by the government to eradicate criminal acts,” said Teodoro, one of the authors of House Bill 5484 or the Comprehensive Firearms, Light Weapons and Ammunition Regulation Act of 2012.
The House of Representatives approved the said bill on third and final reading on Jan. 24, 2012, and sent it to the Senate two days later.
Last February 4 or more than a year later, the Senate approved on third and final reading a similar gun measure, the Senate Bill 3397 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
The said bill had been adopted by the Lower House as an amendment to HB 5484.
Among other violations, the Senate measure penalizes the illegal acquisition or ownership of three or more light firearms, which is punishable by lifetime imprisonment.
The gun measure was filed in the Senate last January, a month when gun-related incidents such the Atimonan, Quezon shooting and the New Year stray bullet cases were highlighted.
Earlier this week, a Pulse Asia survey showed that 75 percent of Filipinos are in favor of the implementation of a gun control policy.
See related story: 3 out of 4 Pinoys favor gun control
In the survey that covered 1,800 people aged 18 and above, only seven percent disagreed to such regulation, while 18 percent were undecided on the issue.
The survey also showed that most Filipinos (78 percent) prefer a policy that only allows law enforcers and licensed private security guards to carry firearms in public places.
A sizeable majority of the respondents (67 percent) also think that guns and their proliferation are among the key reasons why crime and violence occur in the country.
SAF Alarmed at Absence of Civilian Arms Rights in UN Arms Trade Treaty
Wednesday, April 3rd, 2013The controversial Arms Trade Treaty passed by the United Nations General Assembly (GA) with the United States’ support represents an alarming policy shift, and a potential threat to American gun rights, the Second Amendment Foundation said.
“The vote was not about public safety,” stated SAF founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb. “The United States already has the strongest regulations in the world on the international trade of conventional weapons.”
The U.S. broke with its policy requiring consensus and not only voted for the treaty but sponsored it.
Julianne Versnel, SAF’s Director of Operations, who spoke about self-defense in an NGO statement expressed disappointment.
“We have been working for 7 years on an ATT. There have been eight lengthy multi-day meetings and we still can’t get the right of civilians to self-defense acknowledged,” she observed.
On March 27, after the final text of the ATT was released, SAF sent a letter to Assistant Secretary Thomas M. Countryman expressing concern and asking for clarification regarding several provisions of the proposed treaty. Also signing the letter were the National Rifle Association, Manufacturers Advisory Group, World Forum on Shooting Activities, Defense Small Arms Advisory Council, Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute and Firearms Import/Export Roundtable. This laid out five main reservations.
Of primary concern is the fact that civilian arms appeared to be included in the treaty, yet there is no recognition of the lawful right of civilians to own, trade and use small arms for self-defense. The language used in the Scope does not exclude “firearms that are lawfully owned by civilians and are not part of international commerce.” The language was also unclear concerning international travel with firearms by hunters and sport shooters.
Additionally it was unclear whether relics and curios would fall under this treaty or whether state-owned museums would be able to transport artifacts to other countries without export licenses. There is also concern that the amendment process for the treaty, and the possibility that major provisions could be effected by a minority.
The ATT will be open for signatures on June 3. Although President Obama has indicated he will sign it, the Treaty would have to be ratified by the Senate before it becomes binding on the United States.
The Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) is the nation’s oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research, publishing and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. Founded in 1974, The Foundation has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control. In addition to the landmark McDonald v. Chicago Supreme Court Case, SAF has previously funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles; New Haven, CT; New Orleans; Chicago and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners, a lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers and numerous amicus briefs holding the Second Amendment as an individual right.
Canada’s NFA Opposes UN ATT
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013Original Story Via: NFA.CA
The UN General Assembly passed a flawed Arms Trade Treaty this morning in New York City with 3 no votes, 23 abstaining, and 154 voting in favour. According to NFA President Sheldon Clare, “The Arms Trade Treaty will set a dangerous precedent as a bad international agreement that will do nothing to prevent the misuse of major weapons systems and much to limit access of firearms and ammunition to legitimate users.” He continued, “As we see it, this ATT will harm legitimate users. We expect that it will increase the cost of ammunition, firearms, parts, and accessories for normal civilian users.” Canada’s National Firearms Association has gone on record as opposing the inclusion of civilian small arms and light weapons in the Arms Trade Treaty. “Canada will now need to decide whether or not to ratify this treaty, and we strongly suggest that our government not ratify it.”
Clare pointed to several problems with the draft treaty, part of which calls on states to “…establish and maintain a national control system, including a national control list, in order to implement the provisions of this Treaty. The treaty is vague in many sections and in our view this vagueness opens doorways for many additional regulations and restrictions to be introduced in a treaty that we expect would be ever-expanding.”
Clare said, “We see this vague phrasing as having the potential to create a national registry which would be all the more offensive as it would be made public.” He continued, “Several articles are about “end user” documentation, and the NFA submits that the end user of small arms and ammunition cannot be known in the absence of a heavily regulated registration and licensing program, which we vigorously oppose. The peer-reviewed evidence shows that neither licensing nor registration prevents criminal use of firearms. Furthermore, the ATT ignores personal defence as a legitimate form of firearm use.”
“Another significant problem is that parts of the draft treaty open the door to widespread corruption as well as to potential costly demands for real and necessary assistance. Our members hope that Canada will push for fiscal responsibility at the UN to ensure that funding is better monitored and controlled. Improved financial controls would save more lives than this Arms Trade Treaty ever would,” Clare stated. “Though we are disappointed that Canada voted for the treaty, we are pleased that Canada did not sponsor the treaty during the vote, and we hope that Canada will not ratify the Arms Trade Treaty. The Canadian government stood strongly in favour of civilian firearms owners during the treaty process to obtain some helpful preamble language, but the treaty remains a bad deal. The present domestic burdens on Canadian firearms owners are already excessive, and the effect of this treaty would be to add more onerous and costly requirements for firearms ownership, as well as build further disrespect for firearms law. This treaty does not have the support of a significant proportion of the firearms owning public, and it appears to be in direct conflict with the stated aims of the Government in regards to not having any new burdens for firearms owners.”
Canada’s National Firearms Association is this country’s largest advocacy organization promoting the rights and freedoms of all responsible firearm owners and users.
UN adopts Arms Treaty in hurried vote
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
By Dave Workman | Senior Editor
By a 154-3 vote with 23 abstentions that included Russia and China, the United Nations General Assembly quickly pushed through an international Arms Trade Treaty that many in the gun rights community see as a direct threat to the Second Amendment.
The Obama administration officially supported the treaty, in an about-face that raised the anger of the National Shooting Sports Foundation.
NSSF Senior Vice President and General Counsel Larry Keane said that this proves “the Obama administration wants a sweeping U.N. arms control treaty.”
“We are troubled by the timing of the Obama Administration’s decision to abandon consensus on the eve of the Senate debate on pending gun-control measures,” Keane said in a press release. “The United Nations treaty would have a broad impact on the U.S. firearms industry and its base of consumers in the U.S.”
Gun rights organizations, including the National Rifle Association (NRA), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (CCRKBA), have been sounding alarms on the treaty effort for several years. SAF helped create the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) in early 2010, and CCRKBA has been instrumental in creation of at least two Capitol Hill measures to prevent the United States from participating in U.N. gun control actions.
According to Fox News, the vote was 154-3 with 23 abstentions. The Washington Times quoted Sen. Thad Cochran (R-Miss.) who essentially said the treaty would not survive a Senate vote.
“The Senate has already gone on record in stating that an Arms Trade Treaty has no hope, especially if it does not specifically protect the individual right to bear arms and American sovereignty,” he said, according to the newspaper. “It would be pointless for the president to sign such a treaty and expect the Senate to go along. We won’t ratify it.”
Gun control organizations including Amnesty International were crowing about the vote. Deputy Executive Director Frank Jannuzi issued a statement blasting the NRA, which opposed the treaty.
“Today’s victory shows that ordinary people who care about protecting human rights can fight back to stop the gun lobby dead in its tracks, helping to save countless lives,” he said. “The voices of reason triumphed over skeptics, treaty opponents and dealers in death to establish a revolutionary treaty that constitutes a major step toward keeping assault rifles, rocket-propelled grenades and other weapons out of the hands of despots and warlords who use them to kill and maim civilians, recruit child soldiers and commit other serious abuses. Iran, Syria and North Korea blocked consensus at the U.N., while the NRA cynically – and ultimately unsuccessfully – tried to erode the U.S. government’s support through a campaign of lies about the treaty But in the end, the global call for responsibility in the arms trade won out.
“Amnesty International played a leading role in initiating the campaign for this treaty nearly 20 years ago and has fought tirelessly to stop weapons from being sent to countries where we know they are used to commit human rights atrocities,” Januzzi added. “This has been a life-saving struggle that never could have been achieved without the support of millions of human rights activists who stepped forward to demand change. We call on President Obama to be first in line on June 3 when the treaty opens for signature.”
That may be a tall order for the president, who already knows that there are not enough votes in the Senate for ratification.
Phil Watson, IAPCAR executive director, noted that the treaty language is troubling because there is no specific protection for privately owned civilian firearms. He was also wary about the vote because he said it had not been on the General Assembly agenda, but was called up and passed quickly on the morning of April 2.
In a statement to TGM, Watson noted that the treaty had not been able to reach consensus with all parties in agreement, and it was “hurried to the General Assembly.”
“An ATT without any provision protecting civilian use of firearms for the purpose of self-defense is unacceptable,” Watson said. “While the preamble makes vague reference to civilian arms, there is nothing acknowledging the right in the operative language of the treaty.”
IAPCAR comment on UN ATT approval
Tuesday, April 2nd, 2013The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) expressed concern about the passage of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (UN ATT) after its approval on April 2, 2013 in the UN General Assembly. This is not the path that the ATT should have taken. The Treaty had not been able to reach consensus, where all parties agreed, and it was hurried to the General Assembly. There were 154 votes in favor, 3 against and 23 abstentions.
Philip Watson, IAPCAR’s executive director, stated, “An ATT without any provision protecting civilian use of firearms for the purpose of self-defense is unacceptable. While the preamble makes vague reference to civilian arms, there is nothing acknowledging the right in the operative language of the treaty.”
IAPCAR co-founder Julianne Versnel addressed the global body at the ATT conference on March 27 along with other Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) and defended the use of firearms in self-defense. “Almost half of the handguns in the US are owned by women. They are used daily for self-defense. I fully endorse, as should every person in this room, the idea that women must have the means to defend themselves. Nothing that is in an Arms Trade Treaty should affect a woman’s right to defend herself,” she told the delegates.
Pro-civilian rights supporters, collectors, industry and other participated in the process; however, were given less than half the time allotted to the self-titled ‘arms control’ groups in testimony to the global body.
The ATT will be open for signature on June 3 and will enter into force 90 days after the 50th signatory ratifies it.
The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (http://iapcar.org/) is the only worldwide political action group focusing on the human right to keep and bear arms. Founded in 2010, IAPCAR has grown to 24 major gun-rights organizations and conducts operations designed to inform the public and promote the right of self-defense and gun-ownership.
NSSF Objects to U.S. Government Abandoning Position that U.N. Treaty Must be based on International “Consensus”
Monday, April 1st, 2013Via: National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF)
The National Shooting Sports Foundation today strongly objected to the last-minute reversal of the U.S. government position regarding the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty. In the closing hours of negotiations on Thursday, March 28, the government abandoned its previous insistence that the treaty be approved only through achieving “consensus” of all the member states. Requiring consensus had been the United States position going back to earlier administrations.
At the end of the session, a U.S. government spokesperson told reporters “It’s important to the United States and the defense of our interests to insist on consensus. But every state in this process has always been conscious of the fact that if consensus is not reached in this process, that there are other ways to adopt this treaty, including via a vote of the General Assembly.” The spokesperson went on to say that the United States would vote “yes” on the treaty in the General Assembly, regardless of the positions of other member states. By abandoning the requirement for consensus the United States is assuring passage of the treaty by the United Nations.
“This abrupt about-face on the long-standing United States requirement for ‘consensus’ illustrates that the Obama Administration wants a sweeping U.N. arms control treaty,” said Lawrence Keane, NSSF senior vice president and general counsel. “We are troubled by the timing of the Obama Administration’s decision to abandon consensus on the eve of the Senate debate on pending gun control measures. The United Nations treaty would have a broad impact on the U.S. firearms industry and its base of consumers in the U.S.”
Industry analysts have identified three major areas of concern with the treaty text. The treaty clearly covers trade in civilian firearms, not just military arms and equipment. It will have a major impact on the importation of firearms to the United States, which is a substantial source for the consumer market. And it will impose new regulations on the “transit” of firearms, the term defined so broadly that it would cover all everything from container ships stopping at ports to individuals who are traveling internationally with a single firearm for hunting or other sporting purposes.
“We hope that the Members of the U.S. Senate are closely watching the White House abandon its principles and promises in the rush to ramrod this flawed treaty into effect. Not only will they later be asked to ratify this attack on our constitution and sovereignty, but they will also be lavished with new promises from the administration in its drive to push a broad gun control agenda through the U.S. Senate when it returns from recess. They would be right to question those promises strongly,” concluded Keane.
Proposed arms treaty shows UN is its own worst enemy
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013Original Article Via: Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
The final draft of the proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is out, and it contains language that may be incendiary to gun rights activists in the United States, with references to maintaining “national control systems” for small arms and ammunition.
From the proposed treaty on Page 4: “Each State Party shall establish and maintain a national control system to regulate the export of ammunition/munitions fired, launched or delivered by the conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1), and shall apply the provisions of Article 6 and Article 7 prior to authorizing the export of such ammunition/munitions.”
Bellevue’s Alan Gottlieb, executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, has been vocally critical of the ATT process and is concerned about “vagueness” in the current language. SAF’s Julianne Versnel was at the UN last week to testify about unintended consequences of international gun control measures.
From the proposed treaty on Page 5: “Each State Party shall establish and maintain a national control system, including a national control list, in order to implement the provisions of this Treaty.” Versnel suggested this may be one of the “core problems” of the proposed treaty, but it might take a determination from someone skilled in diplomatic speech to figure it out.
On Page 9 of the document, there is an entire section on record keeping that just might be enough to cause many people on Capitol Hill to follow the lead shown by Republican Senators Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz, discussed by this column that might prevent the U.S. from signing on.
Record keeping:
1. Each State Party shall maintain national records, pursuant to its national laws and regulations, of its issuance of export authorizations or its actual exports of the conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1).
2. Each State Party is encouraged to maintain records of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) that are transferred to its territory as the final destination or that are authorized to transit or trans-ship territory under its jurisdiction.
3. Each State Party is encouraged to include in those records: the quantity, value, model/type, authorized international transfers of conventional arms covered under Article
2 (1), conventional arms actually transferred, details of exporting State(s), importing State(s), transit and trans-shipment State(s), and end users, as appropriate.
4. Records shall be kept for a minimum of ten years.
But does all of this treaty language really mean what a lot of people will think it means: The UN dictating some sort of national gun registry, at least on imported firearms? Because of the way this document is written, even if some UN spokesperson says “No,” there will be a legion of gun rights advocates who say “Yes,” and they will have compelling, if not convincing arguments.
The draft documents do include some caveats in the Preamble, including:
Reaffirming the sovereign right of any State to regulate and control conventional arms
exclusively within its territory, pursuant to its own legal or constitutional system,
Emphasizing that nothing in this Treaty prevents States from maintaining and adopting additional effective measures to further the object and purpose of this Treaty,
Mindful of the legitimate trade and lawful ownership, and use of certain conventional
arms for recreational, cultural, historical, and sporting activities, where such trade, ownership and use are permitted or protected by law…
But the Preamble is just that. It’s apparently not part of any binding language.
The authors of this document will be largely to blame for any misunderstanding, and they have opened themselves up to criticism that the language seems deliberately foggy and far too steeped in diplomatic semantics. That translates to being something less than “plain English.” Since the Obama administration has indicated a willingness to sign onto such a treaty, the Senate just might reject it out of hand, but before that happens, somebody will have to translate it for them.
UN Arms Trade Treaty Final Draft
Wednesday, March 27th, 2013Document Via:
http://www.un.org/disarmament/ATT/docs/ATT_text_%28As_adopted_by_the_GA%29-E.pdf
PRESIDENT’S NON PAPER, 27 MARCH 2013
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United Nations Final Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty
New York, 18-28 March 2013
Draft decision
Submitted by the President of the Final Conference
The Final United Nations Conference of the Arms Trade Treaty,
Adopts the Arms Trade Treaty, the text of which is annexed to the present decision.
Annex
The Arms Trade Treaty
Preamble
The States Parties to this Treaty,
Guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations,
Recalling Article 26 of the Charter of the United Nations which seeks to promote the
establishment and maintenance of international peace and security with the least diversion for
armaments of the world’s human and economic resources,
Underlining the need to prevent and eradicate the illicit trade in conventional arms
and to prevent their diversion to the illicit market, or for unauthorized end use and end users,
including in the commission of terrorist acts,
Recognizing the legitimate political, security, economic and commercial interests of
States in the international trade in conventional arms,
Reaffirming the sovereign right of any State to regulate and control conventional arms
exclusively within its territory, pursuant to its own legal or constitutional system,
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Acknowledging that peace and security, development and human rights, are pillars of
the United Nations system and foundations for collective security and recognizing that
development, peace and security and human rights are interlinked and mutually reinforcing,
Recalling the United Nations Disarmament Commission Guidelines for international
arms transfers in the context of General Assembly resolution 46/36H of 6 December 1991,
Noting the contribution made by the United Nations Programme of Action to Prevent,
Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects,
as well as the Protocol against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Their
Parts and Components and Ammunition, supplementing the United Nations Convention
against Transnational Organized Crime, and the International Instrument to Enable States to
Identify and Trace, in a Timely and Reliable Manner, Illicit Small Arms and Light Weapons,
Recognizing the security, social, economic and humanitarian consequences of the
illicit and unregulated trade in conventional arms,
Bearing in mind that civilians, particularly women and children, account for the vast
majority of those adversely affected by armed conflict and armed violence,
Recognizing also the challenges faced by victims of armed conflict and their need for
adequate care, rehabilitation and social and economic inclusion,
Emphasizing that nothing in this Treaty prevents States from maintaining and
adopting additional effective measures to further the object and purpose of this Treaty,
Mindful of the legitimate trade and lawful ownership, and use of certain conventional
arms for recreational, cultural, historical, and sporting activities, where such trade, ownership
and use are permitted or protected by law,
Mindful also of the role regional organizations can play in assisting States Parties,
upon request, in implementing this Treaty,
Recognizing the voluntary and active role that civil society, including nongovernmental
organizations, and industry, can play in raising awareness of the object and
purpose of this Treaty, and in supporting its implementation,
Acknowledging that regulation of the international trade in conventional arms and
preventing their diversion, should not hamper international cooperation and legitimate trade
in materiel, equipment and technology for peaceful purposes,
Emphasizing the desirability of achieving universal adherence to this Treaty,
Determined to act in accordance with the following principles;
Principles
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– The inherent right of all States to individual or collective self-defense as recognized
in Article 51 of the Charter of the United Nations;
– The settlement of international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that
international peace and security and justice, are not endangered in accordance with Article 2
(3) of the Charter of the United Nations;
– Refraining in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the
territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent
with the purposes of the United Nations in accordance with Article 2 (4) of the Charter of the
United Nations;
– Non-intervention in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of
any State in accordance with Article 2 (7) of the Charter of the United Nations;
– Respecting and ensuring respect for international humanitarian law in accordance
with, inter alia, the Geneva Conventions of 1949, and respecting and ensuring respect for
human rights, in accordance with, inter alia, the Charter of the United Nations and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
– The responsibility of all States, in accordance with their respective international
obligations, to effectively regulate the international trade in conventional arms, and to
prevent their diversion, as well as the primary responsibility of all States in establishing and
implementing their respective national control systems;
– The respect for the legitimate interests of States to acquire conventional arms to
exercise their right to self-defense and for peacekeeping operations; and to produce, export,
import and transfer conventional arms;
– Implementing this Treaty in a consistent, objective and non-discriminatory manner,
Have agreed as follows:
Article 1
Object and Purpose
The object of this Treaty is to:
– Establish the highest possible common international standards for regulating or
improving the regulation of the international trade in conventional arms;
– Prevent and eradicate the illicit trade in conventional arms and prevent their
diversion;
for the purpose of:
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– Contributing to international and regional peace, security and stability;
– Reducing human suffering;
– Promoting cooperation, transparency and responsible action by States Parties in
the international trade in conventional arms, thereby building confidence among
States Parties.
Article 2
Scope
1. This Treaty shall apply to all conventional arms within the following categories:
(a) Battle tanks;
(b) Armoured combat vehicles;
(c) Large-calibre artillery systems;
(d) Combat aircraft;
(e) Attack helicopters;
(f) Warships;
(g) Missiles and missile launchers; and
(h) Small arms and light weapons.
2. For the purposes of this Treaty, the activities of the international trade comprise export,
import, transit, trans-shipment and brokering, hereafter referred to as “transfer”.
3. This Treaty shall not apply to the international movement of conventional arms by, or on
behalf of, a State Party for its use provided that the conventional arms remain under that
State Party’s ownership.
Article 3
Ammunition/Munitions
Each State Party shall establish and maintain a national control system to regulate the export
of ammunition/munitions fired, launched or delivered by the conventional arms covered
under Article 2 (1), and shall apply the provisions of Article 6 and Article 7 prior to
authorizing the export of such ammunition/munitions.
Article 4
Parts and Components
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Each State Party shall establish and maintain a national control system to regulate the export
of parts and components where the export is in a form that provides the capability to
assemble the conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1). Each State Party shall apply the
provisions of Article 6 and Article 7 prior to authorizing the export of such parts and
components.
Article 5
General Implementation
1. Each State Party shall implement this Treaty in a consistent, objective and nondiscriminatory
manner, bearing in mind the principles referred to in this Treaty.
2. Each State Party shall establish and maintain a national control system, including a
national control list, in order to implement the provisions of this Treaty.
3. Each State Party is encouraged to apply the provisions of this Treaty to the broadest range
of conventional arms. National definitions of any of the categories covered in Article 2
(1) (a-g) shall not cover less than the descriptions used in the United Nations Register of
Conventional Arms at the time of entry into force of this Treaty. For the category covered
in Article 2 (1) (h), national definitions shall not cover less than the descriptions used in
relevant United Nations instruments at the time of entry into force of this Treaty.
4. Each State Party, pursuant to its national laws, shall provide its national control list to the
Secretariat, which shall make it available to other States Parties. States Parties are
encouraged to make their control lists publicly available.
5. Each State Party shall take measures necessary to implement the provisions of this Treaty
and shall designate competent national authorities in order to have an effective and
transparent national control system regulating the transfer of conventional arms covered
under Article 2 (1) and of items covered in Article 3 and Article 4.
6. Each State Party shall designate one or more national points of contact to exchange
information on matters related to the implementation of this Treaty. A State Party shall
notify the Secretariat, established under Article 18, of its national point(s) of contact and
keep the information updated.
Article 6
Prohibitions
1. A State Party shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms covered under Article
2 (1) or of items covered under Article 3 or Article 4, if the transfer would violate its
obligations under measures adopted by the United Nations Security Council acting under
Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, in particular arms embargoes.
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2. A State Party shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms covered under Article
2 (1) or of items covered under Article 3 or Article 4, if the transfer would violate its
relevant international obligations under international agreements to which it is a Party, in
particular those relating to the transfer of, or illicit trafficking in, conventional arms.
3. A State Party shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms covered under Article
2 (1) or of items covered under Article 3 or Article 4, if it has knowledge at the time of
authorization that the arms or items would be used in the commission of genocide, crimes
against humanity, grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, attacks directed
against civilian objects or civilians protected as such, or other war crimes as defined by
international agreements to which it is a Party.
Article 7
Export and Export Assessment
1. If the export is not prohibited under Article 6, each exporting State Party, prior to
authorization of the export of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) or of items
covered under Article 3 or Article 4, under its jurisdiction and pursuant to its national
control system, shall, in an objective and non-discriminatory manner, taking into account
relevant factors, including information provided by the importing State in accordance
with Article 8 (1), assess the potential that the conventional arms or items:
a) would contribute to or undermine peace and security;
b) could be used to:
i. commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law;
ii. commit or facilitate a serious violation of international human rights law;
iii. commit or facilitate an act constituting an offence under international conventions
or protocols relating to terrorism to which the exporting State is a Party; or
iv. commit or facilitate an act constituting an offence under international conventions
or protocols relating to transnational organized crime to which the exporting State
is a Party.
2. The exporting State Party shall also consider whether there are measures that could be
undertaken to mitigate risks identified in (a) or (b) in paragraph 1, such as confidencebuilding
measures or jointly developed and agreed programmes by the exporting and
importing States.
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3. If, after conducting this assessment and considering available mitigating measures, the
exporting State Party determines that there is an overriding risk of any of the negative
consequences in paragraph 1, the exporting State Party shall not authorize the export.
4. The exporting State Party, in making this assessment, shall take into account the risk of
the conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) or of the items covered under Article 3
or Article 4, being used to commit or facilitate serious acts of gender based violence or
serious acts of violence against women and children.
5. Each exporting State Party shall take measures to ensure that all authorizations for the
export of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) or of items covered under Article
3 or Article 4, are detailed and issued prior to the export.
6. Each exporting State Party shall make available appropriate information about the
authorization in question, upon request, to the importing State Party and to the transit or
trans-shipment States Parties, subject to its national laws, practices or policies.
7. If, after an authorization has been granted, an exporting State Party becomes aware of
new relevant information, it is encouraged to reassess the authorization after
consultations, if appropriate, with the importing State.
Article 8
Import
1. Each importing State Party shall take measures to ensure that appropriate and relevant
information is provided, upon request, pursuant to its national laws, to the exporting State
Party, to assist the exporting State Party in conducting its national export assessment
under Article 7. Such measures may include end use or end user documentation.
2. Each importing State Party shall take measures that will allow it to regulate, where
necessary, imports under its jurisdiction of conventional arms covered under Article 2
(1). Such measures may include import systems.
3. Each importing State Party may request information from the exporting State Party
concerning any pending or actual export authorizations where the importing State Party is
the country of final destination.
Article 9
Transit or trans-shipment
Each State Party shall take appropriate measures to regulate, where necessary and feasible,
the transit or trans-shipment under its jurisdiction of conventional arms covered under Article
2 (1) through its territory in accordance with relevant international law.
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Article 10
Brokering
Each State Party shall take measures, pursuant to its national laws, to regulate brokering
taking place under its jurisdiction for conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1). Such
measures may include requiring brokers to register or obtain written authorization before
engaging in brokering.
Article 11
Diversion
1. Each State Party involved in the transfer of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1)
shall take measures to prevent their diversion.
2. The exporting State Party shall seek to prevent the diversion of the transfer of
conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) through its national control system,
established in accordance with Article 5 (2), by assessing the risk of diversion of the
export and considering the establishment of mitigation measures such as confidencebuilding
measures or jointly developed and agreed programmes by the exporting and
importing States. Other prevention measures may include, where appropriate: examining
parties involved in the export, requiring additional documentation, certificates,
assurances, not authorizing the export or other appropriate measures.
3. Importing, transit, trans-shipment and exporting States Parties shall cooperate and
exchange information, pursuant to their national laws, where appropriate and feasible, in
order to mitigate the risk of diversion of the transfer of conventional arms covered under
Article 2 (1).
4. If a State Party detects a diversion of transferred conventional arms covered under Article
2 (1), the State Party shall take appropriate measures, pursuant to its national laws and in
accordance with international law, to address such diversion. Such measures may include,
alerting potentially affected State Parties, examining diverted shipments of such
conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1), and taking follow-up measures through
investigation and law enforcement.
5. In order to better comprehend and prevent the diversion of transferred conventional arms
covered under Article 2 (1), State Parties are encouraged to share relevant information
with one another on effective measures to address diversion. Such information may
include information on illicit activities including corruption, international trafficking
routes, illicit brokers, sources of illicit supply, methods of concealment, common points
of dispatch, or destinations used by organized groups engaged in diversion.
9
6. States Parties are encouraged to report to other State Parties, through the Secretariat, on
measures taken in addressing the diversion of transferred conventional arms covered
under Article 2 (1).
Article 12
Record keeping
1. Each State Party shall maintain national records, pursuant to its national laws and
regulations, of its issuance of export authorizations or its actual exports of the
conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1).
2. Each State Party is encouraged to maintain records of conventional arms covered under
Article 2 (1) that are transferred to its territory as the final destination or that are
authorized to transit or trans-ship territory under its jurisdiction.
3. Each State Party is encouraged to include in those records: the quantity, value,
model/type, authorized international transfers of conventional arms covered under Article
2 (1), conventional arms actually transferred, details of exporting State(s), importing
State(s), transit and trans-shipment State(s), and end users, as appropriate.
4. Records shall be kept for a minimum of ten years.
Article 13
Reporting
1. Each State Party shall, within the first year after entry into force of this Treaty for that
State Party, in accordance with Article 22, provide an initial report to the Secretariat of
measures undertaken in order to implement this Treaty, including national laws, national
control lists and other regulations and administrative measures. Each State Party shall
report to the Secretariat on any new measures undertaken in order to implement this
Treaty, when appropriate. Reports shall be made available, and distributed to States
Parties by the Secretariat.
2. States Parties are encouraged to report to other States Parties, through the Secretariat,
information on measures taken that have been proven effective in addressing the
diversion of transferred conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1).
3. Each State Party shall submit annually to the Secretariat by 31 May a report for the
preceding calendar year concerning authorized or actual exports and imports of
conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1). Reports shall be made available, and
distributed to States Parties by the Secretariat. The report submitted to the Secretariat
may contain the same information submitted by the State Party to relevant United Nations
10
frameworks, including the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. Reports may
exclude commercially sensitive or national security information.
Article 14
Enforcement
Each State Party shall take appropriate measures to enforce national laws and regulations that
implement the provisions of this Treaty.
Article 15
International Cooperation
1. States Parties shall cooperate with each other, consistent with their respective security
interests and national laws, to effectively implement this Treaty.
2. States Parties are encouraged to facilitate international cooperation, including exchanging
information on matters of mutual interest regarding the implementation and application of
this Treaty pursuant to their respective security interests and national laws.
3. States Parties are encouraged to consult on matters of mutual interest and to share
information, as appropriate, to support the implementation of this Treaty.
4. States Parties are encouraged to cooperate, pursuant to their national laws, in order to
assist national implementation of the provisions of this Treaty, including through sharing
information regarding illicit activities and actors and in order to prevent and eradicate
diversion of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1).
5. States Parties shall, where jointly agreed and consistent with their national laws, afford
one another the widest measure of assistance in investigations, prosecutions and judicial
proceedings in relation to violations of national measures established pursuant to this
Treaty.
6. States Parties are encouraged to take national measures and to cooperate with each other
to prevent the transfer of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) becoming subject
to corrupt practices.
7. States Parties are encouraged to exchange experience and information on lessons learned
in relation to any aspect of this Treaty.
Article 16
International Assistance
1. In implementing this Treaty, each State Party may seek assistance including legal or
legislative assistance, institutional capacity building, and technical, material or financial
11
assistance. Such assistance may include stockpile management, disarmament,
demobilization and reintegration programmes, model legislation, and effective practices
for implementation. Each State Party in a position to do so shall provide such assistance,
upon request.
2. Each State Party may request, offer or receive assistance through, inter alia, the United
Nations, international, regional, subregional or national organizations, non-governmental
organizations, or on a bilateral basis.
3. A voluntary trust fund shall be established by States Parties to assist requesting States
Parties requiring international assistance to implement this Treaty. Each State Party is
encouraged to contribute resources to the fund.
Article 17
Conference of States Parties
1. A Conference of States Parties shall be convened by the provisional Secretariat,
established under Article 18, no later than one year following the entry into force of this
Treaty and thereafter at such other times as may be decided by the Conference of States
Parties.
2. The Conference of States Parties shall adopt by consensus its rules of procedure at its first
session.
3. The Conference of States Parties shall adopt financial rules for itself as well as governing
the funding of any subsidiary bodies it may establish as well as financial provisions
governing the functioning of the Secretariat. At each ordinary session, it shall adopt a
budget for the financial period until the next ordinary session.
4. The Conference of States Parties shall:
(a) Review the implementation of this Treaty, including developments in the field of
conventional arms
(b) Consider and adopt recommendations regarding the implementation and operation of this
Treaty, in particular the promotion of its universality;
(c) Consider amendments to this Treaty in accordance with Article 20;
(d) Consider issues arising from the interpretation of this Treaty;
(e) Consider and decide the tasks and budget of the Secretariat;
(f) Consider the establishment of any subsidiary bodies as may be necessary to improve the
functioning of this Treaty; and
(g) Perform any other function consistent with this Treaty.
12
5. Extraordinary meetings of the Conference of States Parties shall be held at such other
times as may be deemed necessary by the Conference of States Parties, or at the written
request of any State Party provided that this request is supported by at least two thirds of
the States Parties.
Article 18
Secretariat
1. This Treaty hereby establishes a Secretariat to assist States Parties in the effective
implementation of this Treaty. Pending the first meeting of the Conference of States
Parties, a provisional Secretariat will be responsible for the administrative functions
covered under this Treaty.
2. The Secretariat shall be adequately staffed. Staff shall have the necessary expertise to
ensure that the Secretariat can effectively undertake the responsibilities described in
paragraph 3.
3. The Secretariat shall be responsible to States Parties. Within a minimized structure, the
Secretariat shall undertake the following responsibilities:
(a) Receive, make available and distribute the reports as mandated by this
Treaty;
(b) Maintain and make available to States Parties the list of national points of
contact;
(c) Facilitate the matching of offers of and requests for assistance for Treaty
implementation and promote international cooperation as requested;
(d) Facilitate the work of the Conference of States Parties, including making
arrangements and providing the necessary services for meetings under this
Treaty; and
(e) Perform other duties as decided by the Conferences of States Parties.
Article 19
Dispute Settlement
1. States Parties shall consult and, by mutual consent, cooperate to pursue settlement of any
dispute that may arise between them with regard to the interpretation or application of
this Treaty including through negotiations, mediation, conciliation, judicial settlement or
other peaceful means.
2. States Parties may pursue, by mutual consent, arbitration to settle any dispute between
them, regarding issues concerning the interpretation or application of this Treaty.
13
Article 20
Amendments
1. Six years after the entry into force of this Treaty, any State Party may propose an
amendment to this Treaty. Thereafter, proposed amendments may only be considered by
the Conference of States Parties every three years.
2. Any proposal to amend this Treaty shall be submitted in writing to the Secretariat, which
shall circulate the proposal to all States Parties, not less than 180 days before the next
meeting of the Conference of States Parties at which amendments may be considered
pursuant to paragraph 1. The amendment shall be considered at the next Conference of
States Parties at which amendments may be considered pursuant to paragraph 1 if, no
later than 120 days after its circulation by the Secretariat, a majority of States Parties
notify the Secretariat that they support consideration of the proposal.
3. The States Parties shall make every effort to achieve consensus on each amendment. If
all efforts at consensus have been exhausted, and no agreement reached, the amendment
shall, as a last resort, be adopted by a three-quarters majority vote of the States Parties
present and voting at the meeting of the Conference of States Parties. For the purposes of
this Article, States Parties present and voting means States Parties present and casting an
affirmative or negative vote. The Depositary shall communicate any adopted amendment
to all States Parties.
4. An amendment adopted in accordance with paragraph 3 shall enter into force for each
State Party that has deposited its instrument of acceptance for that amendment, ninety
days following the date of deposit with the Depositary of the instruments of acceptance
by a majority of the number of States Parties at the time of the adoption of the
amendment. Thereafter, it shall enter into force for any remaining State Party ninety days
following the date of deposit of its instrument of acceptance for that amendment.
Article 21
Signature, Ratification, Acceptance, Approval or Accession
1. This Treaty shall be open for signature at the United Nations Headquarters in New York
by all States from the Third Day of the Sixth Month of 2013 until its entry into force.
2. This Treaty is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval by each signatory State.
3. Following its entry into force, this Treaty shall be open for accession by any State that
has not signed the Treaty.
4. The instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession shall be deposited with
the Depositary.
14
Article 22
Entry into Force
1. This Treaty shall enter into force ninety days following the date of the deposit of the
fiftieth instrument of ratification, acceptance, or approval with the Depositary.
2. For any State that deposits its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or
accession subsequent to the entry into force of this Treaty, this Treaty shall enter into
force for that State ninety days following the date of deposit of its instrument of
ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.
Article 23
Provisional application
Any State may at the time of signature or the deposit of instrument of its ratification,
acceptance, approval or accession, declare that it will apply provisionally Article 6 and
Article 7 pending its entry into force.
Article 24
Duration and Withdrawal
1. This Treaty shall be of unlimited duration.
2. Each State Party shall, in exercising its national sovereignty, have the right to withdraw
from this Treaty. It shall give notification of such withdrawal to the Depositary, which
shall notify all other States Parties. The notification of withdrawal may include an
explanation of the reasons for its withdrawal. The notice of withdrawal shall take effect
ninety days after the receipt of the notification of withdrawal by the Depositary, unless
the notification of withdrawal specifies a later date.
3. A State shall not be discharged, by reason of its withdrawal, from the obligations arising
from this Treaty while it was a Party to this Treaty, including any financial obligations
that it may have accrued.
Article 25
Reservations
1. At the time of signature, ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, each State may
formulate reservations, unless the reservations are incompatible with the object and
purpose of this Treaty.
15
2. A State Party may withdraw its reservation at any time by notification to this effect
addressed to the Depositary.
Article 26
Relationship with other international agreements
1. The implementation of this Treaty shall not prejudice obligations undertaken by States
Parties with regard to existing or future international agreements, to which they are
parties, where those obligations are consistent with this Treaty.
2. This Treaty shall not be cited as grounds for voiding defense cooperation agreements
concluded between States Parties to this Treaty.
Article 27
Depositary
The Secretary-General of the United Nations shall be the Depositary of this Treaty.
Article 28
Authentic Texts
The original text of this Treaty, of which the Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and
Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the
United Nations.
DONE AT NEW YORK, this twenty-eighth day of March, two thousand and thirteen
US Senate Votes to Block UN Arms Trade Treaty
Tuesday, March 26th, 2013Original Story Via: PJ Media
by Howard Nemerov
During the Senate’s passing of their (congressional budget) Concurrent Resolution 8 on March 23, Oklahoma Senator James Inhofe successfully inserted Senate amendment 139 to “prevent the United States from entering into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.” (Text of bills can be retrieved from Library of Congress “Thomas” site.)
In a 53-49 vote, the Senate passed Inhofe’s amendment. The list of Yeas and Nays is what’s important going forward, and contains both good news and a warning.
Along with all 45 Republicans, 8 Democrat senators voted Yea:
- Mark Begich, Alaska
- Joe Donnelly, Indiana
- Kay Hagan, North Carolina
- Martin Heinrich, New Mexico
- Heidi Heitkamp, North Dakota
- Joe Manchin, West Virginia
- Mark Pryor, Arkansas
- Jon Tester, Montana
Full story: http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2013/03/26/senate-votes-to-block-un-arms-trade-treaty/
Stacked Deck at UN ATT Talks
Thursday, March 21st, 2013Via TheGunMag.com
The Second Amendment Foundation released a statement today highlighting testimony to the UN on the pending ratification of the Arms Trade Treaty.
Little reported was the fact pro self-defense advocates received 15 minutes to address the global body; however, the ‘Control Arms Coalition’ was allotted 35 minutes.
There is currently no explanation for this disparity listed on any of the UN websites.
Julianne Versnel represents three groups at the UN, the American Conservative Union (ACU), the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR). Her statements highlighted self-defense as a human right.
“The right of self-defense is particularly important to women,” Versnel stated. “As women, we have a right to protect our bodies and to protect ourselves against assault and rape. No one questions that violence against women is endemic.”
There are genuine concerns that any international gun control treaty would ultimately strip individual firearms rights from people all over the world.
“Most of the delegates here know that in the U.S. there is extensive firearms ownership,” Versnel testified. “What they do not know is that almost half of the handguns in the US are owned by women. They are used daily for self-defense. I fully endorse, as should every person in this room, the idea that women must have the means to defend themselves. Nothing that is in an Arms Trade Treaty should affect a woman’s right to defend herself.”
The UN ATT talks are scheduled to wrap up by the end of next week.
SAF and IAPCAR Defend Women’s Right of Self-Defense at UN
Thursday, March 21st, 2013The Second Amendment Foundation today defended the right of women to defend themselves with firearms during testimony at the United Nations regarding the proposed Arms Trade Treaty.
Speaking for SAF was Julianne Versnel, who was also representing the American Conservative Union and the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR). She told the world body that “the right to life must be given real meaning” and that “A right to life must include the fundamental right to defend that life.”
“The right of self-defense is particularly important to women,” Versnel stated. “As women, we have a right to protect our bodies and to protect ourselves against assault and rape. No one questions that violence against women is endemic.”
There are genuine concerns that any international gun control treaty would ultimately strip individual firearms rights from people all over the world.
“Most of the delegates here know that in the U.S. there is extensive firearms ownership,” Versnel testified. “What they do not know is that almost half of the handguns in the US are owned by women. They are used daily for self-defense. I fully endorse, as should every person in this room, the idea that women must have the means to defend themselves. Nothing that is in an Arms Trade Treaty should affect a woman’s right to defend herself.”
She reminded the panel that former First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt, a staunch supporter of the United Nations and the first U.S. ambassador to the organization, also carried a handgun for personal protection while working in the South on civil rights issues.
“Eleanor Roosevelt was known and revered for her beliefs in woman’s rights—including the right to defend oneself with a firearm if necessary,” Versnel stated. “Mrs. Roosevelt practiced what she preached. In 1958 Mrs. Roosevelt drove though the American South by herself. The Klu Klux Klan had put a $25,000 bounty on her head and the Secret Service told her not to go. She went anyway and on the seat of the car was her own .38 caliber revolver.
“We can learn from Mrs. Roosevelt,” she concluded. “No one supported the U.N. more than she did, but at the same time she insisted on her right, as a woman and as a person to have the means to defend herself.”
EDITORIAL: Gun control by the U.N.
Thursday, March 21st, 2013Original article via: The Washington Times
Bureaucrats from 150 nations are ramping up efforts to impose gun control through international pact. Here in the United States, the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty has become the vehicle to drive an agenda that is deeply controversial because once a treaty is ratified by the Senate, it becomes the supreme law of the land.
Last week, Secretary of State John F. Kerry — no friend of the Second Amendment — announced support for the treaty, which calls for international regulations on firearms, including personal firearms as well as military weapons. During the presidential campaign, President Obama was evasive about his position on the treaty. Now that he has fully “evolved” on the Second Amendment, he has the “flexibility” of not having to face voters again, and is pushing for the treaty.
There are plenty of reasons to be concerned about what’s being cooked up in Turtle Bay. Proponents say the treaty is only meant to crack down on illegal gun-smuggling, and the only people who ought to be concerned are military strongmen looking for a good deal on black-market rocket launchers. Of course, there’s more to the story. The exact wording of the agreement, and more importantly, how vague passages can be interpreted and twisted by the courts, will determine what the treaty actually means. It could, for example, force America to implement a national gun-registration scheme, ban importation of weapons and impose burdensome regulations on transfers.
The “Review Conference on Illicit Small Arms Trade” adopted a “consensus outcome document” that states in Article 2, Paragraph 4 that signatories to the treaty would “establish or update, as appropriate, and maintain a national control list that shall include the items that fall within paragraph A1 .” Paragraph A1 includes small personal firearms.
Under Article 6, Paragraph 3, signatories (including the United States) would be required to set up an “effective, transparent and predictable national control system regulating the transfer of conventional arms .” Once again, “conventional arms” would include civilian firearms protected by the Second Amendment.
Article 8, Paragraph 2 requires countries to “put in place adequate measures that will allow them, where necessary, to monitor and control imports of items covered by the scope of this Treaty.” This could prevent U.S. gun owners from buying foreign guns and parts. Other provisions of the document “underscored efforts in marking, record-keeping and cooperation in tracing small arms .” Tracing weapons is legalese for the creation of a gun registry.
The administration pretends that ratification of this deal would do nothing to undermine constitutional rights. “We will not support any treaty that would be inconsistent with U.S. law and the rights of American citizens under our Constitution,” says Mr. Kerry. The secretary forgets that we can read, too. The written provisions of the treaty and the administration’s domestic agenda on these issues make such reassurance hollow, indeed.
In the wake of the Newtown, Conn., school massacre, Mr. Obama unleashed his all-out effort to ban “assault weapons” — the most popular type of rifle sold in America today. The White House proposals, however, should be doomed in the Republican-dominated House of Representatives. Use of the treaty process is a way to bypass that uncooperative body and accomplish many of the same gun-control goals with only 67 Senate votes.
If proponents of the arms-trade treaty are honest about their intentions, they should have no problem amending the draft treaty to explicitly limit the agreement to large, military weapons and exclude all civilian firearms that fall under the protection of the Second Amendment. The National Rifle Association has offered language that would amend the treaty to eliminate any exploitable ambiguity. Unless such corrections are made, the Senate should stand strong against international deals to trash the constitutional rights of Americans.
The Washington Times
U.N. global gun control effort begins anew
Wednesday, March 20th, 2013Via Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
New talks about an old subject – international gun control – begin today at the United Nations in New York, and sure to be involved at some point is the Bellevue-based International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR), founded with the cornerstone involvement of gun rights advocates Alan Gottlieb and Julianne Versnel.
IAPCAR Executive Director Phil Watson keeps an office at Gottlieb’s Liberty Park complex. Attorney Mark Barnes is IAPCAR’s managing director with an office in Washington, D.C.
In addition, the National Rifle Association is keenly interested in these talks. Indeed, U.S. gun rights organizations have every reason for alarm, in the wake of a statement published Friday by the Washington Post from Amnesty International’s Michelle A. Ringuette.
“The NRA claim that there is such a thing as ‘civilian weapons’ and that these can and need to be treated differently from military weapons under the Arms Trade Treaty is — to put it politely — the gun lobby’s creativity on full display,” Ringuette insisted, according to the newspaper. “There is no such distinction. To try to create one would create a loophole that would render the treaty inoperative, as anyone could claim that he or she was in the business of trading ‘civilian weapons.’ ”
This suggests that global gun banners equate rifles and shotguns with tanks and surface-to-air missiles. For example, during last Thursday’s Senate Judiciary debate on her gun ban legislation, Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) defended her efforts to ban “just a few guns” and leave others alone by arguing, “Is this not enough for the people of the United States? Do they need a bazooka?”
Raising further alarms is the fact that within hours of confirming his re-election in November. President Barack Obama had joined a handful of other nations to rekindle the U.N.’s long-running effort to adopt an international gun control treaty. Gottlieb, who heads the Second Amendment Foundation, raised alarms about this last Nov. 7.
Amnesty International is part of an international gun control group called IANSA (International Action Network on Small Arms). That group also includes the Brady Campaign for the Prevention of Gun Violence, and the Law Center for Smart Gun Laws (LCSGL).
It could be that the deck has been carefully stacked by the U.N. According to Fox News, last week, IANSA co-hosted – with the UN – a “series of meetings” with representatives from 48 African nations to push global gun control. The session was held in Addis Ababa, Ethopia.
Gottlieb was in Europe recently attending a meeting of the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting, and he takes the threat of global gun control seriously. That the U.N. is hosting these talks on American soil, in a building that has a statute out front of a Colt Python with its barrel twisted into a knot is a not-so-subtle insult to the Second Amendment and American firearms owners.
Gun rights leaders are warning American gun owners that this is not the time to become complacent, or to be entirely focused on state-level gun control measures, or bills passed out of the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, including Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s effort to renew and make permanent a ban on so-called “assault rifles” and ammunition magazines.
That all of this is occurring at the same time – barely two months into Obama’s second term – does not seem coincidental to some activists, who are now saying “We warned you.”
UNLIKELY CONSENSUS: Commentary & Outlook for the UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty
Tuesday, March 12th, 2013Via Jeff Moran | Geneva
Revised and updated, 10 March 2013.
TSM Worldwide LLC has published its executive e-briefing of selected context and issues going into the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) Conference scheduled for 18-28 March 2013 in New York. It also models five possible outcomes and explains the key factors for why consensus is possible, but not likely.
This concise resource can serve as a sense-making tool for diplomats, international legal specialists, civil society activists, trade groups, academics, students, and strategic business leaders alike.
The author, a former military diplomat and strategy leader at a leading defense/aerospace company, consulted over thirty ATT process insiders to develop this his assessment. For example, this e-briefing incorporates insights and feedback from members of State delegations, humanitarian and arms rights civil society groups, academics and policy analysts, business managers, and trade associations. It also includes original statistical analysis and several insightful graphics that help illustrate the points made.
The brief endeavors to:
1. Explain how a faction of approximately 30 countries presents a major wildcard for the Conference and what their vision for a future treaty might entail if they decide to break consensus to realize it.
2. Explore the multi-dimensional quantitative challenge of commanding consensus by examining estimated opposition and support for the ATT, and to suggest where and how prospects for consensus could be improved the most.
3. Describe three assumptions widely held by some States and their humanitarian partners, and explain why these assumptions are perceived as a form of misguided or dishonest humanitarianism which drives against consensus.
4. Survey several complexities with respect to the United States, and highlight three conditions the ATT must meet if it is ever to be ratified there.
5. Present a probability framework for five potential scenarios with respect to reaching consensus at the Conference.
6. Explain why the most likely scenario for the Conference is that a faction breaks consensus by mounting a coup to pursue their own more progressive version of the ATT.
After reading a preliminary draft, one diplomat assigned to the UN based in Geneva said: “This is extremely interesting and I will send it to my colleagues who will represent us at the Conference later this month.”
The e-briefing is approximately 25 pages and is for sale on Amazon.com for use on all desktops, laptops, Kindle readers, tablets, ipods, and smart phones through Amazon’s free Kindle ap. The price is $2.99 USD. Click here to link to Amazon.com. Click here download free apps for viewing electronic publications for Windows (XP, Vista, 7) and Mac (OS X 10.5 and above).
Newspaper Editorial – The Arms Trade Treaty: Stop the UN gun grab
Wednesday, February 27th, 2013Given the Obama administration’s fixation on gun control, the long-disputed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty — down but not out — offers an opportunity to secure by an international accord that which Congress, fearing for its hide, has resisted.
Americans never give up your guns
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013| Original Story Via: Pravda.ru
Americans never give up your guns28.12.2012 12:15 By Stanislav Mishin
These days, there are few things to admire about the socialist, bankrupt and culturally degenerating USA, but at least so far, one thing remains: the right to bear arms and use deadly force to defend one’s self and possessions. This will probably come as a total shock to most of my Western readers, but at one point, Russia was one of the most heavily armed societies on earth. This was, of course, when we were free under the Tsar. Weapons, from swords and spears to pistols, rifles and shotguns were everywhere, common items. People carried them concealed, they carried them holstered. Fighting knives were a prominent part of many traditional attires and those little tubes criss crossing on the costumes of Cossacks and various Caucasian peoples? Well those are bullet holders for rifles. Various armies, such as the Poles, during the Смута (Times of Troubles), or Napoleon, or the Germans even as the Tsarist state collapsed under the weight of WW1 and Wall Street monies, found that holding Russian lands was much much harder than taking them and taking was no easy walk in the park but a blood bath all its own. In holding, one faced an extremely well armed and aggressive population Hell bent on exterminating or driving out the aggressor. This well armed population was what allowed the various White factions to rise up, no matter how disorganized politically and militarily they were in 1918 and wage a savage civil war against the Reds. It should be noted that many of these armies were armed peasants, villagers, farmers and merchants, protecting their own. If it had not been for Washington’s clandestine support of and for the Reds, history would have gone quite differently. Moscow fell, for example, not from a lack of weapons to defend it, but from the lying guile of the Reds. Ten thousand Reds took Moscow and were opposed only by some few hundreds of officer cadets and their instructors. Even then the battle was fierce and losses high. However, in the city alone, at that time, lived over 30,000 military officers (both active and retired), all with their own issued weapons and ammunition, plus tens of thousands of other citizens who were armed. The Soviets promised to leave them all alone if they did not intervene. They did not and for that were asked afterwards to come register themselves and their weapons: where they were promptly shot. Of course being savages, murderers and liars does not mean being stupid and the Reds learned from their Civil War experience. One of the first things they did was to disarm the population. From that point, mass repression, mass arrests, mass deportations, mass murder, mass starvation were all a safe game for the powers that were. The worst they had to fear was a pitchfork in the guts or a knife in the back or the occasional hunting rifle. Not much for soldiers. To this day, with the Soviet Union now dead 21 years, with a whole generation born and raised to adulthood without the SU, we are still denied our basic and traditional rights to self defense. Why? We are told that everyone would just start shooting each other and crime would be everywhere….but criminals are still armed and still murdering and too often, especially in the far regions, those criminals wear the uniforms of the police. The fact that everyone would start shooting is also laughable when statistics are examined. While President Putin pushes through reforms, the local authorities, especially in our vast hinterland, do not feel they need to act like they work for the people. They do as they please, a tyrannical class who knows they have absolutely nothing to fear from a relatively unarmed population. This in turn breeds not respect but absolute contempt and often enough, criminal abuse. For those of us fighting for our traditional rights, the US 2nd Amendment is a rare light in an ever darkening room. Governments will use the excuse of trying to protect the people from maniacs and crime, but are in reality, it is the bureaucrats protecting their power and position. In all cases where guns are banned, gun crime continues and often increases. As for maniacs, be it nuts with cars (NYC, Chapel Hill NC), swords (Japan), knives (China) or home made bombs (everywhere), insane people strike. They throw acid (Pakistan, UK), they throw fire bombs (France), they attack. What is worse, is, that the best way to stop a maniac is not psychology or jail or “talking to them”, it is a bullet in the head, that is why they are a maniac, because they are incapable of living in reality or stopping themselves. The excuse that people will start shooting each other is also plain and silly. So it is our politicians saying that our society is full of incapable adolescents who can never be trusted? Then, please explain how we can trust them or the police, who themselves grew up and came from the same culture? No it is about power and a total power over the people. There is a lot of desire to bad mouth the Tsar, particularly by the Communists, who claim he was a tyrant, and yet under him we were armed and under the progressives disarmed. Do not be fooled by a belief that progressives, leftists hate guns. Oh, no, they do not. What they hate is guns in the hands of those who are not marching in lock step of their ideology. They hate guns in the hands of those who think for themselves and do not obey without question. They hate guns in those whom they have slated for a barrel to the back of the ear. So, do not fall for the false promises and do not extinguish the light that is left to allow humanity a measure of self respect.
Stanislav Mishin The article reprinted with the kind permission from the author and originally appears on his blog, Mat Rodina Дмитрий СудаковCopyright © 1999-2013, «PRAVDA.Ru». When reproducing our materials in whole or in part, hyperlink to PRAVDA.Ru should be made. The opinions and views of the authors do not always coincide with the point of view of PRAVDA.Ru’s editors. |
Brothers campaign for gun rights in tiny Mexican town
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013Original Story Via: AZStarnet.com
Only criminals are armed now, they complain
LeBARON, Mexico – The LeBaron brothers, Alex and Max, walked outside their sprawling ranch and pointed to the spot where they traded fire with gunmen who pinned them down until both sides reached a truce.
“Had we not been able to defend ourselves that afternoon with our own weapons, I don’t know that we’d be standing here today,” said Alex LeBaron, a state legislator who is leading a campaign to allow residents to arm themselves.
“Without our guns, we stood no chance,” added Max. “We would have been like sitting ducks at target practice.”
It turned out the gunmen were actually soldiers. These days, it’s hard to tell, because just about everyone in this crime-ridden area is heavily armed – everyone, that is, except for regular residents. That makes the town of LeBaron an appropriate place for a gun debate, particularly after the school shootings in Connecticut.
This community in the foothills of the Sierra Madre, whose residents have been victims of extortion, kidnappings and murder, is at the forefront of a movement to press the federal government to change laws that ban citizens from owning weapons unless they belong to a registered gun club. Currently, citizens who want to own a gun must buy it from the military, a long, bureaucratic process, or on the black market.
The LeBaron brothers were armed that day because they belong to a gun club and because they are members of a government-sanctioned militia set up to protect the community after a rash of crimes.
This community of about 1,000, just three hours from the Texas border, is home largely to Mormon farmers, many of them bilingual and dual citizens of the United States and Mexico. Many are related to one another through blood ties that go back decades.
Mexico has some of the strictest gun-control laws in the world, but an overwhelming arsenal of illegal guns is readily available to drug cartels battling federal forces and rival criminal groups. The drug war has left more than 60,000 people dead and 25,000 missing since former President Felipe Calderón sent federal troops to reclaim territories from drug traffickers shortly after taking office in 2006.
Few communities have been harder hit than this region, home to chile, apple and pecan growers and cheese makers – and a smuggling route, coveted by traffickers, that leads into the United States through Texas.
“We don’t have a problem with jackrabbits,” Max said. “We have a problem with sicarios – hit men. People show up here in fake police, soldier uniforms. You shoot first and then ask questions.”
“The right to bear arms is the best thing Americans have going for them,” said cousin Brent LeBaron Jr. “And here in Mexico, we have high hopes that we, too, can someday defend ourselves from traffickers armed to the teeth.”
Members of an offshoot of the traditional Mormon church, these farmers are like everyday Mexicans anywhere. They drink beer, curse and enjoy long greetings and goodbyes. Yet vestiges of their American ancestry remain intact, including their determination to hold the government accountable – something considered rare in this country until recently – and the right to bear arms.
Three years ago, cousin Benjamin LeBaron stood up after his younger brother was kidnapped and extortionists demanded $1 million. Benjamin led a peaceful movement through the streets of Chihuahua state, calling on authorities to do more to protect residents from what he called madmen who had empowered themselves across the country.
One morning, gunmen came to his home and threatened to rape his wife and harm his children unless he gave them his guns, but he didn’t have any. They took him away. Benjamin and Luis Widmar, a brother-in-law who tried to intervene, were beaten, and their bodies were later found, shot in the head.
Their killings led many in the community to take a stance similar to that of Second Amendment advocates in the United States, but there is another side to the debate here. Many blame the U.S. gun and drug culture for the mayhem in Mexico and are adamantly opposed to more guns. Nearly 70 percent of guns seized in Mexico originated in the U.S., according to a report by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“I don’t want to run around like Pancho Villa – bang, bang,” said Ricardo Paisano, who owns a fruit juice stand in LeBaron. Paisano once lived in Arizona and described the scene there as the “the wild, wild West, where everyone was armed like crazies. We need more jobs, not more guns.”
Others, like Daniel Madrid Mendoza, 28, a member of the gun club near Casas Grandes, disagreed.
“I like guns because I like hunting,” he said. “But also I don’t think it’s right that only the bad guys have access to guns. We should all have the right to defend ourselves.”
Alex LeBaron, a 32-year-old Chihuahua state congressman with national aspirations, is haunted by the memory of his cousin “Benji” and of his own father, who was killed in a carjacking. Alex was educated in New Mexico and served in the U.S. Navy. Giving Mexicans the right to bear arms is among the issues he is most passionate about, one that he says will make Mexicans more individualistic.
“When Benji was killed, the first thing you think is, ‘We gotta get out of here,’ and yet at the moment, I realized I had nowhere to run, nor did I want to go anywhere else,” he said. “This is home. This is where I was born and will one day die.”
Russia to toughen gun laws?
Wednesday, January 30th, 2013Original story via: Voice of Russia
Russia’s government is prepared to toughen gun laws after a Moscow lawyer Dmitry Vinogradov killed six of his colleagues in the Rigla office shooting spree.
Opponents to the new legislation claim that it will make life difficult for law abiding citizens but will not stop potential shooters.
Eighteen year-olds are too young to carry guns, even traumatic pistols, believe police and MPs. Russia’s Interior Ministry has prepared a draft law increasing the age for carrying a gun from 18 to 21, banning traumatic guns in public places and making a bullet casing database for all types of civilian arms, not only rifles.
The law also envisages tougher handgun permit procedure. Russia’s Duma deputy-speaker Sergey Zheleznyak believes that the measures will reduce the number of crimes involving guns but they still need reinforcement.
“We should also boost police and public security services and use the Safe City monitoring system and CCTV. More attention should be paid to extremists statements in social networks and blogs. That Vinogradov published a manifesto before the rampage where he wrote that hates all humankind.”
However, some people claim that Russia’s gun laws are already strict enough and new measures are odd and unlikely to prevent crimes similar to the Rigla shooting as Vinogradov wasn’t a youngster but a 30-year old who was carrying a long rifle which is actually banned.
International experience shows that gun bans don’t stop killers but deprive people of self-defense measure, says Gun Rights activist Maria Butina
“We know of dozens of massacres without fire arms. There were kitchen knives in China and lighters in Korea. If a criminal wants to, he can use anything. What I find wrong is to deprive law abiding citizens of self-defense.”
Rights to carry guns as well as migration and multiculturalism issues will be wrangled over forever. Its supporters and opponents refer to culture, traditions and statists. The latter says that legal gun owners commit a petty number of gun crimes.
However, everyone shares one stance – legal responsibility for illegal use of any firearms should be toughened.
Germany compiles nationwide gun register
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013Original Story Via: DW.DE
Germany has compiled a national register of firearms for the first time. Figures previously held by a multitude of local authorities have been centrally pooled as part of efforts to curb gun violence.
Germany’s new national firearms registry established that there were 5.5 million legal guns in private ownership nationwide.
Figures compiled in what has been described as Germany’s first reliable nationwide firearms count also showed there were 1.4 million registered owners – an average of approximately four weapons per listed individual.
The information is being collated in a national database that will allow police to keep track of the buying and selling of legal guns across the country. Records were previously kept only at a local level, with some 551 different authorities holding the information.
As the figures were published on Friday, Interior Ministry spokesman Philipp Spauschus said the registry would make a “concrete contribution to public safety.”
All European Union countries are required to set up such a registry by 2015.
The issue of gun crime has once again gained prominence in the German media following the US gun massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, in which 26 people were killed including 20 children.
Germany has also suffered from mass shootings, the most notable recent example being the Winnenden school shooting in 2009, in which 16 people died. The perpetrator of that incident, 17-year-old Tim Kretschmer, used a legally-owned firearm belonging to his father.
rc/ccp (AP, dpa)
Indian bus rape: Delhi sees rush for guns
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013Original Story Via: The Guardian
Jason Burke in Delhi
Hundreds of women in Delhi have applied for gun licences following the gang rape and murder of a 23-year-old woman by six men in a bus in the city last month.
The news underlines the widespread sense of insecurity in the city, deep before the incident and deeper now, and the lack of faith in law enforcement agencies.
The ashes of the victim of the attack – who died on Friday after 13 days in hospitals in India and Singapore, and was cremated in Delhi in a secret ceremony under heavy security on Sunday – were scattered on the surface of the Ganges river, sacred to Hindus, in northern India on Tuesday.
The case has provoked an unprecedented debate about endemic sexual harassment and violence in India. Tens of thousands have protested across the country, calling for harsher laws, better policing and a change in culture.
Politicians, initially caught off-guard, have now promised new legislation to bring in fast-track courts and harsher punishments for sexual assault. The six men accused of the attack are to be formally charged with murder later this week and potentially face execution.
Indian media are currently reporting incidents of sexual violence that would rarely gain attention previously. In the last 24 hours these have included a teenager fleeing repeated abuse by her brother, who was allegedly assaulted on a bus by a conductor, a 15-year-old held for 15 days by three men in a village in Uttar Pradesh and repeatedly assaulted, an 11-year-old allegedly raped by three teenagers in the north-eastern city of Guwahati and two cases of rape in the city of Amritsar.
One case reported on Tuesday involved a woman, also in a village in Uttar Pradesh, who suffered 90% burns after being doused in kerosene, allegedly by a man who had been stalking her for months.
There were signs that a further taboo was about to be broken when one of India’s best-known English-language television presenters asked viewers who had experienced abuse from a family member to contact her.
The rush for firearms will cause concern, however. Police in Delhi have received 274 requests for licences and 1,200 inquiries from women since 18 December, two days after the woman and a male friend were attacked in a bus cruising on busy roads between 9pm and 10pm.
“Lots of women have been contacting us asking for information about how to obtain licences. Any woman has a threat against her. It’s not surprising. There are fearless predators out there,” said Abhijeet Singh of the campaign group Guns For India.
Delhi police received around 500 applications for the whole of 2011, up from 320 the previous year.
Hundreds of women had come in person to the police licensing department in the city, the Times of India reported.
“We had to patiently tell them that one needs to have a clear danger to one’s life to be given a licence. However some … said that with even public transport no longer safe in the city they just cannot take chances,” an unnamed official told the newspaper.
There are estimated to be 40m guns in India, the second highest number in the world after the US. Licences are hard to obtain and most are illegal weapons, many manufactured in backstreet workshops. Official ownership levels remain low – three guns for every 100 people – but in recent years the number of women holding arms has risen. Most are wealthy and worried about theft or assault.
There are fears the attack will lead to further restrictions on women in India, who already suffer significant constraints.
Elders in Matapa, in the poverty-stricken Indian state of Bihar, banned the use of mobile phones for teenage girls and warned them against wearing “sexy” clothes. They claim the move will check rape cases and restore “social order”. Other villages nearby are planning similar bans, locals said.
One member of parliament in Rajasthan, the north-western state, also called for a ban on skirts for schoolgirls to keep them away from “men’s lustful gazes”. Banwari Lal Singhal said private schools allowing students to wear skirts explained increased sexual harassment locally.
Matapa is in southern Bihar’s Aurangabad district – the region from which one of the Delhi gang-rape accused, Akshay Thakur, comes. The order was issued after a formal meeting with villagers, council officials and school teachers on Sunday. “Almost every villager pressed us to ban the mobile phones use by the schoolgirls saying they are proving quite dangerous for the society and corrupting traditional values,” the local village council head, Sushma Singh, told the Guardian on Tuesday.
Protesters were angered by the news. “Our sister will have died in vain if all that is happening after is our fear is greater and ladies are more unfree,” said Deepti Anand, a 21-year-old student in Delhi who has attended demonstrations most days in recent weeks.
Additional reporting by Manoj Chaurasia
U.N. approves new debate on arms treaty opposed by U.S. gun lobby
Wednesday, January 2nd, 2013(Reuters) – The U.N. General Assembly voted overwhelmingly on Monday to restart negotiations on a draft international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global trade in conventional arms, a pact the powerful U.S. National Rifle Association has been lobbying hard against.
U.N. delegates and gun control activists have complained that talks collapsed in July largely because U.S. President Barack Obama feared attacks from Republican rival Mitt Romney before the November 6 election if his administration was seen as supporting the pact, a charge U.S. officials have denied.
Read the rest of the article here: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/25/us-arms-treaty-un-idUSBRE8BO00B20121225
American Gun Homicides Are The Problem Now, Oh Really?
Tuesday, December 18th, 2012Cross Posted Via: TheGunMag.com
By Jeff Moran | Geneva
The horrible December 14th Connecticut school shootings are an outrage on humanity, and it is right to raise questions about how and why they happened, and what should be done. The emotional response by President Obama that day and the refrain in the worldwide media in the days after appear to suggest that the American policy imperative now may be to severely restrict the availability of guns. A logical review of the facts surrounding American gun homicides would suggest otherwise however.
Clearly, without question, some people cannot be trusted with guns, and such people should not be allowed to possess or acquire them to begin with. But it is also outrageous for American leaders to extrapolate that all other people can not or should not be trusted with modern firearms for their self-defense based simply on what happened in Connecticut and elsewhere this year. A draconian ban like those imposed in the United Kingdom or Australia after similar shootings is not the way forward for America. Such a course of action would be an example of weak leadership and policy-making hijacked by emotion. American citizens must hold their political leaders to a higher standard of careful fact-based governance.
Just as the Obama Administration has rightly rejected calls from absolutist humanitarians abroad to categorically ban modern landmines, cluster munitions, and nuclear weapons for America’s own defense, so to should the Obama Administration reject calls from absolutist anti-gun activists at home to ban or severely roll-back the availability of modern small arms for individual self-defense.
The first step forward must be to critically examine basic assumptions about death and armed violence in America. Perhaps the most enduring assumptions by absolutist in the anti-gun policy community are the false if not outright dishonest assertions that more guns have meant more violence in America over time, that gun homicides have been trending upwards, and that today we are worse off than we have been.
Despite what news media coverage suggests, the truth is that gun homicides in America have been on the decline for some time. We must remind our leaders and ourselves that the core competency of the news media / infotainment complex is precisely to showcase extremely bad situations, and to confer upon them, through repetition and the internet echo chamber, a false sense of normality. News, by definition, is not about normal life and events. And so the mass shootings in Connecticut and elsewhere must be recognized for what they truly are: statistical outliers. Contrary to hyperbolic media coverage, gun homicides are hardly an uncontrolled epidemic for Americans. In fact, they constitute a relatively low and decreasing threat to public safety over time.
An examination of available official information managed by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) bears this out. For the sake of simplicity and argument, let’s absurdly assume that all homicides in the United States from 1999-2010 were caused by firearms, and firearms alone. And for good measure, let’s assume all homicides were unjustifiable. Now, if one examines the top 10 leading causes of death over this period, nowhere in any age group is homicide (“by firearms”) public health and safety enemy #1. In fact, the most consistent leading cause of death across the majority of age groups is: unintentional injury, accidents.
The closest homicide (“by firearms”) ever comes to being public enemy #1 is as enemy #2 for people aged 15 – 24 years. But even in this demographic, over the 1999-2010 period, the difference between public enemy #1 and #2 is a substantial. Over 175,000 people died in accidents, just under 63,000 people died in homicides (“by firearms”). In other words, in this most at-risk demographic, and even absurdly assuming all homicides are unjustifiable and caused by firearms, three times more people die from accidents. The situation for children aged 5 – 9 years is even more extreme with homicide ranking #4, with over eight times as many children dying from accidents.
It is therefore misguided, lazy, and/or dishonest to say that guns in America are somehow public health and safety enemy #1. Policy-makers need to run the numbers and use the data to drive their public health and safety decisions. Please click the thumbnail table below for more details. Raw source data is available here.
Nevertheless, absolutist on the anti-gun side of the debate still plainly misrepresent the truth by pointing to the number of gun deaths in America. They also like to contrast the number of gun deaths in America with those from other countries. Both of these are faulty exercises. The relevant numbers to examine are gun death rates, such as deaths per 100,000 people, and not the absolute numbers. Absolute numbers help one to loose sight of the fact that that big countries like America simply have a lot more people and deaths in general, and that each year the population grows absolutely as well. In short, absolute comparisons of gun deaths are practically meaningless. Therefore, again, it is either a sign of profound ignorance or simple dishonestly when one makes a big deal about the absolute number of gun deaths in the United States, especially in comparison to any country in Europe for example. The same can be said of comparing the United States to other countries with plainly incomparable constitutional provisions, and/or social and political histories.
What is perhaps most relevant for national gun policy purposes are the national rates of gun deaths combined with the trend over time. Such trend information gives one a sense of magnitude plus direction and historical perspective. As with pointing to absolute numbers of gun related deaths, it is simply illogical to look at numbers at a single point in time and draw policy conclusions. By extension, it would be mistaken in the present situation to conclude that availability of guns in America now presents a national problem because 2012 was a year with several spectacular episodes of mass gun homicides. This is because trend analysis using available government data actually suggests that gun homicides are becoming less frequent than they have been.
Official American data can once again help reveal a truth worth recognizing and internalizing: while the national gun inventory and gun ownership rates in America have indeed increased over the past nearly 20 years, America has actually been experiencing a phenomenal decline in the rates of gun-related homicide, suicide, and accidental death. To the extent that historical trend has continued since 2009 (the latest year for which information was available), there are actually many more suicides involving firearms than both gun-related homicides and accidental deaths, combined. And the trend (suicides v. homicides + accidents) is accelerating. Doesn’t this therefore suggests the more important national priority for America’s leaders has been for years the problem of suicide? It is also important to note that, over the past nearly 20 years, gun-related homicides, suicides, and accidental deaths have actually decreased by an astounding 44%, 19%, and 69% respectively. Doesn’t such downward trend for all types of gun deaths suggest America is on the right track?
Please click the thumbnail chart and table below for more information about American gun-related death trends. They are based on official data pulled from mortality statistics managed by the CDC. The date range for these is from 1993, a peak year, to 2009, the most recent year for which age-adjusted data was available. The graphical chart depicts the death rates in the data table beside it. The death rates shown in the data table are age adjusted per 100,000 people and rounded to two significant digits. Raw source data is available here.
In conclusion, America needs honest leadership and public policy driven by logic and by an honest examination of assumptions about gun violence in America. Politicians should not be permitted to take the easy way out of this leadership challenge by simply blaming guns and their availability, and by misrepresenting and overstating the problem of gun homicides. The facts are plain and simple, gun homicides are not public enemy #1. And to suggest otherwise is profoundly ignorant, lazy, or simply dishonest. Ultimately, the American gun policy imperative is for political leaders and civil society on all sides of the issue to strike a balance between the inherent rights of individual citizens to armed self-defense and the collective interests of public health, safety, law and order. This is certainly never an easy task. Yet with the horrible memory of the Connecticut shootings still fresh in mind, and politicians poised to take action, Americans must be all the more vigilant. Our political leaders must not be permitted to resort to policy driven more by soft emotion and convenience than by hard analysis driven by relevant facts, trends, and appropriate problem definition.
About The Author
Jeff Moran, a Principal at TSM Worldwide LLC, specializes in the international defense, security, and firearms industries. Previously Mr. Moran was a strategic marketing leader for a multi-billion dollar unit of a public defense & aerospace company, an American military diplomat, and a nationally ranked competitive rifle shooter. He is currently studying international humanitarian and human rights law with the Executive LL.M. Program of the Geneva Academy. Earlier this year he completed an Executive Master in International Negotiation from the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Mr. Moran also has an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and a BSFS from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
First Published: 16 December 2012.
Last Updated: 18 December 2012.
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Thwarting global gun grabbers: Congress moves to stop Obama from signing U.N. Arms Treaty
Thursday, November 29th, 2012Original Story Via: The Washington Times
The United Nations is pushing gun control on a global scale, and President Obama is on board. Just a few hours after re-election was assured, the president’s representative cast a vote for the Arms Trade Treaty at a U.N. committee meeting. The loosely drafted agreement doesn’t go after guns directly, but the language enables activist judges to get creative in restricting Americans’ exercise of their Second Amendment rights. A final General Assembly decision on the treaty is expected in March, and House Republicans are locked and loaded to stop it.
Rep. Mike Kelly introduced a resolution earlier this month urging the president not to sign the treaty. “If we don’t enshrine this Constitution and these amendments, then we are in great danger of losing them,” the freshman Pennsylvania Republican said in an interview with The Washington Times. “People need to understand that we are constantly under aggressive acts to take these rights away from us, and it’s done in such a way that people don’t see it coming.”
Rep. Kelly Introduces Resolution to Protect Second Amendment Rights from UN Arms Trade Treaty
Monday, November 26th, 2012In addition to the Second Amendment Protection Act (HR 3594) introduced by Rep. Joe Walsh, HR 814 sponsored by Rep. Mike Kelly and 76 other co-sponsors would prohibit federal funding to implement the UN ATT and other similar agreements if signed by President Obama. Other representatives such as Rep. Joe Barton recently voiced strong support for the bill. Both of the bills are bipartisan with co-sponsors from the Democrat and Republican party.
Original Story Via: Kelly.House.Gov
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Representative Mike Kelly (PA-03) introduced a resolution today urging the president not to sign the United Nations (UN) Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which is in the final stages of negotiation, and warns the president that if he does indeed sign the ATT, it will not be binding and no federal funds will be appropriated to implement it unless it has consent in the Senate and has been the subject of implementing legislation by the Congress.
Just hours after President Obama’s reelection, the administration voted in the UN to move forward with finalizing the ATT, which was previously delayed and is now scheduled to take place during a March 2013 conference.
The bipartisan resolution addresses concerns over language included in the July 2012 ATT draft, which failed to expressly recognize the fundamental, individual right to keep and to bear arms and the individual right of personal self-defense, among other things. In doing so, the current draft threatens the Second Amendment rights of United States citizens, as well as United States sovereignty.
In addition, the ATT poses significant risks to the national security, foreign policy, and economic interests of the United States, placing free democracies and totalitarian regimes on a basis of equality and recognizing their equal right to transfer arms, while imposing onerous reporting requirements that could damage the domestic defense manufacturing base and related firms.
Seventy-six original cosponsors, including Chairmen Jim Jordan (OH-04), Mike Rogers (MI-08), Fred Upton (MI-06), Lamar Smith (TX-21), Sam Graves (MO-06), and Jeff Miller (FL-01), have joined Rep. Kelly in his effort to uphold the Second Amendment rights of Americans and maintain the sovereignty of the United States of America through this critical and timely resolution, which is supported by the National Rifle Association, Heritage Action, and the Endowment for Middle East Truth.
Rep. Kelly issued the following statement:
“There is considerable cause for alarm regarding the UN’s renewed efforts to forge an Arms Trade Treaty that could trample the constitutional rights of Americans, and could seriously compromise our national security and the security of our allies, whom we will be less able to arm and less quick to defend due to the restrictions placed on us by the ATT. My colleagues and I stand committed to fighting this threat to our sovereignty and to standing up for the U.S. Constitution, which we are all sworn to support and defend.”
Background
On June 29, Rep. Kelly sent a letter to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton outlining his concerns that the ATT would compromise national security and infringe on Americans’ Second Amendment rights. The letter, which was signed by 130 Members of the House, stated, in part, that:
• The ATT should not cover small arms, light weapons, or related material such as firearms ammunition;
• The ATT should expressly recognize the individual right of personal self-defense, as well as the legitimacy of hunting, sports shooting, and other lawful activities pertaining to the private ownership of firearms and related materials; and
• The ATT must not hinder the U.S. from fulfilling strategic, legal, and moral commitments to provide arms to allies such as Taiwan and Israel.
To read the full letter, click here.
To read the Washington Times editorial titled, “The U.N. is coming for your guns,” which mentions Rep. Kelly’s letter, click here.
To read the Townhall.com article highlighting Rep. Kelly’s letter, click here.
CLICK TO PLAY (July 25 Interview on ATT)
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Australian government pushes ahead with firearms laws
Saturday, November 24th, 2012Original Story Via: Perth Now
The federal government is pressing ahead with plans to create new aggravated offences for trafficking firearms or gun parts across state and national borders.
Justice Minister Jason Clare on Friday announced he would introduce the legislation into federal parliament next week – the last sitting days of the year.
“These new offences will carry a maximum penalty of life imprisonment,” Mr Clare said in a statement.
“This will make the maximum penalty for trafficking in firearms the same as the maximum penalty for trafficking in drugs.”
Life sentences are a part of a major reform package announced in June to tackle the illegal weapons market.
Federal and state ministers have also agreed to develop a national firearms register and a ballistics identification network.
Experts from the United States will visit Australia in February 2013 to train police in tracing and tracking firearms.
Mr Clare and state and territory ministers responsible for police and emergency management discussed the reforms in Victoria on Friday.
It’s thought there are more than 250,000 illegal firearms in Australia.
Most are stolen or weren’t handed in after the Port Arthur massacre when former prime minister John Howard passed tough new gun laws.
National German gun registry on target for launch
Saturday, November 24th, 2012Original Story Via: Deutsche Welle
The German interior minister has said a countrywide database of all legal gun owners is set for launch on January 1. Hans-Peter Friedrich predicted a “considerable increase in security” as a result.
The German government plans to launch its complete registry of legal gun owners at the beginning of next year, two years ahead of a deadline set by the EU.
As with many German authorities, those responsible for weapons licensing and tracking operated on a local basis – with a total of 551 authorities around the country. Under new EU laws, all member countries are obliged to compile a centralized register.
There are an estimated 6 million licensed firearms in Germany.
Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told reporters in Berlin that the database would provide “a very concrete contribution towards improving public safety.” Thanks to the information, he said; police would be able to check “who owns which weapons legally, across the entire country,” perhaps more quickly than in the past.
Friedrich also praised the relevant German agencies for setting up the system ahead of schedule.
“With this Germany is one of the first member states to fully comply with the demands of the EU guidelines,” the interior minister said.
Instant info in critical cases
Jörg Ziercke, the head of Germany’s federal criminal investigative agency, the BKA, said at Monday’s presentation that particular gains would be made in investigations where time was of the essence. He told reporters that in the worst case scenario, it used to take three or four months to discover where a weapon came from, whereas soon it should be just a click away.
The January 1 version of the database is only the first, watered-down database documenting only the legal registration of firearms. The upgraded registry should eventually document historical information like weapon producers, dealers, importers and any previous private owners.
The GdP trade union representing many of the country’s police officers welcomed the development, while saying that it was a little overdue.
“With this, an old demand from the GdP has been fulfilled. It took a long time, but the technical implementation was quite a challenge,” the union’s national chairman, Bernhard Witthaut, said. A sister police officers’ union issued a similar statement, saying its officers had long lobbied for swifter access to information on firearms.
Arms Trade Treaty Discussed at UN, Second ATT Conference Scheduled for 2013
Friday, November 16th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
New York, NY—The UN Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) was discussed at length with testimony from both pro and anti-gun groups during the First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly’s 67th session.
On Nov. 7, a resolution was passed for a second ATT conference beginning March 18. The UN already spent 11 weeks in meetings for the ATT with four Preparatory Committee meetings leading toward the final failed ATT conference last July. The General Assembly will consider the resolution; it’s likely that it will be approved.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO’s) were scheduled for Oct. 29; however, the UN was closed due to Hurricane Sandy. Statements for all NGOs were delivered in written form to the delegates. The NGO statements to the UN against guns were juxtaposed against looting in the wake of Hurricane Sandy, with many local New York and New Jersey citizens unable to protect themselves due to some of the most strict gun laws in the country. TheGunMag.com (TGM) outlined the tragic irony of the situation here: SAF: Post-Storm Brooklyn Looting Shows Importance of Gun Rights.
The Second Amendment Foundation delivered its remarks to the UN with other groups as detailed in a previous TGM stories here: SAF, others weigh in on new round of UN gun control talks, and SAF Statement to UN Stopped by Storm, Still Carries Powerful Message. SAF also addressed the UN’s Programme of Action in August defending the human right of self-defense.
At the first committee meetings, the right to keep and bear arms in self-defense was not discussed. Canada reaffirmed the right of its citizens to own and use firearms for sporting purposes. The delegates focused primarily on consensus, negotiation, and implementation. The case was made for expansion of the scope and parameters of the ATT document from July 2012. Of particular note were points made about registration, tracing, and tracking of guns and ammunition. An official version of the meeting is available here.
The draft ATT in July didn’t win any acclaim from any Second Amendment or self-defense rights groups. That’s not stopping NGO’s like Control Arms from claiming the July draft of the ATT was “missing pieces.”
The following are statements from the Defense Small Arms Advisory Council (DSAAC), the World Forum on Shooting Activities (WFSA), the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute (SAAMI), the Manufacturers Advisory Group to the World Forum on Shooting Activities, and the International Committee of Museums and Collections of Arms and Military History.
TheGunMag and IAPCAR were among the first to make the July 24 initial draft and final UN ATT proposal publicly available. More information about the ATT will be reported as it becomes available on TheGunMag.com, SAF.org, and IAPCAR.org.
Statement of the Defense Small Arms Advisory Council
First Committee of the United Nations General Assembly
29 October 2012
Thank you, Mister President, for the opportunity to offer remarks from the perspective of an industry that manufactures military small arms and light weapons to enable states to meet their legitimate national security and law enforcement requirements and does so in strict compliance with the most demanding and rigorous export licensing system in the world. We believe that a legally binding Arms Trade Treaty that subjects all military arms manufacturers and exporters world-wide to a similar level of regulation can be of benefit in combating the armed violence caused by the absence of common standards governing the international trade in military weapons. It is difficult to ignore the fact that the vast majority of states currently lack even the most rudimentary export licensing systems, much less comprehensive ones with correspondingly effective enforcement mechanisms. The ATT was, we thought, to begin addressing that lack.
From our perspective as observers of the negotiations conference in July, it appears that the chief obstacle to achieving consensus on an effective treaty text was the insistence by some on creating an overly broad document, one that went well beyond the committee’s mandate, irrespective of the fact that such language was unlikely to ever be agreed and, even if agreed, effectively carried into force. A treaty can be likened to a vessel: it can carry only so much freight and attempting to overload it with too many things that, although desirable to some are objectionable to others, poses the risk of sinking it. In July, the vessel was overloaded and nearly sank; fortunately, it was still tied to the pier and may yet set sail, once the excess weight is removed.
It is our understanding that the sole purpose of the ATT is to legally compel state-parties to adopt procedures for determining if a proposed export of military arms meets basic, internationally agreed standards. Treaty language that is narrowly focused on achieving that single purpose is, we believe, well worth working for and still well within reach. It is to be hoped that future negotiations retain that focus and that the perfect—in the eyes of some—does not once again become the enemy of the good.
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Statement From: Manufacturers Advisory Group
Ted Rowe, Chairman
Mr. Chairman:
I am Ted Rowe, Chairman of the Manufacturers Advisory Group to the World Forum on Shooting Activities (WFSA). Speaking on behalf of the world’s leading manufacturers of civilian firearms and ammunition, we must insist on the recognition of civilian possession and ownership of firearms and ammunition in accordance with national law.
Unless and until the United Nations in its various proposals recognizes the right of lawful civilian ownership and possession of firearms, we will continue to use all efforts necessary to have civilian ownership recognized by the United Nations, and we will continue to oppose those proposals that do not recognize this right.
The Arms Trade Treaty to be negotiated in March of 2013 should clearly indicate that the small arms included are for military use and that civilian firearms are to be excluded.
The Program of Action as it evolves should also recognize the legitimate, legal use of firearms by civilians as well as their right to own and possess firearms within their national laws.
It is interesting to note that each and every member state of the United Nations is a legitimate importer of civilian firearms and ammunition. These imports are not for the military! These imports should not be subject to or included within an Arms Trade Treaty.
Civilian use of firearms is seen internationally in Olympic Games, in hunting around the world, in sport shooting and in recreational use.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, there is the human right of self-protection and self-defense and the need and use of firearms to fulfill that right. This right is indisputable and is documented throughout history.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman
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Statement from World Forum on Shooting Activities (WFSA)
UN General Assembly First Committee
October 29, 2012
Mr. Chairman, I am Herbert Keusgen, the President of the World Forum on Shooting Activities. We represent the hundreds of millions of hunters, sport shooters and civilian firearms owners throughout the world. The WFSA is an ECOSOC NGO and has participated in UN meetings relating to small arms and light weapons for fifteen years.
Today I would like to make three brief comments, reflecting the views the civilian firearms community, on the Programme of Action, the possible Arms Trade Treaty and ISACS.
On the Programme of Action, Mr. Chairman, we continue to remain disappointed that the POA has failed to recognize the legitimacy and utility of civilian firearms ownership. Mr. Chairman, there seems to be a continuing misconception on the part of the UN and supporters of the POA, that civilian firearms are a bad thing. Sixty percent of the small arms in the world are legally owned by civilians. These arms are not a problem. The problem lies with inadequate control of military arms.
Mr. Chairman, let’s say something positive. At the last week’s UN meeting on the UN Firearms Protocol in Vienna there was an acknowledgment of the legitimacy of civilian firearms use. This was a positive step and we commend this action.
Mr. Chairman, in regard to a possible Arms Trade Treaty, we continue to be told that the intent of an ATT is only to control military small arms. Therefore, we request the UN to state this in such an ATT in clear and unmistakable language. For example, it could use the definition of SALW used by Germany, and I quote:
Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), are weapons and weapon systems which were originally manufactured or which were rebuilt according to military standards and requirements for use as war matériel.
This would clearly exclude civilian firearms from the scope of the ATT.
Mr. Chairman, the ATT has been extremely politicized in one particular jurisdiction. This is a question of perception, Mr. Chairman. As long as the ATT is perceived, let me underline perceived, as affecting civilian firearms, it will not be accepted or ratified in that jurisdiction. This situation can be changed by the specific exclusion of civilian firearms that we have suggested.
Mr. Chairman, let me briefly comment on International Small Arms Control Standards or ISACS. We are extremely disappointed in the ISACS process. If the POA has had a bias against civilian firearms, ISACS has been almost overtly anti-civilian firearms. The ISACS process has failed to respond appropriately to the legitimate concerns and requirements of the civilian user community and the firearms manufacturers. This must change, Mr. Chairman.
Let me conclude, Mr. Chairman, by saying that notwithstanding our criticisms today we remain willing to cooperate on all fronts and venues whether it be the POA, the Firearms Protocol, the ATT or ISACS. We can be a valuable ally to efforts that address the problems of misuse or a steadfast opponent of any effort that restrict the lawful use of civilian firearms.
For further information contact Thomas Mason at +1 503 998 0555 or tlmorusa@aol.com .
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United Nations General Assembly, 67th Session
First Committee
New York, 1 November, 2012
Statement by Richard Patterson, Managing Director
Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute, Inc
Thank you, Mr. President, for the opportunity to speak today. My name is Richard Patterson. I’m the managing director of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers’ Institute–also known as SAAMI. Since 1926 we have created the safety and reliability standards for the design, manufacture, transportation, storage and use of firearms, ammunition and components. We are an accredited standards-setting organization. Whether you realize it or not, every country in this room benefits from our standards. Firearms and ammunition that follow SAAMI standards are being used in every corner of the world to promote peace, enhance economic stability, responsibly manage wildlife populations, provide recreation, teach life-skills, promote the camaraderie of sporting competition, and protect lives.
The small arms issue is complex, since small arms are tools that can be used for the greater good of humanity, and misused by those who choose to commit acts of violence. Because of this duality, uninformed decisions can cause more harm than good.
SAAMI has at its disposal many of the world’s leading ballisticians, structural engineers, chemists, statisticians, logistics experts, and metallurgists specializing in firearms and ammunition. We are in the unique position of providing valuable technical, factual, and science-based input into the small arms discussion and debate. We also have access to the real-world practical knowledge of the major manufacturers of firearms, ammunition and components, meaning we can add a practical perspective to the debate.
We welcome the opportunity to share our expertise and experience. We would like to participate in any discussions resulting from the PoA call for a technical and industry working group and—for that matter—in any other discussions on this important issue.
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Statement From: The International Committee of Museums and Collections of Arms and Military History (ICOMAM)
2012/10/24
Mr. Chairman:
I am Ken Smith-Christmas, representing ICOMAM, The International Committee of Museums and Collections of Arms and Military History. ICOMAM is an organization with approximately 260 institutional and individual members in some 50 countries, and includes such museums as the Royal Armouries in England, the Royal Dutch Army Museum, the Royal Belgian Army Museum, and the Smithsonian Institution. For the past fifty-five years, we have served as the advocate for museums around the world that specialize in arms and military history. We are an international committee of ICOM, the International Council of Museums, which works closely with UNESCO.
Nearly every history museum on earth has firearms in its collections. Most of these arms are antique, or, by their historical association, are considered to be curios. Many of them are inoperable relics, due to their physical condition. Some are excavated, archaeological, material. The ability to acquire and exchange them is essential to the scientific, cultural, and economic functioning of our museums. We are concerned that the provisions of the Arms Trade Treaty will affect these types of firearms. For instance, under proposals currently being reviewed, a museum would have to seek the permission of the exporting country, the importing country, and the transit countries to acquire and transport an antique arm or weapon, even for a temporary loan or a research project.
We submit that antique arms and museum weapons pose no threat to anyone. Rather, they are part of our common cultural heritage and current regulatory structures are adequate to control them. Additionally, in today’s climate of constrained budgets, it is an unnecessary financial burden on museums and governments to require stringent controls over the antiques, curios, and relic arms commonly found in museums.
In short, we believe that there is simply no need for antique and museum arms and weapons to be included within the scope of an Arms Trade Treaty. We therefore request that they be exempted from the scope of any Treaty.
Thank you.
Russia to toughen gun laws?
Thursday, November 15th, 2012Original Story Via: English.ruvr.ru
Russia’s government is prepared to toughen gun laws after a Moscow lawyer Dmitry Vinogradov killed six of his colleagues in the Rigla office shooting spree.
Opponents to the new legislation claim that it will make life difficult for law abiding citizens but will not stop potential shooters.
Eighteen year-olds are too young to carry guns, even traumatic pistols, believe police and MPs. Russia’s Interior Ministry has prepared a draft law increasing the age for carrying a gun from 18 to 21, banning traumatic guns in public places and making a bullet casing database for all types of civilian arms, not only rifles.
The law also envisages tougher handgun permit procedure. Russia’s Duma deputy-speaker Sergey Zheleznyak believes that the measures will reduce the number of crimes involving guns but they still need reinforcement.
“We should also boost police and public security services and use the Safe City monitoring system and CCTV. More attention should be paid to extremists statements in social networks and blogs. That Vinogradov published a manifesto before the rampage where he wrote that hates all humankind.”
However, some people claim that Russia’s gun laws are already strict enough and new measures are odd and unlikely to prevent crimes similar to the Rigla shooting as Vinogradov wasn’t a youngster but a 30-year old who was carrying a long rifle which is actually banned.
International experience shows that gun bans don’t stop killers but deprive people of self-defense measure, says Gun Rights activist Maria Butina
“We know of dozens of massacres without fire arms. There were kitchen knives in China and lighters in Korea. If a criminal wants to, he can use anything. What I find wrong is to deprive law abiding citizens of self-defense.”
Rights to carry guns as well as migration and multiculturalism issues will be wrangled over forever. Its supporters and opponents refer to culture, traditions and statists. The latter says that legal gun owners commit a petty number of gun crimes.
However, everyone shares one stance – legal responsibility for illegal use of any firearms should be toughened.
UK: SAS War Hero Jailed for Possessing “War Trophy” Pistol
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012Original Story Via: The Telegraph
By Sean Rayment
Sgt Danny Nightingale, a special forces sniper who served in Iraq and Afghanistan, was sentenced to 18 months in military detention by a court martial last week.
His sentence was described last night as the “betrayal of a war hero”, made worse because it was handed down in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday.
Sgt Nightingale had planned to fight the charge of illegally possessing the 9mm Glock.
But his lawyer said he pleaded guilty after being warned that he could otherwise face a five-year sentence.
The soldier had hoped for leniency given the circumstances. At the court martial, even the prosecution described him as a serviceman of exemplary character, who had served his country for 17 years, 11 in the special forces.
The court was told that he returned to Britain in a hurry after two friends were killed in Iraq, leaving his equipment — including the pistol — to be packed up by colleagues.
It accepted evidence from expert witnesses that he suffered severe memory loss due to a brain injury.
Judge Advocate Alistair McGrigor, presiding over the court martial, could have spared the soldier prison by passing a suspended sentence. Instead he handed down the custodial term.
Sgt Nightingale and his family chose to waive the anonymity usually given to members of the special forces.
His wife, Sally, said her husband’s sentence was a “disgrace”. She called him a “hero who had been betrayed”. She said she and the couple’s two daughters, aged two and five, faced losing their home after his Army pay was stopped.
The soldier’s former commanding officer and politicians have called for the sentence to be overturned.
Lt Col Richard Williams, who won a Military Cross in Afghanistan in 2001 and was Sgt Nightingale’s commanding officer in Iraq, said the sentence “clearly needed to be overturned immediately”.
He said: “His military career has been ruined and his wife and children face being evicted from their home — this is a total betrayal of a man who dedicated his life to the service of his country.”
Patrick Mercer, the Conservative MP for Newark and a former infantry officer, said he planned to take up the case with the Defence Secretary. Simon McKay, Sgt Nightingale’s lawyer, said: “On Remembrance Sunday, when the nation remembers its war heroes, my client — one of their number — is in a prison cell.
“I consider the sentence to be excessive and the basis of the guilty plea unsafe. It is a gross miscarriage of justice and grounds of appeal are already being prepared.”
In 2007, Sgt Nightingale was serving in Iraq as a member of Task Force Black, a covert counter-terrorist unit that conducted operations under orders to capture and kill members of al-Qaeda.
He also helped train members of a secret counter-terrorist force called the Apostles. At the end of the training he was presented with the Glock, which he planned to donate to his regiment as a war trophy.
But in November 2007, two of Sgt Nightingale’s closest friends, Sgt John
Battersby and Cpl Lee Fitzsimmons, were killed in a helicopter crash. He accompanied both bodies back to Britain and helped arrange the funerals.
In Iraq, his equipment was packed by colleagues, one of whom placed the pistol inside a container that was sent first to the SAS regimental headquarters in Hereford, then to his home where it remained unopened until 2010.
In 2009, Sgt Nightingale, now a member of the SAS selection staff, took part in a 200-mile fund-raising trek in Brazil. He collapsed after 30 miles and fell into a coma for three days.
He recovered but his memory was severely damaged, according to two expert witnesses, including Prof Michael Kopleman of King’s College, London, an authority on memory loss.
In May, 2010, Sgt Nightingale was living in a house with another soldier close to the regiment’s headquarters when he was posted to Afghanistan at short notice.
During the tour, his housemate’s estranged wife claimed her husband had assaulted her and kept a stash of ammunition in the house. West Mercia Police raided the house and found the Glock, still in its container.
Sgt Nightingale’s court martial did not dispute that the pistol had been a gift. It accepted statements from expert witnesses, including Dr Susan Young, a forensic psychologist also from King’s College, London. She said that he probably had no recollection that he had the gun.
The court also accepted that Sgt Nightingale had suffered severe memory loss. But the judge did not believe that he had no recollection of being in possession of the weapon.
VIDEO: Gun owners feel forced to defy laws in Mexico
Wednesday, November 14th, 2012Original Story Via: AZFamily.com
[kml_flashembed publishmethod=”static” fversion=”8.0.0″ movie=”untitled.swf” width=”400″ height=”300″ targetclass=”flashmovie”][/kml_flashembed]
Will the Arms Trade Treaty Suppress Second Amendment Rights?
Tuesday, November 13th, 2012Original Story via: Townhall.com
Leah Barkoukis
Blogger, Townhall.com
The first round of UN Arms Trade Treaty talks may have fallen apart at the month-long conference held in NYC this past July, but as Ted Bromund over at Heritage noted at the time, “Now that the concept of the ATT has been invented, it cannot be uninvented. There are too many countries and too many left-wing nongovernmental organizations that want a treaty.” He was right and as Katie reported last week, it didn’t take very long to initiate another attempt. One question she raised in her post deserves more attention: “Is the argument from the U.N. that it won’t suppress Second Amendment rights an honest one?” And what about the Obama administration’s argument that they “will not accept any treaty that infringes on the constitutional rights of our citizens to bear arms”?
Given our president’s feelings about our right to bear arms and his track record on gun control, the ATT has become an issue deserving very close attention. Americans shouldn’t find comfort in assuming that for UN treaties to take effect, a two-thirds majority in the Senate is necessary. In a separate article Bromund notes that this understanding of the way treaties work is far too simplistic. I’d recommend reading that article in its entirety but to summarize:
“So, in the context of the ATT, if this conference produces a treaty that is open for signature, President Obama may sign it immediately. The U.S. will then hold itself to be under a legal obligation not to defeat the ATT’s “object and purpose.” The interpretation of this phrase will rest with the State Department’s lawyers, perhaps in a way directed by subsequent legislation, whose decisions cannot be predicted and are not easily subject to legislative oversight.”
Americans also shouldn’t be quick to believe the UN’s claims that the ATT will not infringe on Americans’ Second Amendment rights. A report by the UN Coordinating Action on Small Arms titled “The Impact of Poorly Regulated Arms Transfers on the Work of the UN,” recognizes, on the one hand, that states have a right to “individual or collective self-defense” and that “the ATT does not aim to impede or interfere with the lawful ownership and use of weapons.” Yet on the other hand it states that because of the problem of diversion, or the transfer of weapons to the illicit market, “the arms trade must therefore be regulated in ways that would…minimize the risk of misuse of legally owned weapons.”
The Obama administration has also echoed claims that the ATT will not pose a threat to domestic gun owners. A Washington Times editorial sees right through it, however:
“It is hard to take the White House response seriously. The treaty instructs countries to“take the necessary legislative and administrative measures, to adapt, as necessary, national laws and regulations to implement the obligations of this treaty.” The agreement’s language is so broad, vague and poorly defined it could be stretched in a variety of ways that would pose a threat to the Second Amendment.”
In the end, of course, this treaty will do absolutely nothing to stop violence, terrorism and intra-state conflicts as its backers contend. The logistics alone are impossible and the fact that the Obama administration is agreeing to come together as equals with dictatorial regimes like Iran – a country which, by the way, received a top post at the July conference – is unconscionable.
So should we believe the administration (and the UN) when they assure Americans the ATT will not suppress our Second Amendment rights? And moreover, that they will not sign one that does? The administration’s keen interest in the treaty alone is cause for concern, but even more telling is when the adage ‘actions speak louder than words’ is applied to the Obama administration’s record. From Obamacare to Benghazi – honesty and transparency have not been their strong suits. Finally, the soaring gun sales in Obama’s first term and skyrocketing gun stocks since his reelection may tell you everything you really need to know about whether Americans take the administration at their word.
Wave of violence sweeps over ‘Alpha World City’ in spite of restrictive gun laws
Monday, November 12th, 2012Original Story Via: David Codrea, Gun Rights Examiner
“A rising wave of violence” has resulted in 140 deaths in Sao Paulo over the past two weeks, Associated Press reported yesterday. Citing Sao Paulo’s Public Safety Department, the report states killings “sharply increased in September” with 144 homicides, tallying the total for the first nine months of the year at 982, including “90 police officers, most of them gunned down while off duty.”
Reports of terrible violence are hardly new, as a Gun Right Examiner column from April 2011 about a mass shooting in Rio de Janeiro reported, along with the telling fact that “Although Brazil has 110 million fewer citizens than the United States, and more restrictive gun laws, there are 50 percent more gun deaths; other sources indicate that homicide rates due to guns are approximately four times higher than the rate in the United States.”
As for those gun laws, there’s a telling workaround with similarities to what’s been noted in “restrictive” Mexico:
Other guns used to commit crimes come from police and military arsenals, either stolen or sold by corrupt soldiers and officers.
The fact is, Brazil could be looked at as a laboratory of sorts to help determine the effectiveness of citizen disarmament proposals being made for the United States under the guise of “common sense” measures that promise to reduce the violence.
A summary of Brazilian gun laws provided by GunPolicy.org, no neutral party in the debate but one that “With its partners and contributors … promotes the public health model of firearm injury prevention, as adopted by the United Nations Programme of Action on illicit small arms,” and is a committed proponent of global norms on government monopolies of violence.
What they reveal about the laws under which this renewed “wave of violence” is occurring is also telling: that in spite of licensing, registration, background checks, training requirements, permissions, proof of “genuine reasons,” reapplication and re-qualification requirements, a minimum purchase age, ammunition controls, restrictions on the number of guns licensed dealers may sell individuals within a given time period (with more lax rules for “retired military officials and non-commissioned officers,” naturally, waiting periods and penalties including prison and a fine for illegal gun possession, authorities have no idea how many unauthorized guns are in circulation, with estimates anywhere between 3.8 and 9.5 million.
In spite of all this, the tide of blood keeps rising, and not just in any city, but in San Paulo, a designated “Alpha World City,” that is, “an important node in the global economic system.” So naturally, Brazil is a big proponent of a “strict” and “universal” United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.
This latest wave puts the Brazilians hot on the heels of top Alpha Chicago as they continue to refuse to accept that those living in soaring fantasy dreams are in for a rude awakening when terrible reality can no longer be denied.
SAF blasts Obama support for UN Arms Trade Treaty day after election
Monday, November 12th, 2012Original Story Via: Human Events
By: Neil W. McCabe
11/11/2012
The leader of America’s oldest gun rights legal foundation Nov. 7 called out President Barack Obama for his support of the United Nations Small Arms and Light Weapons Treaty the day after the election.
“It’s obvious that our warnings over the past several months have been true,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, based in Bellevue, Wash.
Less than 24 hours after winning re-election, the Obama’s administration joined with China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and more than 150 other governments, in supporting renewed debate on the proposed United Nations arms trade treaty, confirming the worst fears of the American gun rights community,” said the founder of SAF, which was in 1974, and which has grown to more than 650,000 members and supporters and conducts many programs designed to better inform the public about the consequences of gun control.
“Just days ago as he campaigned for re-election,” he csaid. ”Barack Obama told his supporters that voting is the ‘best revenge.’ I guess now we know what he was talking about. The revenge he seeks is against American gun owners and their Second Amendment rights.”
“The election was called about 11 p.m. Tuesday and by 11 a.m. this morning, we got word that the United States was supporting this resolution. We have to be more vigilant in our efforts to stop this proposed treaty,” he said.
The vote came at the U.N. General Assembly’s meeting of the First Committee on Disarmament at the world organization’s headquarters in New York City.
According to a State Department webpage devoted to the Arms Trade Treaty, the Obama administration strongly supports the treaty potential.
“The ATT should include all advanced conventional weapons, including tanks, armored combat vehicles, artillery systems, military aircraft, military helicopters, naval vessels, missiles, missile launchers, small arms and light weapons, and combat support equipment. It should also include parts, components, and/or technology to manufacture, modify, or repair the covered items,” the webpage said.
Julianne Versnel, the SAF operations director, who has been back and forth to the United Nations over this proposal, said the fight is not finished.
The measure will be considered for finalization in March, she said.
“We will continue to monitor this issue and oppose any effort to enforce a global gun control measure,” she said.
Amnesty International issued a statement Wednesday lauding passage of the resolution, saying the treaty will protect human rights, she said.
Suzanne Nossel, executive director of Amnesty International USA, said, “Today’s vote is step one toward a hugely meaningful human rights victory. We will be urging the United States and all other countries to keep today’s momentum going towards the final passage of the first arms trade treaty.”
Nossell said the 157 governments at the U.N. General Assembly’s First Committee on Disarmament in New York voting to finalize Arms Trade Treaty in March is a breakthrough.
“It’s the greatest show of support the treaty has ever received,” she said.
“Among the ‘big six; arms-exporting countries, only Russia abstained from voting,” she said. China joined France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the USA in supporting the resolution.
Gottlieb said Amnesty International does not appreciate that gun rights are enshrined in the Bill of Rights.
“The right of self-defense is a human right,” he said.
“In this country, the Second Amendment protects that right,” he said.
EDITORIAL: Gun ban back on Obama’s agenda – More flexible administration revives U.N. arms treaty
Friday, November 9th, 2012Original Story Via: The Washington Times
That didn’t take long. Less than a day after President Obama’s re-election, the administration breathed new life into the United Nations‘ previously comatose treaty regulating guns.
Last July, the U.N. General Assembly began formal discussion of the Arms Trade Treaty, which seeks to establish “common international standards for the import, export and transfer of conventional arms.” Talks on the controversial agreement were put on indefinite hiatus after the United States requested an extension to the time allotted to negotiate the agreement. Gun rights supporters blasted the treaty as it inched toward approval, and many suspected U.S. procedural maneuvers were intended to delay the treaty so it wouldn’t become a topic of discussion during the election. It appears these suspicions were correct since “indefinite” turned out to mean until hours after Mr. Obama was re-elected.
The administration line is that the treaty applies only to firearms exports and poses no threat to domestic gun owners. “We seek a treaty that contributes to international security by fighting illicit arms trafficking and proliferation, protects the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade, and meets the concerns that we have been articulating throughout,” an administration official said. “We will not accept any treaty that infringes on the constitutional rights of our citizens to bear arms.”
It is hard to take the White House response seriously. The treaty instructs countries to “take the necessary legislative and administrative measures, to adapt, as necessary, national laws and regulations to implement the obligations of this treaty.” The agreement’s language is so broad, vague and poorly defined it could be stretched in a variety of ways that would pose a threat to the Second Amendment. Treaty backers also want to insert provisions forcing ratifying states to promote a variety of fashionable left-wing causes including “sustainable development,” even though they have nothing to do with the arms trade.
Though the treaty is supposed to be about “gun exports,” its provisions can still be applied domestically. Activist judges adjudicating cases arising under the treaty and enabling legislation could see to that. The definition of international commerce could follow the same expansive logic liberal courts have used to redefine “interstate commerce.” Anything that indirectly or incidentally affects the trade in arms would fall under its control.
A ratified treaty, with constitutional authority, could be interpreted in a way that applies to any imported weapon or round of ammunition, those made with foreign components, those containing imported materials, those that might some day be exported, and those capable of being exported. If it affects the overall arms market, it could be said to be part of “international” trade, even if the item never leaves our shores. In practice this logic would give the government free rein to regulate all weapons, foreign and domestic. With the election out of the way, the White House can move swiftly to get the treaty through the U.N. General Assembly and up to the Senate by the summer of 2013. Elections have consequences.
The Washington Times
(AUDIO) Gun Rights Policy Conference Panel: Global Gun Control
Friday, November 9th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
The 2012 Gun Rights Policy Conference was held in Orlando, Florida and jointly hosted by the Second Amendment Foundation (www.saf.org) and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms (www.ccrkba.org). Follow news related to the UN ATT at IAPCAR.org.
“Global Gun Control, Down But Not Out”
Gary Burres of LSSA (00.00-06.05)
Sheldon Clare of NFA (06.06-13.14)
Gen. Allen Youngman of DSAAC (13.15-23.52)
Drive for defensive gun rights is spreading around the globe
Friday, November 9th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
by Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
The debate over the right of law-abiding citizens to possess firearms for defense of self, family and property is not an exclusive American phenomenon.
The subject is currently hot in Russia, in India, in the Philippines, and almost any country around the world.
The self-defense argument seems to be gaining ground worldwide even as more and more Americans seem to be joining the gun owner community and opposing additional gun laws. Further evidence of this people-driven movement comes from the Ukraine, once one of the Soviet Socialist republics, but now an independent democracy.
On Oct. 2, Ukrinform, the Ukrainian Nation News Service, reported that “after numerous stories of armed attacks, especially after the tragedy in the Karavan mall, where guards appeared to be vulnerable to an armed criminal, Ukraine is again discussing the issue of weapons.”, TSN reported.
Days earlier, one man opened fire killed three security guards at the Karavan Mall in Kiev.
“In many countries around the world, any adult citizen can buy a pistol or revolver, TSN noted, as it reported that the legal ownership of firearms has been proposed in the Ukrainian Parliament, and not for the first time, “The draft law, which would make it easy to buy a gun, has undergone the first reading and caused a heated debate,” the report said.
One of the authors of the bill, Member of Parliament Vasyl Hrytsak, believes that after the tragedy in Karavan, there will be more supporters for his legislation. “I think now we have to realize: this is the question of security of citizens,” he said.
Today, the right to guns is a privilege of just some of the Ukrainians: people’s deputies, law enforcement officers, judges and journalists, TSN reported. The essence of the MP’s proposal is simple: any Ukrainian who has no problems with the law and mental health may be authorized to purchase a gun.
The report did not discuss whether the proposal would legalize possession in a home or business, or allow the right to carry outside the home.
The law does prescribe scrutiny by law enforcement before a firearms purchase is authorized.
However, opposition seems to be stoked by some in the Ukrainian mental health community. One so-called expert, who reportedly has been studying the consciousness of the Ukrainians for many years, believes that in the current situation it is hard to establish effective control over arms trafficking.
It is even harder to guarantee the Ukrainians’ responsible attitude to arms, such experts claim. According to the psychologist’s forecasts, people with mental health problems, which are often difficult to see from the first sight, will immediately line up for revolvers and pistols.
“Let even the tenth part of these people are unbalanced, this will be enough for people to start shooting at each other. For example, at a neighbor who listens to loud music, or at a passer-by who turned in a wrong way,” Vadym Vasiutynsky, head of the laboratory at the Institute of Social and Political Psychology, warned.
Mass murder incidents in the US, where the Ukrainian media claims that free sale of weapons is permitted, from time to time there are shootings at school, at work or at the cinema.
Psychologists predict that if this law takes effect in Ukraine, it will be impossible to avoid such tragedies.
The Ukrainian debate over legalizing firearms ownership for any citizen who is not disqualified is far from over and it appears that if the current proposal is rejected, the Ukrainian people will continue to pursue a legal right to arms for self-defense.
U.N. CELEBRATES OBAMA RE-ELECTION BY PUSHING GLOBAL GUN CONTROL
Wednesday, November 7th, 2012Less than 24 hours after winning re-election, President Barack Obama’s administration joined with China, France, Germany and the United Kingdom, and more than 150 other governments, in supporting renewed debate on the proposed United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, confirming the worst fears of the American gun rights community.
The vote came at the U.N. General Assembly’s meeting of the First Committee on Disarmament at the world organization’s headquarters in New York City.
“It’s obvious that our warnings over the past several months have been true,” said Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation. “The election was called about 11 p.m. Tuesday and by 11 a.m. this morning, we got word that the United States was supporting this resolution. We have to be more vigilant in our efforts to stop this proposed treaty.”
SAF Operations Director Julianne Versnel, who has been back and forth to the United Nations over this proposal, said the fight is not finished. The measure will be considered for finalization in March 2013.
“We will continue to monitor this issue and oppose any effort to enforce a global gun control measure,” she stated.
Amnesty International issued a statement Wednesday lauding passage of the resolution, saying the treaty will protect human rights.
“The right of self-defense is a human right,” Gottlieb countered, “and in this country, the Second Amendment protects that right.
“Just days ago as he campaigned for re-election,” he concluded, “Barack Obama told his supporters that voting is the ‘best revenge.’ I guess now we know what he was talking about. The revenge he seeks is against American gun owners and their Second Amendment rights.”
UN ATT: REACHING FOR RESET?
Tuesday, November 6th, 2012New Coalition Says Current Draft Arms Trade Treaty Would Be Worse For Humanity
By Jeff MORAN | Geneva
An informal coalition of prominent academics, researchers, and advocates in the fields of international human rights law and small arms control policy-making condemned the 26 July 2012 draft United Nations (UN) Arms Trade treaty (ATT) on 30 October. [1]
According to statements made, the draft ATT is absolutely unacceptable and adopting it without substantial changes would be worse for humanity than if there was no ATT at all. They expressed their position during a news briefing at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, where they discussed the publication of “Academy Briefing #2: The Draft Arms Trade Treaty.” [2]
The formal official authors of the publication were Dr. Stuart Casey-Maslen, a Research Fellow at the Geneva Academy, and Ms. Sarah Parker, a Senior Researcher at the Small Arms Survey. The authors coordinated with and received input from representatives of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Saferworld, and Oxfam. [4]
This is a significant development in humanitarian advocacy designed to influence the unfinished UN ATT negotiations process, which is expected to formally re-open where it left off and run for 10 days under consensus rules from 18-28 March 2013. [3] The condemnation may embolden states aligned with Mexico to kill consensus and to take the ATT negotiations outside the UN. This would amount to hitting the reset button and clearing the way for a more controversial treaty to be adopted under less rigorous two-thirds majority rules. [5]
Dr. Stuart Casey-Maslen was unable to be present for the news briefing due to a family emergency and so was unavailable for comment. Dr. Casey-Maslen was a member of the Swiss delegation to the ATT negotiations. He was also on the ICRC delegation to the Oslo Diplomatic Conference in 1997 that adopted the 1997 Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention, which was a treaty that was developed outside the UN system and championed mainly by non-governmental organizations.
Ms. Sarah Parker sat in Dr. Casey-Maslen’s place and has been a member of the Australian delegation during the UN ATT process. Ms. Parker was joined by Mr. Gilles Giacca who is a researcher and Ph.D. candidate at the Geneva Academy. The news briefing was led by Dr. Andrew Clapham, co-Director of the Geneva Academy and author of several books on international humanitarian law.
News Briefing Details
Dr. Clapham opened the news briefing, and then passed the floor to Mr. Gilles Giacca who spoke for about six minutes. This was followed by Dr. Clapham again for about 15 minutes. This left over 30 minutes for a lengthy question and answer session where nine questions were answered. The briefing was attended by over 100 people. One professional reporter self-identified and asked the first question at the end.
Mr. Gilles Giacca first provided some historical context and motivations for the ATT. He then listed international instruments and declarations designed to increase controls over small arms and light weapons, to reduce arms related violence worldwide:
1. UN Program of Action on Small Arms,
2. UN Firearms Protocol,
3. The UN International Tracing Instrument, and the
4. Geneva Declaration on Armed Violence and Development.
Then he discussed the main challenges for the negotiations of the ATT so far:
1. Defining the scope of the weapons to be regulated by the ATT.
2. Defining the criteria to be used to condition authorized international transfers of weapons subject to the ATT.
3. Defining the monitoring, compliance, reporting and implementation mechanisms of the ATT, for such things as the provision of victim assistance.
4. The US insisting on negotiating by consensus rules, and so creating the option for a single country to “spoil” the treaty.
5. The large gap between two main camps: those who want a narrow scope treaty, and those who want a broad scope treaty.
After Mr. Giacca concluded, Dr. Andrew Clapham opened his comments by stating that the ATT should be an instrument “to prevent arms from fueling human rights violations or violating international humanitarian law.” He went on to state “what’s at stake here, I think, is that the treaty has a number of flaws or loopholes in it. And if it were going to be adopted in current form, arguably it could be worse than no treaty.”
Dr. Clapham said further that in various places the ATT appeared to set the bar lower than existing international standards, and that this would amount to a step backwards, or a “retrogression in international standards” as is stated in the Academy Briefing. [6]
He then detailed his main problems with the draft ATT, though he elaborated many problems as discussion developed into the question and answer period. His short-hand for three main problems were: 1) the complicity problem, 2) definition of war crimes, and 3) the balancing problem.
1. Complicity Problem. This criticism focused on Article 3, paragraph 3 and specifically cited the text “A State Party shall not authorize a transfer of conventional weapons within the scope of this Treaty for the purposes of facilitating the commission of genocide, crime against humanity…” Here Dr. Clapham stated that the “for the purposes of facilitating” is too high a standard and is essentially not in line with international customary law. He said there should be an awareness test or a knowledge test, but not a purpose test. [7]
2. Definition of War Crimes. This criticism focused on Article 3, paragraph 3. In short he stated that limiting war crimes to “grave breaches” of the 1949 Geneva Conventions or serious violations of Common Article 3 of those Conventions would exclude most violations that are thought to be occurring in Syria, violations such as the disproportionate targeting of civilians. [8]
3. The Balancing Problem. This criticism focused on Article 4, paragraph 5. His basic point was that the use of the term “overriding” implied a balancing of peace and security v. human rights violations. He further stated that that if the “overriding” language was kept in the treaty, and if the common understanding by diplomats was that there should be a balancing of peace and security v. human rights violations, this would be “a step backwards” because “it takes away the idea that human rights are something absolute, that there can be no violations under any circumstances.” He suggested using other words such as “substantial risk,” “clear risk,” or even “overwhelming risk.” [9]
Other issues Dr. Clapham addressed in passing were:
4. The treaty scope (e.g. the exclusion of tear gas and rubber bullets for example).
5. Ambiguity about the definition for ammunition, munitions.
6. Ambiguity about the definition of trade (e.g. does it include state gifts and loans?)
Observations & Other Discussions
Most of the discussion was about loopholes and weak ATT language with respect to promoting human rights. The news briefing seemed at times, however, to be a public lamentation with the United States essentially blamed first for insisting upon consensus rules at the outset of the negotiations process in 2009, and then spoiling the draft treaty by creating the “balancing problem” between human rights and state security. [10]
While Dr. Clapham acknowledged the ATT as a “trade” and “export” treaty at one point, his commentary was delivered as if the treaty was designed purely to serve as an instrument of global civil society improvement, one that is too important to be frustrated in any way by others concerned about national sovereignty, security, and business interests, and/or the principle of individual right to armed self-defense.
The speakers were clearly frustrated with the draft ATT, and the negotiations process to date. It was not clear if this was indicative of just a distaste for the messy multilateral reality of accommodating diverse state interests, an acquired disdain for those diplomats and delegations guided more by how the world is rather than how the world should be, or both.
Yet the mood was not entirely down. The room became guardedly positive when talk turned to the taking the ATT negotiation process outside the UN, to “do it right” as Mr. Giacca said on the Geneva Academy ATT Legal Blog post that was projected onto the wall behind the stage during the news briefing. [11] This discussion thread developed in response to a question about the probability of Mexico, for example, leading a push to take the ATT outside the UN.
In response to this question, Dr. Clapham reframed the ATT as a once in a lifetime opportunity to save humanity from rights abuses, and implied that he and others like Dr. Keith Krause (the Founding Director of the Small Arms Survey, also seated in the audience) were hoping to get a good ATT done “on their watch.”
But Dr. Clapham acknowledged a certain level of fatigue may set in and that diplomats and some humanitarian groups might just settle for a lowest common denominator to get the ATT done. He went on to state however that “there’s a good chance, that if people realize they are going to get something which is worse than nothing…and if the Mexican leadership…has the stomach for this, it could get taken outside the UN.” He went on to say this would allow for an ATT text to be approved “with only a two-thirds majority and we’d arguably get a much better text.” Sarah Parker, and Gilles Giacco also commented on this situation as well.
The discussion got pessimistic again when Dr. Krause actually took the floor to make comments about Article 4 and the national assessment provisions. He essentially declared that the draft ATT, without fundamental changes, could result in a “pretty instrument that actually doesn’t change anything that actually happens in the world.” The reasoning being that weapons transfers would be subject to national assessment without any meaningful way for non-governmental organizations and other states to legally challenge a State’s own assessment process and decisions to export/transfer arms abroad, and this, in his words, would be “tragic.” Dr. Krause seemed to offer that another good reason to take the ATT outside the UN system would be for “limiting the scope of malicious interpretation” of the ATT by state parties.
Sarah Parker, who works for Mr. Krause at the Small Arms Survey, then explained how provisions for increased accountability and transparency on national assessment could be added through an implemented “ATT system” when the “political climate” was better, eventually, after countries become “more comfortable” with the ATT’s obligations. She elaborated that a State’s own national assessment decisions could be made subject to legal challenges in international courts.
Dr. Clapham even suggested how reports from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch could eventually precipitate court-ordered injunctions halting government arms exports / transfers provided that campaigners and advocates first help bring about appropriate controlling national legislation. Dr. Clapham and Ms. Parker were presumably referring to more politically open states only, and the United States especially.
At the end, Ms. Parker importantly clarified that the ATT is not about creating a new tier of illegal transfers. Rather, “the ATT is introducing a new tier which is where [some] arms transfers are considered irresponsible, and therefore illegal.”
Looking Forward
Dr. Clapham, Mr. Giacca, Dr. Krause, and all seemed hopeful for an ATT negotiated outside the UN system (i.e. without consensus rules, with fewer countries required for an ATT to enter into force, with higher standards, broader scope, better text overall etc). [12] Ironically for them and like-minded partners at the ICRC, Oxfam, and Saferworld, realizing these hopes now seems best assured if nations don’t reach consensus at the UN ATT Conference in March.
Will humanitarian rights groups and sympathetic state delegations help move the UN ATT Conference talks forward by consensus, or will they act to kill consensus themselves?
Deliberately killing consensus will hit the ATT reset button and would be hypocritical at the very least, particularly since such groups were the first to accuse the United States and others of doing this in July. [13] Regardless of who might kill consensus in March, doing so will certainly lead to further institutional division within the international system. With Syria now in a full civil war, and the risks of major regional conflict accelerating, more division seems the last thing the world now needs.
Indexed Audio
The downloadable audio for this conference is just under 53 minutes and 7MB. It is complete except for the first few minutes of introductions. The only edits made to the audio file were to enhance voice and minimize noise. This said, there are some points where noise may make it difficult to clearly understand speakers. You can download it here.
00:00 – 05:47 | Presentation by Gilles Giacca
05:48 – 20:18 | Presentation by Dr. Andrew Clapham
20:19 – 21:04 | Question 1 and response (on the United States creating the “balancing problem”)
21:05 – 24:13 | Question 2 and response (on violence against women provisions)
24:14 – 26:41 | Question 3 and response (on implications for private military companies)
24:42 – 27:37 | Question 4 and response (on conflicts between an ATT and international law)
27:38 – 33:13 | Question 5 and responses (on taking the ATT outside the UN system)
33:14 – 34:25 | Question 6 and responses (on individual and business applicability)
34:26 – 36:15 | Question 7 and comment by Keith Krause (on national assessments)
36:16 – 39:09 | Dr. Clapham response to Keith Krause (on national assessments)
39:10 – 41:02 | Sarah Parker comments to Keith Krause (on national assessments)
41:03 – 42:08 | Dr. Clapham second response to Keith Krause (on national assessments)
42:09 – 44:43 | Question 8 and responses (on the definition of authorization)
44:44 – 52:06 | Question 9 and responses (on legitimating the arms trade and exporting to third parties)
52:07 – 52:51 | Dr. Clapham clarification about transfers to third parties, and close)
About The Author
Jeff Moran, a Principal at TSM Worldwide LLC, specializes in the international defense, security, and firearms industries. Previously Mr. Moran was a strategic marketing leader for a multi-billion dollar unit of a public defense & aerospace company, a military diplomat, and a nationally ranked competitive rifle shooter. He is currently studying international law of armed conflict with the Executive LL.M. Program of the Geneva Academy. Earlier this year he completed an Executive Master in International Negotiation from the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Mr. Moran also has an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and a BSFS from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
End Notes
[1] The first session of the UN ATT Conference was held from 3 -28 July and ended with no action on the final draft treaty dated 26 July 2012. A .pdf version of this draft ATT is available here.
[2] The Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights website is here. According to the back of the briefing cover, the Geneva Academy “provides post-graduate teaching, conducts academic legal research, undertakes policy studies, and organizes training courses and expert meetings;” and “concentrates on the branches of international law applicable in times of armed conflict.” A .pdf of the Academy Briefing is available in here.
[3] A draft resolution before the First Committee of the United Nations is available at here.
[4] The stated authors of the briefing acknowledge collaboration from Roy Isbister, Claire Mortimer, and Nathalie Weizmann on the front inside cover of the Academy Briefing. These individuals are well-known representatives of Saferworld, Oxfam, and the ICRC respectively. While a disclaimer states the views expressed “do not necessarily reflect those of the project’s supporters or of anyone who provided input to, or commented on, an earlier draft,” previous public statements by these individuals indicate strong concurrence with the briefing by these individuals and their respective employers. You can learn more about the Small Arms Survey here.
[5] Mexico is most likely to lead the effort to reset the ATT negotiations outside the United Nations based on its prior statements and actions during ATT negotiations process since 2009. At the conclusion of the UN ATT Conference in July, they spoke on behalf of 90 countries signaling a clear willingness represent the interests of other like-minded states. A .pdf of this statement is available here.
[6] “Academy Briefing No. 2: The Draft Arms Trade Treaty.” Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights. 30 October 2012. Page 31.
[7] Ibid., page 23.
[8] Ibid., page 23.
[9] Ibid., page 25.
[10] Mr. Giacca made reference to the problem of consensus rules and the US insistence on them in his remarks. A .pdf of the press statement announcing the US support for the ATT negotiations with consensus rules is available here. Dr. Clapham specifically identified the US as creating the balancing problem when answering the first question from the audience. You can hear this starting at 20 minutes and 19 seconds in the audio file referenced above.
[11] A .pdf of the blog post presented during the news briefing is available here.
[12] Among the people making comments at the news briefing, Ms. Parker was alone in declaring her preference for a treaty by consensus through the UN system.
[13] Here are links to press releases from Reuters, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and Control Arms. Sources last accessed 5 November 2012.
First Published: 5 November 2012
Last Updated: 5 November 2012
Online republication and redistribution are authorized when this entire publication (including byline, hyper-links, and Indexed Audio, About the Author and End Note sections) and linkable URL http://tsmworldwide.com/reaching-for-reset/ are included.
(VIDEO) CANADA: Good riddance, gun registry!
Monday, November 5th, 2012Original Story Via: Sun News Canada
Brian Lilley talks to Conservative MP Gary Breitkreuz about the destruction of the long-gun registry data.
[kml_flashembed publishmethod=”static” fversion=”8.0.0″ movie=”untitled.swf” width=”400″ height=”300″ targetclass=”flashmovie”] [/kml_flashembed]
Canada: Conservatives defy UN gun controls
Monday, November 5th, 2012By Mark Dunn, Senior National Reporter
Rifle enthusiasts celebrating the destruction of most long-gun registry files last week have more to cheer about after the government again deferred a plan gun-control advocates say would combat illegal arms trafficking.
Opponents argue the United Nations protocol signed by a previous Liberal government would drive up the cost of guns by as much as $200 apiece, killing jobs and creating more red tape in an already overregulated industry.
Proponents argue ignoring the framework is a step backwards to trace traffickers of guns to civil wars and Third World conflicts – some of which end up in the hands of local criminals.
The protocol – on hold until December 2013 – would require all imported guns to be marked with the name of the country and year of import. It’s at least the fourth time the government has punted the regulation since taking office in 2006.
QMI Agency learned of the latest postponement after obtaining a briefing note to Conservative MPs from Public Safety Minister Vic Toews dated Nov. 2.
Toews said he is listening to sports-gun owners, retailers, distributors and importers who say the cost to engrave importation markings on new firearms would come after the manufacturing process and be passed down to buyers.
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“We have heard the concerns and will not be moving forward until consultations have occurred,” caucus was told.
The Canadian National Firearms Association (NFA) welcomed the delay.
“There was significant concern in from both firearms businesses and members of the firearms community as well as many MPs about the need to go forward with a regulatory scheme brought in by a previous government when that scheme would add significant cost to products and damage the economy of an already over-regulated business,” said NFA president Sheldon Clare.
A spokesperson for the Coalition For Gun Control wouldn’t comment, but on its website the anti-gun lobby suggests the government has no intention of ever complying.
“After eliminating registration and records of sales, Canada has now eliminated yet another tracing mechanism for firearms and appears to have given up completely complying with the UN Firearms Protocol and with providing police with effective ways to trace guns found in crime and fight illegal gun trafficking.”
UK Parliament – A Polite Mad Hatters Tea Party
Friday, November 2nd, 2012Original Story Via: TheyWorkForYou.org
Firearms Controls
Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)
I am grateful for the opportunity to raise this issue; I know that a number of right hon. and hon. Members on both sides of the House are interested in this subject.
In the early hours of the new year, I was greeted in my constituency by the shocking news that four people had lost their lives in a shooting in the close-knit former mining community of Horden. They were Susan McGoldrick, 47, her sister Alison Turnbull, 44, and niece Tanya Turnbull, 24, as well as the gunman, Michael Atherton, 42, who turned the gun on himself.
Following the shooting, I called for a calm and measured response, but the high emotions at the time were not conducive to constructive debate. In the months that followed, I had the opportunity to meet family members on a number of occasions. They have acted in a considered and dignified manner throughout, and looked for practical improvements that will hopefully avoid such tragic circumstances, and such a tragedy, befalling another family.
A public debate on firearms licensing is still needed, and the time is right for the public and Parliament to consider whether the current level of protection is adequate. It is said that Britain has some of the toughest gun control laws in the world, but we should not be complacent. Current firearms laws consist of 34 separate pieces of legislation, which is complex and difficult to navigate for the police and the public. The Home Office’s official police guidance is more than 200 pages long. The rules are difficult to interpret, and their application can vary greatly across the 43 police forces responsible for issuing firearms licence certificates.
- Link to this
- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c347)
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- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c347)
Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)I will give way to my right hon. Friend, the Chair of the Home Affairs Committee.
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Keith Vaz (Leicester East, Labour)I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. He will know that it is two years since the Home Affairs Committee published its report on firearms control and suggested that the 34 pieces of legislation be codified. Does he agree that it is now time to bring those pieces of legislation together, and make it clearer for people who have applied for and received licences, and for those who seek to get one?
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- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c347)
Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)I am grateful for that intervention; it was delivered with some authority and I completely agree. The Home Affairs Committee investigation and report into firearms control urged the Government to codify and simplify the law, introduce one licensing system to cover all firearms, and strengthen the current safeguards.
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- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c347)
David Tredinnick (Bosworth, Conservative)I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for kindly giving me leave to intervene in his Adjournment debate. I wish to raise the issue of the Olympics, and the inability of our pistol team to train in the UK. Does he agree that although we must
consolidate the legislation and perhaps ensure that it works more effectively, we should go back to Lord Cullen’s original suggestion, which would allow gun clubs to keep disabled pistols, so that we can train Olympic athletes of the future in this country?
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- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c347)
Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)The hon. Gentleman raises an interesting point and I will come to some suggestions about how we might address that issue.
The Association of Chief Police Officers firearms and explosives licensing working group has called for a single form of certificate that
“remains desirable for safety and economic reasons”.
In terms of public safety, and in contrast to a section 1 firearm, shotgun applicants are not required to demonstrate a good reason for wanting a shotgun. I believe it important that people demonstrate that they have a need or use for a firearm, before they are granted a licence.
In evidence to the Home Affairs Committee, Mrs Gill Marshall-Andrews of the Gun Control Network said:
“The starting point should be that guns are lethal weapons and the onus should be on the applicant, somebody who wants to own a gun, to prove that they are”
a fit person to have one.
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- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c348)
Ian Mearns (Gateshead, Labour)I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. The House should be concerned about firearms licences and licensees. Just after the summer, it was reported that no fewer than 3,000 legitimately owned and licensed firearms were reported lost, missing or stolen in the previous 12 months.
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Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)That alarming statistic is one of a number that should exercise the minds of hon. Members, and it adds weight to the need for a full public debate.
It should no longer be acceptable to have a shotgun without a good reason. A good reason would have to be demonstrated by the same criteria that current firearms certificate holders must meet. Good reasons for holding shotgun licences include dealing with vermin or game, target shooting at an approved venue or club, or for professional use in employment, but evidence is needed to justify those reasons. It is difficult for many, including me, to comprehend why someone would need access to firearms in a domestic setting when there is little need for immediate access to a weapon.
One of the greatest weaknesses identified by the shooting fraternity is the variation in standards across police forces. For that reason, a national licensing authority has been proposed to provide central oversight, and to ensure the consistent application of licensing procedures. Such an authority would also have the advantage of removing the police from the administrative aspect of firearms licensing, and will allow them instead to focus on the enforcement of gun controls. The financial burden of the licensing regime could also be removed from the police while ensuring that public safety remains paramount. In evidence to the Home Affairs Committee, Bedfordshire police presented a cost analysis that showed that the firearms application fees in place since 2000 never represented the true cost to the forces processing applications. Rather than the current firearms certificate fee of £50, a fee of £150 has been proposed. I am not advocating that—an appropriate fee could be determined by any new central licensing authority.
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- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c348)
Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North, Labour)I perhaps should know, so my hon. Friend might have to excuse my ignorance, but does the proposed legislation cover air guns, which can be just as dangerous?
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- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c349)
Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)There are concerns across the piece. Whether air guns are covered depends on the definition of air gun, but I hope to come to that in a few moments if my hon. Friend bears with me.
Public safety must be the primary aim of gun control legislation, but it is clear that the police, in view of significant budget cuts, can no longer afford to subsidise the licensing system. We heard in the debate a few moments ago of hon. Members’ concerns about 20% cuts in police budgets in their areas.
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Ian Lavery (Wansbeck, Labour)I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate, which is on an emotive point for him. Does he agree that all aspects of firearms control should be a major concern and top of the agenda for prospective police and crime commissioners?
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- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c349)
Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)My hon. Friend makes a good point. We are only a few weeks away from the elections for police and crime commissioners. I have discussed the issue with Ron Hogg, who is a PCC candidate in County Durham, and who has some expertise in the matter. It is important that this is a local priority, but I also suggest that we should have a national framework laying down guidelines—something stricter than guidelines, in fact—to be applied evenly. Part of the problem is that we have a patchwork of arrangements.
We cannot do firearms licensing on the cheap at the risk of compromising public safety. There is also a strong case for strengthening the link between the licensing authority and medical professionals when considering an application or a renewal of a firearms certificate. We need early and proactive intervention when a firearms holder’s mental and physical health deteriorates.
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- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c349)
Chris Williamson (Derby North, Labour)I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this important debate. Does he agree that public safety would be improved if a prohibition was placed on the private storage of firearms in people’s homes, if people with a firearms certificate were subject to an annual medical test to assess continually whether they were a fit and proper person to hold one, and if a public register was available so that the general public knew who had access to a firearm? The atrocities that we see are often committed by people who have been deemed a fit and proper person when originally given a firearms certificate.
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Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)I will respond to the last intervention, and then I will take another one. I do not intend to declare war on the armed wing of the Tory party. I am not opposed to shooting per se. I am saying that people should be able to demonstrate a clear legitimate need before a firearms certificate or shotgun licence is issued.
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Karl McCartney (Lincoln, Conservative)I commend the hon. Gentleman for some of the points he has raised, but I find the naivety of the previous intervention worrying, because producing a public register of those who own any sort of firearm might be a thief’s charter. I would like to know what experience of shooting or holding a firearm or shotgun licence he has.
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Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)I have no experience. I have never held or shot a gun, but I have experience of a terrible tragedy in my constituency on new year’s day. I am attempting to share my experience with Members and to advocate having a review in the interests of public safety.
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Jim Shannon (Strangford, DUP)I thank the hon. Gentleman for the balanced way he is approaching this subject. I am concerned that the focus seems to be on legitimate firearms holders, the majority of whom are law-abiding. Will he reassure sporting Members and others throughout our local communities who enjoy the sport that this debate is not going down the road to remove firearms from those who have a legitimate right to hold them?
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Grahame Morris (Easington, Labour)I hope I have made that point. I am not proposing that people with a legitimate need to hold firearms, such as farmers and so on—there is a whole list of such people—are not allowed to hold them. That need should be declared as a reason for holding a certificate, and the police or the licensing authority would take it into account.
In a case in my constituency in 2008, Michael Atherton had his weapons revoked following threats to self-harm, and issues relating to mental health and gun ownership were also a factor in the case of Christopher Foster, who shot his wife, his daughter and himself after confessing suicidal thoughts to his GP.
I understand that the Association of Chief Police Officers and the British Medical Association have an agreement whereby the police alert GPs to any new applications and renewals of firearms licences. However, concerns remain where an applicant fails to disclose full and accurate medical information at the time of application or renewal. Applicants are required to provide a number of medical details, including whether they suffer from any
“medical condition or disability including alcohol and drug…conditions”.
They also have to declare whether they have ever suffered from epilepsy or been treated for
“depression or any other kind of mental or nervous disorder”.
However, that information is not routinely checked. Licensing officers approach medical professionals only when there are doubts about an applicant’s medical history, although Dr John Canning—again, giving evidence to the Home Affairs Committee on behalf of the BMA—stated that GPs are “not very often” asked to provide medical evidence, although it happens “from time to time”.
Following the case of Christopher Foster, the Independent Police Complaints Commission proposed in 2008 that the licensing force should be required to approach the applicant’s doctor in each case, in order to obtain confirmation that the medical information provided
in the application was correct. The omission of information from a firearms application was also an issue in the case of Mark Saunders in 2006, which ended in him being killed by the Metropolitan police. Mr Saunders failed to declare during the application process that he had been treated by a consultant for depression and for his tendency occasionally to drink more than was sensible—indeed, he had been referred by his GP. Unfortunately, on his application for a firearms licence he stated that he had no such health problems.
In my view, the solution is to ensure that each applicant knows that licensing officers will approach their GP as a matter of course to verify statements made on their application about their health, to ensure they are correct and accurate. My proposal would address failures by an applicant to disclose any medical problem that raises questions about their suitability to own and have free access to a firearm. Finally, I call for greater consultation between the licensing authority and those who are or have been a domestic partner of a potential applicant. A similar system is already in place in Canada, where all citizens applying for a firearms licence are required to have their present and past partners in the previous two years sign their application. Refusal to sign for any reason does not automatically mean that the police and licensing authorities will veto an application, but it will trigger further investigation by law enforcement officers. The Canadian requirements merit further exploration, and I would appreciate it if the Minister informed the House of any progress made on this matter.
There has been no knee-jerk reaction. These proposals are considered, practical measures that, if implemented, could allow the consistent application of firearms legislation, strengthen existing safeguards and ensure public safety while maintaining the rights of the shooting fraternity to have access to firearms where there is a good and legitimate purpose for their use.
- Link to this
- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c350)
Damian Green (Ashford, Conservative)I congratulate Grahame M. Morris both on securing the debate and on the tone in which he has addressed this issue, following the tragic events in his constituency. The shootings he talked about shocked the whole country. Obviously our thoughts remain with the family and friends of the victims. I agree with him: it is right that Government and Parliament should reflect on what lessons might be learned from these fortunately rare, but nevertheless tragic events, and how best we can protect public safety. I and the whole House—indeed, it is good to see so many people at an Adjournment debate—share his view that we need to approach the issues in a calm and measured way.
As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, Durham constabulary has asked the Independent Police Complaints Commission to investigate the events leading to the shootings. There has not yet been a coroner’s inquest into the deaths. Because of the investigation and a future inquest, the House will appreciate the need for me to avoid saying anything that might be prejudicial in relation to the circumstances of this case.
I understand that there have been complexities with the IPCC investigation, although it is working through those matters as fast as possible and the investigation is
now close to completion. The final report is now being finalised and it will be shared with the families shortly. Publication of the report will, however, depend on the time scales for the inquest and the wishes of the coroner. The Government will consider carefully the results of the inquest and of the IPCC investigation, paying careful attention to any specific recommendations that they might make and any implications for wider firearms policy, to which I will now turn as I try to address the specific points that the hon. Gentleman has raised.
The Government have always made it clear that controls on firearms should be targeted fairly and proportionately, and that they should strike the right balance by securing public safety without bearing down unnecessarily on legitimate users. With this in mind, I have arranged meetings with a range of stakeholders since assuming responsibility for this work. I met Deputy Chief Constable Andy Marsh, the Association of Chief Police Officers’ lead on firearms, this week, and we discussed a number of the issues that the hon. Gentleman has raised today.
Following the tragic shootings in Cumbria in 2010, the Government undertook to take a fresh look at firearms law and subsequently considered the recommendations of the Home Affairs Select Committee, which looked comprehensively at the whole range of issues. The Government published our response to the Committee’s report in September 2011. Our response sets out a number of commitments in response to the Committee’s recommendations. The Government will update the Committee, and the House, shortly on progress on those recommendations.
As the hon. Gentleman has said, it is generally recognised that the UK has comparatively low levels of gun crime, and some of the strictest gun laws in the world. It is true that these laws are complex, and I would therefore like to give a brief overview of the main controls that are in place. There are two main categories of firearms licensed by the police. First, there are those that are controlled under section 1 of the Firearms Act 1968. They are typically target shooting rifles and rifles used for hunting or vermin control. The second category is shotguns, typically used by farmers and for clay pigeon shooting. Both are possessed by means of separate certificates that are valid for five years. There is a third category of firearm, generally referred to as prohibited weapons, and these can be possessed only with the written authority of the Secretary of State.
My hon. Friend David Tredinnick raised the issue of training for Olympic pistol shooters. In advance of the London games, the Home Secretary provided an exemption for this third category of firearms to allow the Team GB shooting team to train here. She is currently in the process of issuing new authorities to British pistol squad members to train for the 2014 Commonwealth games. This is of course subject to the usual checks on applicants and to ensuring that training is confined to suitably secure ranges. The Government will look at arrangements for the 2016 Olympic games in due course.
The hon. Member for Easington raised concerns about how the licensing process operates. I would like to say something about the processes involved—again, without making reference to the specific circumstances of this case. The procedures are similar for the issue of a shotgun certificate but there are some material differences.
First and foremost, the police must be satisfied that the applicant can be trusted to possess shotguns without danger to public safety. Unlike with section 1 firearms, the applicant does not have to show good reason to have a shotgun, but the police may refuse to grant a certificate if they are satisfied that he has no good reason to have one. This is a different control, but it still allows the police to refuse applicants who have dubious reasons for wanting shotguns.
- Link to this
- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c351)
Ian Mearns (Gateshead, Labour)I raised a point with my hon. Friend Grahame M. Morris about the number of firearms that have been lost or stolen in the past year. I understand that the figure was about 3,000. In the light of that, would the people who have lost their firearms or had them stolen have their licences reviewed?
- Link to this
- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c353)
Damian Green (Ashford, Conservative)That would be a matter for the individual force concerned. It is clearly a matter that the police forces that do the licensing, who are responsible and sensitive about these things, would take serious note of.
The hon. Member for Easington mentioned national control of firearms and the proposal for a national licensing authority. There is a danger that a central authority might lose touch with the sort of local information that the police need. In his report on the Dunblane tragedy, Lord Cullen recommended that licensing functions should remain with the police. Previous suggestions to replace the current police licensing system with a central civilianised licensing authority have been rejected as more costly and less efficient than the present system.
Although the Government are not in favour of a national firearms control board, the Home Office guidance to the police on firearms legislation—the hon. Gentleman mentioned it, and it is indeed long and complex—is being revised and updated to help ensure that licensing procedures are applied consistently across forces. This is an important piece of work, responding directly to the Home Affairs Select Committee’s wish for more consistency. In particular, we will highlight the need to take full account of any incidences of domestic violence when considering applications for the
grant or renewal of certificates. The comments that I have heard this evening will be particularly pertinent to that.
- Link to this
- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c353)
Tessa Munt (Wells, Liberal Democrat)Does the Minister agree that cost is not an issue here? Where people use firearms for recreation, there is no excuse whatever for the process to be subsidised. It is not a matter of cost; it is purely a matter of process—and the costs should be covered by those who require a licence.
- Link to this
- Hansard source (Citation: HC Deb, 31 October 2012, c354)
Damian Green (Ashford, Conservative)The ultimate driver, frankly, is safety; that is what underlies the system. On the issue of cost, the Home Office has received a detailed report from ACPO proposing new firearms fees to allow forces to recover the cost of firearms licensing. In considering the proposal, the Government will look both at the quality of service licence holders receive, which is relevant, and will discuss with ACPO the scope for making some of the current processes more efficient and effective. That will take into account the need to manage risk and ensure public protection.
As we indicated in our response to the Select Committee, we do not consider that separate licensing for shotguns and firearms is causing difficulties. Applying a good reason test in the same way for both categories could be problematic. For example, unlike target shooters, shotgun owners do not always belong to clubs that could vouch that they had shot regularly. However, I assure the House that we will keep this issue under review. As I indicated earlier, the local police must satisfy themselves that an applicant for a certificate is fit to be entrusted with a firearm, and will not present a danger to public safety. This is a particularly heavy responsibility and sits right at the heart of the licensing process. Such is the basis of my discussions with ACPO.
One of the most important points raised by the hon. Gentleman was about the need for medical checks on those who have access to firearms. I completely agree that it is important that the police are made aware of medical conditions that affect a person’s suitability to possess firearms. Both the hon. Gentleman and I will therefore—
House adjourned without Question put (Standing Order No. 9(7)).
UPDATE: UN Arms Trade Treaty
Wednesday, October 24th, 2012By Philip L. Watson
Julianne Versnel of IAPCAR and SAF last week at the UN Conference of Parties
Executive Director
The evolution of the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) from the “Firearms Protocol” and the “Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons” (PoA) for more than a decade continues despite the failure to reach agreement on the ATT this last July.
On October 15-19 the “Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime” was held in Vienna Austria. IAPCAR’s Julianne Versnel and Alan Gottlieb attended the meeting via the WFSA on behalf of the Second Amendment Foundation. In the past, the UN’s “Conference of Parties” has served as a bureaucratic and educational platform supporting the Firearms Protocol, the Programme of Action, and the ATT.
At this meeting the “illegal” trade in small arms used for sport and/or self-defense was lumped in with various forms of crime such as human trafficking, drug trafficking, terrorism, counterfeiting, and organized crime.
A resolution was passed to continue the working group’s study and recognizing the legitimacy of firearms with sporting uses.
Mexico was apparently vehement on not mentioning firearms in civilian possession. Rather, their preferred method of mentioning firearms replaces “civilian possession” with “lawful use.” This proposed verbiage would presumably give governments and the UN more authority to limit civilian use of firearms.
The Mexican delegation also hosted a side event titled “Arms Trade Treaty, Firearms Protocal and Small Arms Programme of Action: Three essential components of effective firearms control. What options for synergies?” The main stated goal of the meeting was to “establish synergies” among the UN Programme of Action on Small Arms, the Firearms Protocol, and the UN Arms Trade Treaty. During the meeting a representative from a different group advised against changing terms and contexts that had already been negotiated.
At the main meeting, a representative from Russia questioned the motives, funding sources, and accuracy of the so called “Small Arms Survey,” a yearly publication distributed by the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (GIIDS) and Cambridge Press. The 366 page tome supposedly focuses on “illicit trafficking of small arms;” however, the ‘survey’ frequently veers far off track highlighting domestic laws and issues unrelated to international affairs or the UN. The publication serves as a clear blueprint and source of skewed data for a political agenda against the civilian use of firearms.
In addition to the “Small Arms Survey,” GIIDS also frequently produces “Research Notes” and “Issue Briefs” for dissemination at UN meetings. These smaller, pithier handouts are distributed at meetings backing up the yearly ‘Survey’ to constantly reiterate their request for increased regulation on civilian arms.
The UN ATT is likely to resurface again. Overall, the goals of our opposition have not, and will not change. In the defense of the human right of self-defense, IAPCAR will continue to monitor these events closely.
Group petitions W.H. Smith to not treat gun magazines as pornography
Tuesday, October 23rd, 2012IAPCAR recently covered this story here and the response from W.H. Smith here.
To view or sign the online petition click on the following link: http://www.change.org/en-GB/petitions/whsmiths-retract-policy-on-sale-of-shooting-magazines#supporters
Spin on ‘Gun Mags are Porn’ Backlash: ‘You’ll shoot your eye out kid’
Friday, October 19th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
“You’ll shoot your eye out kid.” A pop-culture saying attributed to the classic American holiday movie A Christmas Story.
The policy prompted a response from the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) denouncing the move by the bookstore. Some blogs and other news outlets picked up the story and W.H. Smith is now attempting to do some damage control.
An official response from W.H. Smith (read below) essentially tries to pass the buck. The excuse was that in the past some of the magazines allegedly offered free deals on “firearms related products” that may be illegal to sell to youngsters in the UK.
What are these horrible and dangerous items in question? Well, stuff like BB pellets, and knives. Granted knives can be lethal; however, if a youngster wanted to acquire a knife the first place they would probably look is the family kitchen.
As another olive branch, the official statement offered that the policy is not new. An odd way to justify the policy and ignore the entire underlining principles of the matter.
The official statement is below:
“Our till prompt process has been in place for over 6 years and has never previously generated any customer complaints. In this respect, we have made no recent changes to these procedures. The introduction of till prompts with regards to certain shooting titles originated from the fact that a number of these publications included ‘cover mounts’ attached to the front of the magazine, that have historically included certain firearm related products. With regard to the application of these procedures across our store chain, these till prompts have only been applied to a section of gun related and shooting titles, in respect of a limited number of publications.
We continually look at all store procedures, including the use of till prompts, to determine whether they are appropriate in light of changing customer needs, legislative amendments and other regulatory monitoring. Our desire going forwards is to work more closely with the shooting magazine publishers to address the concerns that have been highlighted by all of the customers who have recently contacted us, in order to ensure that appropriate monitoring procedures can be applied, prior to these publications being sent to the store for placing on sale.”
SPSC/IAPCAR Shooting Event A Success
Friday, October 19th, 2012
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- The subsurface shooting range enables to shoot at 100 meters distance with highest possible safety.
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- Members from various HSV (Austrian army sport clubs) showed great results with their civilian owned Steyr AUG-Z rifles.
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- SPSC was generously supported by IHS – Innviertler Hofschützen – who even provided the officially-approved shooting range.
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- SPSC-board-member Christian is pleased about the successful collaboration between several local shooting sport clubs.
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- Active SPSC-member Wolfgang carefully sighting in his Heckler & Koch SL6 – one popular semi-automatic rifle in Austria.
–Photos and Notes from Christian Werbik, SPSC Director–
SPSC – Sport & Practical Shooting Club, located in Upper Austria and consisting of 35 some members, recently hosted an exceptional shooting event:
Only civilian-legal semi-automatic rifles were allowed – no bolt action ones. This is somewhat unique, as only very few semi-auto rifles are approved by Austrian authorities, e.g. Steyr AUG-Z, Oberland Arms OA-15 Austria, H&K SL6. In order to purchase such a rifle in Austria, law-abiding citizens need either a firearm possession license or a concealed carry permit. With 21 participants and the proceeds to be donated to IAPCAR, Austrian shooting enthusiasts can speak of a successful day! Firearms legislation in Austria, measured against Central European standards, is still considered ‘reasonable’ by many. However, preserving the human right to keep and bear arms on an international level is crucial to any sport shooter, hunter, arms collector and re-loader.
How the 2012 UN Arms Trade Treaty Conference Really Died
Thursday, October 18th, 2012(H/T Jeff Moran, TSM Worldwide)
By Jeff Moran | Geneva
Advocacy and diplomatic discussions started again last week with the opening day of the UN General Assembly First Committee meetings.[1] These meetings end on 6 November 2012 (Election Day in the United States), and follow-up the failed United Nations (UN) Conference in July to formally negotiate by consensus a legally binding Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).[2]
Contrary to prevailing reportage and opinion, the UN ATT Conference was less a failure in diplomacy, or a victory by the firearms industry and the National Rifle Association for that matter, than it was the result of abortive advocacy lead by the UK-based Control Arms campaign and its unrealistically expansive vision for a more extreme trade treaty than consensus could sustain.[3]
The Control Arms vision for the ATT encompasses 14 specific treaty issue areas under three categories: Scope, Transfer Criteria, and Implementation. Scope issues areas include Ammunition, Brokering/Dealers, Other Conventional Weapons, and Small Arms/Light Weapons. Transfer Criteria issue areas include Armed Violence, Corruption, Gender-based Violence, Human Rights, International Humanitarian Law, and Socio-Economic Development. Implementation issue areas include Final Provisions, Implementation, Verification, and Victim Assistance.
The Control Arms vision across these treaty issue areas can be found on their subsidiary armstreaty.org website.[4] The details of their ATT vision are quoted below:
1. Ammunition. Including in the scope of the ATT all “ammunition, munitions, and explosives.”
2. Brokering/Dealers. Including in the scope of the ATT brokering and dealing. “Brokering generally refers to arranging or mediating arms deals and buying or selling arms on one’s own account or for others, as well as organizing services such as transportation, insurance or financing related to arms transfers, and the actual provision of such services.”
3. Other Conventional Weapons. Including in the scope of the ATT “all conventional weapons, related components and production equipment, beyond Small Arms and Ammunition” which are “covered by the 7 categories in UN Register of Conventional Arms and of other conventional weapons, components and equipment.”
4. Small Arms/Light Weapons. Including in the scope of the ATT “conventional weapons that can be carried by an individual or a group of individuals (including revolvers, machine guns, hand-held grenade launchers; portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns and missile systems; and mortars of calibers less than 100 mm. etc).”
5. Armed Violence. Including as a parameter of the ATT “provisions to restrict transfers that could provoke, fuel or exacerbate armed conflict and armed violence.”
6. Corruption. Including as a parameter of the ATT “provisions to restrict transfers that could exacerbate or institutionalize ‘corruption’ or ‘corrupt practices’. In the context of arms transfers, corrupt practices include bribing of state officials with commissions and kickbacks provided by arms producers and traders to facilitate a transfer agreement.”
7. Gender-based Violence. Including as a parameter of the ATT provisions to “restrict the transfer of arms where there is a substantial risk that the arms under consideration will be used to perpetuate or facilitate acts of gender-based violence, including sexual violence.”
8. Human Rights. Including as a parameter of the ATT “provisions to restrict transfers when there is substantial risk that the arms will be used in serious violations of international human rights law, including fueling persistent, grave or systematic violations or patterns of abuse.”
9. International Humanitarian Law. Including as a parameter of the ATT “provisions to restrict transfers when there is substantial risk of the arms being used in serious violations of international humanitarian law (IHL). This assessment would include consideration of whether a recipient that is, or has been, engaged in an armed conflict has committed serious violations of IHL or has taken measures to prevent violations of IHL, including punishing those responsible.”
10. Socio-Economic Development. Including as a parameter of the ATT “provisions to restrict transfers that could hinder, undermine or adversely affect socio-economic development.”
11. Final Provisions. Including in the text of the ATT “effective implementation mechanisms of the Arms Trade Treaty, including criminalization of treaty violations and an Implementation Support Unit (ISU) to coordinate international cooperation.”
12. Implementation. Including in the text of the ATT final provisions and entry into force mechanisms. “Effective final provisions would not allow reservations that would be incompatible with the Treaty’s purpose. Effective entry into force mechanisms would not include a requirement for excessive number of ratifications, nor for specific states or groups of states to ratify the treaty, before it could enter into force.”
13. Verification. Including in the text of the ATT “effective verification mechanisms of the Arms Trade Treaty. Effective verification includes meaningful and specific annual reporting, external referral for dispute resolution, annual meetings of states party (MSP) and five-yearly Treaty Review Conferences (RevCons), and the creation of an Implementation Support Unit (ISU) to assist with, collect and analyze reports.”
14. Victim Assistance. Including in the text of the ATT “the recognition of the rights of victims of armed violence and acknowledgment of States’ commitment to provide assistance to victims.”
Reaching consensus during the UN ATT Conference was certainly possible, and potentially a constructive endeavor for all nations from an interest point of view. But consensus was not likely because a lot of countries thought aspects of the emerging ATT were potentially threatening to national sovereignty for example.[5] Nonetheless, the popular narrative is that the United States killed the Conference when it asked for more time to consider the draft treaty on the final day of the Conference.[6] This expedient and seemingly anti-American explanation doesn’t stand up to scrutiny, especially when you put the Conference into context and examine the armstreaty.org database about opposition to the ATT.
The relevant historical context for what happened at the Conference extends back to at least the creation of the International Action Network On Small Arms (IANSA) in 1999. Important context also includes the recorded debate between the leaders of IANSA and the National Rifle Association in 2004 along with several formal rounds of preparatory negotiations since 2009 for example. This is admittedly a lot of history for one to casually consider, but after surveying this period, and listening to diplomats based in Geneva, a pattern of overdone, unfocussed, and ultimately counterproductive advocacy emerges. This appears to be due, at least in part, to self-inflicted wounds from years of overselling positions and distractive issue framing, which, in turn, appears to have damaged their credibility and cause.[7] Ultimately, humanitarian groups, led by an unraveling Control Arms coalition, sabotaged consensus for an ATT by pushing diplomats too hard for far too much and provoked dispositive sovereignty concerns across the Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East in addition to the United States.[8]
Not only was there no consensus on the final draft ATT as a whole in those final days of the Conference, but there remains no consensus for any of the 14 treaty elements Control Arms continues to advocate for, and opposition to them is growing. This can be evidenced in detail on armstreaty.org.[9] While the data on armstreaty.org are not an official record of country delegation viewpoints during the final days of the ATT conference, they serve as a useful proxy indicating size, scope, and direction of opposition to the ATT as Control Arms envisions it.
Clearly, the most widely opposed ATT issue areas fall under the creation of transfer conditionality / restrictive criteria on the international transfers of arms. The most objected-to transfer criteria remain those related to Socio-Economic Development and Human Rights. Thirty-nine and 35 countries oppose these criteria respectively, the US not being among them. The US opposed only three provisions cutting across treaty scope and implementation issue areas only.[10]
The accompanying table below is made from armstreaty.org data and evidences the above points. It also conveys more important details about the lack of consensus for an ATT. The table indicates, from a treaty content point of view, where opposition is greatest, the relative size of the opposition, and the direction of opposition since the Conference. [11]
In short, the table below helps show why the assertion that the US is mainly responsible for killing consensus at the UN ATT Conference is not only false, but absurd. Here are nine take-aways:
1. There are 195 total instances where a country opposes an aspect of the envisioned ATT (consensus requires zero instances or at least a willingness to no longer publicly oppose, and Control Arms attributes just 3 of these 195 to the US).
2. There is no consensus for any of the provisions across the all three treaty issue area categories (Scope, Transfer Criteria, and Implementation).
3. Total opposition to the Control Arms vision has actually grown in the months after the UN ATT Conference (by 12 net instances, or 7%).
4. There is a two-way tie for issue areas experiencing the fastest opposition growth: Socio- Economic Development and International Humanitarian Law (both together account for 2/3 of the growth in total opposition).
5. The most-opposed category of treaty issue area is Transfer Criteria (54% share of total opposition) and opposition has grown (by 11 instances, or 6%, since 29 August 2012).
6. The most-opposed treaty issue area by country count is Socio-Economic Development (39 countries opposed).
7. The most-opposed issue area by percentage of countries opposed (relative to total number of countries assessed) is Human Rights (33%).
8. The least-opposed provision by country count relates to including the activities of arms Brokering/Dealing within the scope of the ATT (2 countries opposed).
9. There is a three-way tie for the least opposed provisions by percentage of countries opposed (relative to total number of countries assessed): Brokering/Dealers, Armed Violence, and Final Provisions (all at 2% opposed).
Rightly understood, Control Arms’ own data help to correct the false narrative about why the UN ATT Conference failed to reach consensus this summer. Such data clearly show that the prospects for consensus were grim at best, and are getting worse. The data also suggest that even if the US enthusiastically embraced the final draft ATT, other countries would have probably worked together to prevent consensus anyway.
It is not a giant leap in logic to see that Cuba, Iran, or Venezuela (countries that each oppose many more treaty provisions than the US does) probably would have killed consensus themselves, especially if the United States indicated it was going to sign the treaty. Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, for one, faced an election within months. Being the consensus breaker would have surely boosted President Chavez’ domestic political standing, and perhaps his image as a regional guardian against outside meddling.
In conclusion, UN ATT Conference died from lack of consensus. This death was due less to failed diplomacy, or pressure by the firearms industry and gun rights groups, than it was the result of many years of abortive advocacy lead by an unraveling UK-based Control Arms campaign. Control Arms’ broad vision for the ATT was more extreme than consensus could sustain. Ultimately, humanitarian groups sabotaged consensus for an ATT by pushing diplomats too hard for far too much and provoked dispositive sovereignty concerns across the Asia, Latin America, and the Middle East in addition to the United States.
Perhaps a more extreme version of the ATT will be born outside the UN altogether. If this happens, it would likely share a destiny not unlike like the 1997 Ottawa Treaty banning anti-personnel landmines. Ottawa was born outside the UN because an anti-personal mine ban did not get traction inside it. Russia, China, and the United States have still not ratified or acceded to the treaty. And while 33 other states have not ratified or acceded to the Ottawa Treaty either, supporters argue that the treaty is emerging as an international norm on its way to acquiring the force of international law over time.[12]
Most likely, within a year, the UK, the lead country responsible for putting the ATT on the UN agenda in 2006, will introduce the draft ATT to the UN General Assembly and seek signatures from countries willing to sign it as is. Unfortunately, regardless of what course the ATT takes, moving forward with an ATT not based on consensus will only serve to divide the international community. As the specter of major conflict looms larger over volatile regions of the world, more division is now the last thing the international community needs.
About The Author
Jeff Moran, a Principal at TSM Worldwide LLC, specializes in the international defense, security, and firearms industries. Previously Mr. Moran was a strategic marketing leader for a multi-billion dollar unit of a public defense & aerospace company, a military diplomat, and a nationally ranked competitive rifle shooter. He is currently studying international law of armed conflict with the Executive LL.M. Program of the Geneva Academy. Earlier this year he completed an Executive Master in International Negotiation from the Graduate Institute of Geneva. Mr. Moran also has an MBA from Emory University’s Goizueta Business School and a BSFS from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service.
End Notes
[1] The First Committee “deals with disarmament, global challenges and threats to peace that affect the international community and seeks out solutions to the challenges in the international security regime.” It meets in October each year. See http://www.un.org/en/ga/first/ for more information about this. Opening day official statements can be found at http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2012/gadis3453.doc.htm. Oxfam International has a blog associated with this series of meetings at http://blogs.oxfam.org/en/blogs/12-10-12-fighting-arms-trade-treaty-un-general-assembly. All links last accessed 15 October 2012.
[2] The key deliverable from the UN ATT Conference was an unsigned final draft treaty dated 26 July 2012. This draft is available at http://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/ATTPrepCom/Documents/PrepCom4%20 Documents/PrepCom%20Report_E_20120307.pdf. Last accessed 14 October 2012.
[3] The Control Arms Campaign is the flagship civil society campaign advocating for an ATT. It started-up in 2003 as a powerful collaboration among the UK offices of Amnesty International, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), and Oxfam International. In addition to having been funded by a few governments, Control Arms has support from under a 100 mostly Western advocacy groups yet views itself as a “global civil society alliance.” There are many different humanitarian groups and campaigns, but Control Arms is the biggest. Another campaign, the Campaign Against the Arms Trade, is loud and vocal, but is not taken seriously by governments because it advocates for a total ban on the Arms Trade.
[4] Armstreaty.org is the leading ATT negotiations tracking website created by the Control Arms campaign and the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom. http://armstreaty.org/mapsstates.php. Last accessed 15 October 2012.
[5] Such views underpin many official views found the May 2012 official UN document “Compilation of Views on the Elements of an Arms Trade Treaty (A/CONF.217/2.” http://www.un.org/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=A/CONF.217/2. Last accessed 15 October 2012.
[6] Here are links to press releases from Reuters, Oxfam, Amnesty International, and Control Arms: http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/27/us-arms-treaty-idUSBRE86Q1MW20120727, http://www.oxfam.org/en/pressroom/pressrelease/2012-07-28/battle-arms-trade-treaty-continues-governments-opt-delay-final-dea, http://amnesty.org/en/news/world-powers-delay-landmark-arms-trade-deal-2012-07-27, and http://www.controlarms.org/battle-continues. Sources last accessed 14 October 2012.
[7] Author conducted interviews with numerous diplomats and country delegates in and around the Geneva-based UN disarmament community in 2012. A consistent portrait painted by them was that Control Arms campaigners exhibited a profound lack of collective unity and focus, and that messaging was redundant, superficial, grossly insufficient to help in a technical or practical sense, and largely amounted to a waste of time even for diplomats and delegates who were sympathetic to their cause. Additionally, Control Arms Campaigners undermined their own efforts by insisting on adding controversial provisions to the treaty, such as Victim Assistance, which made consensus all the more unattainable.
[8] Control Arms is described as “unraveling” because, by 2012, Control Arms had essentially disintegrated as a cohesive coalition. This appears to be a key reason for a lack of focus in campaign execution. The proximate cause for this appears to be a case of disintegration due to interpersonal problems and hubris among its leaders, and organizational self-interest. Amnesty International essentially left Control Arms to pursue its own agenda in 2011. This information was corroborated by interviews with several diplomats and an interview with a professional arms trade researcher with direct knowledge of the situation and people concerned, May 2012.
[9] TSM Worldwide LLC conducted a comparative analysis of the website using snapshots taken 29 August and 14 October 2012.
[10] The only Scope issue area the US objected to was the inclusion of ammunition in the treaty. The implementation issue areas the US objects to are Final Provisions and Victim Assistance. Source: armstreaty.org. Last accessed 14 October 2012.
[11] The graphic represents outright country opposition to given issue areas as gauged by Control Arms only. The totals at the bottom of the table are counts of distinct instances of country / issue-area opposition and do not reflect the count of countries opposed to the ATT as a whole.
[12] One group is Handicap International, sponsors of the Campaign to Ban Landmines and co-winner of the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize. http://en.handicap-international.ca/Ottawa-treaty-good-news-and-bad-news_a186.html Last accessed 1 October 2012.
First Published: 17 October 2012
Last Updated: 18 October 2012
Republication and redistribution are authorized when author Jeff Moran and linkable URL http://tsmworldwide.com/consensus-killed/ are cited.
Honduras to reevaluate gun control laws
Thursday, October 18th, 2012Original Story Via: CSMonitor.com
The Honduran government is reportedly set to conduct a review of its gun laws in an apparent effort to combat rising violence levels, though equal emphasis will need to be made on addressing endemic corruption and weak institutions to solidify any gains.
Matias Funes, a representative from the independent Commission on Public Security Reform (CRSP), said on Oct. 16 that Honduras’ gun laws are in need of urgent revision if efforts are to be made to combat the country’s endemically high level of violence, reported La Tribuna.
Security Minister Pompeyo Bonilla said the government agreed a review of the law should be undertaken and that President Porfirio Lobo had asked that he begin conducting one.
Under the existing law, citizens are allowed to own as many as five personal firearms. According to statistics released last month by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Honduras’ homicide rate for 2011 was 92 per 100,000, up from 82 the previous year.
IAPCAR DENOUNCES TREATMENT OF GUN PUBLICATIONS AS PORN
Wednesday, October 17th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) denounced a change in policy by the British book store W.H. Smith to now treat hunting and self-defense publications featuring guns the same as pornography.
Julianne Versnel of IAPCAR and SAF this week at the UN Conference of Parties meeting in Vienna Austria.
Even though youngsters under the new age requirement are permitted to hold a shotgun license, W.H. Smith’s new policy bans legitimate self-defense and hunting publications from young people under 14-years-old. The new policy also requires the purchaser show identification to purchase the magazines the same as they require for the purchase of pornography.
The new policy was backed by a group called Animal Aid, Britain’s largest “animal rights” organization. Among other beliefs, the group clams in one of its own reports that “lurid, pro-violence content” of the country’s shooting sports magazines could have a “corrosive, long-lasting effect on impressionable young minds.”
IAPCAR executive director Philip Watson denounced the store’s policy.
“Clearly this store is allowing itself to be governed by a fringe group,” Watson said. “There is no legitimate proof that censorship like this will improve a youngster’s understanding of gun safety, or self-defense and hunting. In fact, I think it will probably have the opposite effect.”
“The fact that youngsters under the age requirement to purchase these publications are permitted to license a shotgun outlines the stupidity of this new rule,” Watson concluded.
“A parent has an obligation to educate their children about the use of firearms. As a mother and gun owner, I am offended that publications about self-defense, target shooting, or hunting are being treated as pornography,” added IAPCAR Co-Founder Julianne Versnel.
The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (http://iapcar.com/) is the only worldwide political action group focusing on the human right to keep and bear arms. Founded in 2010, IAPCAR has grown to 23 major gun-rights organizations and conducts campaigns designed to inform the public and promote the right of self-defense and gun-ownership.
Russia develops its own DARPA for advancing military hardware
Friday, October 12th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
by Bob Lesmeister
National Correspondent
In the old days, it might have meant a one-way trip to Siberia for a team of engineers. Luckily, there have been some positive changes in Russia since the Soviet Union government collapsed. For example, as reported by the Russian news agency Interfax, Prime Minister Dmitri Medvedev, while touring TsNIITochMash, was shown an upgraded Kalashnikov military rifle. He praised its comfortable butt stock but was not amused to find that this wonderful stock was marked “Made in Israel.”
He exclaimed, “We can make them too!” The Russian deputy prime minister overseeing the defense industry, Dmitriy Rogozin, assured him that yes they can.
“I should hope so,” grumbled Medvedev.
TsNIITochMash stands for the Central Research Institute for Precision Machine Building, a Russian industrial design bureau. TsNIITochMash is a major designer and producer of weapons for the Russian military and MVD Internal Troops. Medvedev warned that Russian arms manufacturers risk falling behind foreign competition for both military and commercial firearms and equipment. TsNIITochMash develops most cartridges, from small arms up to the 14.5 x 114 mm, a large anti-personnel/sniper round most recently integrated in Iran’s first homemade sniper rifle, the Shaher (See related TGM story.)
TsNIITochMash also develops small arms and simulators and individual field equipment for the Russian military and conducts R&D on control systems for precision-guided munitions and field artillery systems. It is also responsible for developing new materials as well.
It seems Medvedev’s major complaint is that Russian arms producers have been too inclined to rest on their laurels. “In our country, some of our well-known defense-industry enterprises, even those that have a good international reputation, sometimes reason that what we invented back in nineteen-God-knows-when is the best thing produced anywhere in the world. We cannot see anything else; we do not want to read anything else, so ours are the best arms in the world.”
Medvedev reasons that if the Russian engineers cannot invent anything new, then they will not be producing the best arms in the world. “So, one should encourage research,” he pleads. “It is a good thing that there are many doctors and candidates of science among the workforce. The main thing, however, is not even the number of people with degrees but new products.”
In order to fix the problem, Russia is developing a counterpart to America’s DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the agency tasked with the job of developing new materials and weapon systems. They say what goes around comes around and it couldn’t be truer in this case. Actually DARPA was established in 1958 to prevent technological surprises like the launch of Sputnik, which caught the US napping and allowed the Soviets to beat the US into space. Now, Russia is establishing its own DARPA in order to keep up with the US and other countries’ rapidly developing offense and defense systems.
In an interview on Sept. 26 with the Moscow Rossiyskaya Gazeta Online, Dmitriy Rogozin, deputy Russian Federation Government chairman and chairman of the Military-Industrial Commission, stated that Russia would have its own version of DARPA by the end of 2012. Declared Rogozin, “We have had and continue to have pilot projects in which we are not only at the level of, but also ahead of, all the rest.” He also laid a hint of things to come. “There are things to be proud of here also. It is commonly acknowledged that the air defenses of the Ground Troops are probably among (the) world’s best in terms of equipment and organization. The prototype of the fifth-generation fighter is being tested.”
According to Rogozin, Russian troops won’t be covering any new territory or leading expeditions. “What do the Americans do? They land Marines at the other end of the world not because they are big bullies and brawlers, not to accomplish some humanitarian objectives but always and only to secure their economic interests. We have no military-expedition plans in remote parts of the world. Russia is itself a whole world with a gifted, but not always harmonious and organized, people and vast reserves of land, forest, fresh water, and minerals. We have seas and oceans around us. This is all ours and we need to be able to defend it.”
Versatility could be for what the new Russian DARPA will strive. For example, according to Rogozin, the small arms producing plant Izhmash, where most of the Kalashnikov rifles are made, can also be used to produce aircraft carriers. “Few know that the possibility of manufacturing entirely different products, not assault rifles and machineguns at all, was embedded in the design and construction of this giant plant,” he revealed. “We will hardly be needing Maxim guns,” Rogozin told Rossiyskaya Gazeta Online. “We should not be reserving shops and locking them up but insuring that the lathes and transfer machinery operating on one or two shifts can, if necessary, operate without loss of quality on three shifts.”
Getting Russia’s DARPA program off the ground will cost about 20 trillion rubles ($641,419,000). “This money will pass through production and science, in any event: for the payment of research and experimental design and the purchase of the arms themselves,” said Rogozin.
While the US outsources jobs at an alarming rate and shrinks its military capabilities under President Obama, Russia’s Putin is transferring military technology to commercial technology, to boost defense spending and to create new high-skill jobs. According to Rogozin, this is Putin’s objective. The defense industry should be a catalyst for the country’s new industrialization.
If Russia’s DARPA program continues to strengthen while ours weakens, you can expect more Sputnik surprises in the future.
College Says No to Nintendo Guns (Canada)
Tuesday, October 9th, 2012Original Story Via: Forbes.com
A Canadian university has stopped a college game club from putting up posters that featured an image of a pistol. Except that the pistol in question wasn’t even real, but a Nintendo weapon from the 1980s.
A game club at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, decided to hold a “game-themed social event”, according to a local student newspaper. Naturally, because it was a gaming party, they drew up a poster with images of a Nintendo game controller and the Zapper, a gray-and-red electronic pistol that came with the 1985 Nintendo Entertainment System. But Saint Mary’s must have feared it was a call for armed insurrection; when the poster was submitted to the university for approval, the gamers were told to get rid of the gun, which they replaced with a graphic of a Nintendo Power Glove. Presumably because a toy pistol that pots virtual ducks sends a dangerous message, while punching out assorted 
lifeforms with a Power Glove does not.
I’m all for campus safety, including banning real firearms on campus. Even toy and replica weapons can be mistaken for real ones in some situations. But a crude drawing on a poster? Last week, a Maine political candidate was vilified by her opponents because she plays World of Warcraft. Now college game clubs can’t mention guns, because the mere sight of a video game weapon might induce crazoid gamers to disembowel their fellow students with plastic lightsabers. I’m sure the good citizens of Halifax will sleep better tonight, knowing that they’ve been saved from the Nintendo Apocalypse.
Philippines – PNP plans early for 2013 elections, focuses on gun control
Tuesday, October 9th, 2012Original Story Via: INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine National Police (PNP) has started planning and preparations to ensure a peaceful midterm elections in 2013, Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II said.
“The PNP has begun formal planning for peaceful elections,” Roxas told reporters in a press briefing Tuesday.
“There will be strategic moves by the PNP now while it is still early and there will be tactical moves closer to elections so that there will less chances of violence come election,” Roxas said.
Among the innovations that Roxas wants to implement will be the consolidation and sharing of information between the many police forces. “For example, we want to provide the list of all those who have gun licenses and permits to carry in certain areas so that police [authorities on all levels] can identify the groups who are carrying guns,” Roxas said.
This will better prepare the police, especially in election hotspots, he added.
Roxas also said that they will also be doing intelligence gathering work as well as training and resource deployment. He said some localities have requested for V-150 armored vehicles because of anticipated election-related violence in the area.
“We shall be able to secure and mobilize these resources so that as election draws closer our police will be ready to respond to any need,” he said.
When asked that there might be a new PNP chief come the poll season, Roxas said assured that Director General Nicanor Bartolome, the PNP Chief, will still be on top of the preparations and planning even if his term ends before the elections.
“The more important thing is the planning for the election, planning for eight months away has begun and it has been formalized,” Roxas said.
He said that all the data and intelligence operations will be “integrated and consolidated” so that the PNP “will be more effective in ensuring peaceful elections.”
“We will ensure consolidated and integrated efforts of all units, particularly the home support units. All the data from firearms and explosives bureaus, as well as investigative units, will be consolidated so that the men on the ground will have all the data and support they need,” Roxas said.
Gun clamp call after robberies – Bahrain
Monday, October 8th, 2012Calls for gun control are coming after a string of robberies in Bahrain.
Original Story Via: Gulf-Daily-News.com
Bahrain urgently needs to tighten its gun control laws following six armed robberies in just over five months, says a leading MP. An investigation should be launched to find out if the arms are being smuggled into the country or how weapons used by the security forces are getting into the hands of criminals, said Parliament Foreign Affairs Defence and National Security Committee chairwoman Sawsan Taqawi.
“There has been a surge in robberies this year, with robbers entering money exchange outlets with a gun and fleeing with thousands of dinars,” she told the GDN.
“No one is allowed to keep weapons and there are no shops selling them in Bahrain.
“Only people who are authorised to keep guns are Public Security forces or BDF officers.
“The question is, how are these robbers getting guns in Bahrain? Are they smuggling them? If so, from where?
“If it’s through the King Fahad Causeway or another country, what is the Interior Ministry doing about it?
“We need the ministry to answer these questions for us and we are going to highlight this issue in the upcoming parliament session.”
The Bahrain Bloc member also called for extra police patrols in trouble hotspots to try and prevent more robberies.
Her comments come as police yesterday continued to hunt for a masked man who held up a currency exchange shop at gunpoint in Maqaba.
He reportedly escaped with BD2,000 from the Bahrain Finance Company (BFC), off Budaiya Highway, at around 11.30am on Saturday.
A police forensic team was sent to the scene to check for fingerprints and CCTV footage.
The shop was temporarily closed, but had re opened yesterday.
BFC general manager Errol Fonseca said five staff members were inside the shop when the robbery took place.
“The man had a gun and he escaped with BD2,000,” Mr Fonseca said.
“One of the staff members called the head officer and we called police, who arrived with forensic team at the scene and launched an investigation.
“Although there was a robbery, we are open for business and our staff members are there to serve our customers.
“We are taking care of our staff members and have asked them to call us immediately if they sense any danger or notice any illegal activity in the branch.”
It is the second time the BFC has been targeted this year after two armed men fled with more than BD20,000 from its branch in Salmabad in May. Police arrived at the scene after the cashier pressed the alarm button, but the robbers had fled by then.
It happened just over a week after a masked gunman dressed in a thobe robbed a Travelex outlet in Riffa and escaped with around BD5,000, after threatening an Indian cashier at gunpoint.
The Money Exchange in East Eker was also robbed by gunmen who fled with BD9,000 in August. A masked gunman escaped with BD376 from the Zenj Exchange in Salmabad on September 25.
A masked man also held up a 24 Hours supermarket in West Riffa at gunpoint last Wednesday and escaped with an unknown amount.
Meanwhile, police are also investigating an armed robbery at the Najad Market in Hoora on Saturday.
Three Bahrainis reportedly threatened owner Balacheeri Mohammed Ali and worker Mohammed Yousif with a knife and escaped with a till containing BD150.
Forensic teams recovered the weapon from the scene.
Mr Ali told police the suspects, aged between 20 and 25, had visited the market three days before the robbery. aneeqa@gdn.com.bh
Costa Rica set to ban hunting, a first in the Americas
Thursday, October 4th, 2012Original Story Via: France24.com
AFP – Costa Rica is set to be the first country in the American continent to ban recreational hunting after the country’s legislature approved the popular measure by a wide margin.
The bill, which bans hunting for sport but still allows culling and subsistence hunting, was approved late Tuesday by a 41-5 vote. Congress will revisit the issue on Thursday, but the second round is seen as just a formality.
President Laura Chinchilla, who supports the measure, is expected to sign it into law in the next days.
The ban, which does not affect fishing for sport, does allow researchers to hunt for scientific purposes.
Hunters violating the ban would have to pay a fine of up to $3,000.
Costa Rica supports an enormous variety of fauna, and is one of the countries with the highest density of biodiversity in the world.
Wildlife in Costa Rica include jaguars, armadillos, deer, sloths and several species of monkeys, as well as a variety of birds, amphibians and reptiles.
Some two million people visit Costa Rica each year — a $2 billion business — and the country’s natural reserves and variety of species are a great attraction.
U.S. May Block Gun Sales to Citizens Living Abroad
Tuesday, October 2nd, 2012Original Article Via: Court House News
By BONNIE BARRON
WASHINGTON (CN) – The government can prohibit sales of guns for self-defense to American citizens residing outside its borders, a federal judge ruled.
U.S. citizen Stephen Dearth lives in Canada and was unable to buy firearms in the U.S. on two occasions. Federal Form 4473 requires purchasers of firearms to provide their state of residence, preventing Dearth from legally completing the document.
Dearth and the Second Amendment Foundation, a nonprofit committed to the right to bear arms, sued Attorney General Eric
Holder for declaratory and injunctive relief in March 2009.
The District of Columbia District Court dismissed the complaint for lack of standing. However, the D.C. Circuit Court reversed the dismissal and remanded Dearth’s claims in April 2011.
U.S. District Judge Robert Wilkins granted the government’s motion for summary judgment on Thursday.
Wilkins found that none of the six counts alleged by Dearth amounted to constitutional violations.
The judge stated that, “an initial point of contention is how to construe the challenged laws. Are they restrictions on possession, or are they longstanding conditions and qualifications on commercial sale?
“The court concludes they are the latter,” Wilkins wrote.
Much like the state laws that have prevented non-residents from buying firearms for more than 100 years, the federal restrictions have a similar intent, the judge found.
“The effect of the federal statute is to require a firearm purchaser to be a state resident so that he or she submits to the jurisdiction and authority of some state – any state – so that the firearms purchase can be regulated by state law,” Wilkins wrote. “Thus, the federal statutes serve a similar purpose as the longstanding state statutes governing the commercial sale of firearms.”
Dearth argued that his inability to buy a gun for self-defense while visiting his friends and relatives in the U.S. violated his Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
But Wilkins found that Dearth “…has the ability to bring his firearm from Canada with him when he visits the United States. Critically, Dearth concedes that ‘he would access [firearms] for lawful sporting purposes as well as for other purposes, including self-defense, while visiting the United States’…Thus, Dearth clearly has the ability to borrow or rent a firearm for lawful sporting purposes and then also use that firearm for self-defense. This would be a much different case if Dearth had none of those options.”
Dearth also failed to show that the gun restrictions infringe on the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment by requiring him to give up his ability to buy firearms if he chooses to travel internationally.
“As the government correctly points out, these provisions do not prevent Dearth from travelling internationally and, therefore, they do not implicate any Fifth Amendment liberty interest in international travel,” Wilkins wrote. “There is nothing to suggest that the challenged statutes present either a direct or coincidental restriction on a U.S. citizen’s ability to travel internationally.
The statutes merely require that Dearth establish residency in a state in order to purchase or acquire additional firearms for purposes other than sporting purposes. The statutes place no direct restriction on Dearth’s ability to travel within the United States or internationally.”
Wilkins found that the restrictions were rationally based. “The provisions serve the substantial government interests of protecting public safety, combating violent crime, and controlling the flow of firearms across state and international borders,” Wilkins stated.
The order concludes that the same rational basis holds true against Dearth’s Equal Protection claims.
UN launches first “standards” during August follow-up to ATT
Tuesday, September 25th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
by Joseph. P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
In late August, an umbrella organization of 23 separate United Nations (UN) agencies known as the Coordinating Action on Small Arms (CASA) adopted the first portion of International Small Arms Control Standards (ISACS). The ISACS text is made up of 33 separate modules, some 800 pages in total. So far, eight modules have been adopted as the result of a process begun in the spring.
An Experts Reference Group (ERG), which included a small number of professionals with firearms experience, including Richard Patterson, managing director of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute (SAAMI), provided constructive criticisms on the first draft text of these modules.
A second draft, however, revealed that numerous issues identified by the ERG had not been addressed; a fundamental violation of the legitimate standard-setting process.
In response, SAAMI prepared a detailed minority report that Patterson submitted to the ISACS project coordinator covering a range of these issues.
“Sadly, SAAMI is forced to conclude that ISACS has and will continue to fail in the creation of clear and effective guidance because of breaches in standards- setting protocols, and dogmatic adherence to unsubstantiated assumptions, agendas and biases,” Patterson said in a March statement before a UN committee working on the matter.
In another statement delivered at an Aug. 29 UN conference, Patterson described ISACS as “… nothing more than a platform for adoption and pseudo-legitimization of the ‘wish lists’ of special interest groups.” “Advocates of gun control make two fundamental assumptions: First, that more guns will equal more violence and, second, that more gun control will equal less violence. Both of these assumptions are confounded by history and by facts. They are simply not true.
Countries with high rates of gun ownership have low rates of violence and countries in which civilian ownership of guns is banned have high rates of violence. Ignoring these facts can cause harm by removing the means by which people protect themselves, their families and their communities—and thereby protect their rights to self-determination,” Patterson said.
Patterson was not the only one to speak against many of the protocols under consideration under the umbrella of the Programme of Action (PoA) launched in 2001. The Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), a binding agreement that included small arms and ammunition, was supposed to be adopted in July but failed when the United States, Russia, and several other countries did not agree to draft language. Rather than abandon the global gun control agenda, proponents of the ATT focused on moving forward incrementally under the PoA.
Others besides SAAMI speaking out at the UN in August against the planned implementation of global gun control under the PoA included representatives of the World Forum on the Future of the Shooting Sports (WSFA), Canada’s National Firearms Association (NFA), Second Amendment Foundation (SAF), and Defense Small Arms Advisory Council (DSAAC).
SAF’s Director of Operations Julianne Versnel, reminded the UN that “if women have the right to be protected against violence, then they have the right to protect themselves against violence.” Supporters of the global gun control agenda have been trying to play the “women’s rights” card, but Versnel’s remarks were unlike anything many delegates at the UN had ever heard before.
Noting that she had reviewed what had already been written and said about the violence against women as it relates to the Programme of Action, Versnel emphasized that, “I am struck by what is not said.” “If there is a basic sanctity of a woman’s person,” she observed, “if there is a right to not be a victim of sexual or personal violence, then that right involves the right to defend one’s self.” Versnel stressed that any new global gun control initiatives must “do nothing to disarm women who legitimately and rightfully want to defend themselves.” Perhaps Versnel’s warnings may open up a new and politically uncomfortable arena for the prohibitionists.
“The drive for human rights is a force throughout the world,” Versnel stated, “and especially here at the UN. A woman’s right to be free from violence is a fundamental human right. That fundamental right is to defend one’s self. The report of this conference should state that without reservation.” Canada’s NFA was the only Canadian pro-firearms group represented during the non-governmental organization presentations at the Second Review Conference of the PoA.
NFA President Sheldon Clare told TGM, “It was important for the NFA to be present at this conference for four main reasons. First, the PoA is alive and potentially dangerous—this was a well-attended conference and vigilance is critical. Second, it was necessary for us to make sure that there was no attempt to make this the Arms Trade Treaty consolation round, or in any way broaden the scope of the PoA. Third, we needed to make our concerns known about the aims of some to include firearms components and ammunition, and to make it clear that we are speaking out strongly in support of civilian rights of self-defense—the only Canadian organization to do so. The fourth reason we were there was to use our strong voice to support our friends.” According to Clare, “The government (Canada) seems to be headed in the right direction. I was pleased to hear the concise and clear presentation by Senior Policy Advisor Kim Joslin of the Canadian Delegation which was in strong support of firearms owners. In particular, Canada supported the US position which opposes including any aspect of components or ammunition being included in the PoA.”
UN’s “Outcome document” for the Programme of Action to Prevent Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects
Friday, September 21st, 2012Document can be seen at: UN’s “Outcome document” for the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects
Original Document Via: United Nations Review Conference 2012 Programme of Action on small arms and light weapons
Ottawa will appeal Quebec gun registry ruling
Tuesday, September 18th, 2012Original Story Via: CBC News
The federal government plans to appeal a Quebec court ruling blocking it from destroying Quebec’s portion of gun registry records and ordering that the data be given to the province.
Minister of State Maxime Bernier told the House of Commons Monday the government will appeal the Quebec Superior Court decision.
On Sept. 10, Superior Court Judge Marc-Andre Blanchard voided two sections of the Conservative government’s legislation to scrap the long-gun registry.
Blanchard ordered the federal government to give all records on Quebec-owned rifles and shotguns in the registry to the provincial government within 30 days.
The Conservatives have been adamant about scrapping the long-gun registry and destroying the existing data.
“The will of Parliament and Canadians has been clear,” said Public Security Minister Vic Toews Monday, in a prepared statement. “We do not want any form of a wasteful and ineffective long-gun registry.
“The NDP has consistently said that if given the chance they would try and use this data to target law-abiding hunters, farmers and sport shooters in the regions of Quebec. Our Conservative government will always stand up for the rights of law-abiding gun owners.”
The federal government has said in the past that any province that wants its own registry is welcome to start from scratch.
Sportlich-Praktischer Schützen Club Holding IAPCAR Charity Shoot Competition! Trophy and Cash Prizes! Saturday 13, October 2012
Friday, September 14th, 2012Courtesy of Sportlich-Praktischer Schützen Club (SPSC)
To read original charity shoot invitation from SPSC please click here!
Location: Innviertler Schützenhof, Miinsteuer 8, 4980 Antiesenhofen (Schießstätte IHS – Innviertler Hofschützen)
Organizer: SPSC – Sporty and Practical Shooting Club
Date: Saturday 13, October 2012
Time: From 13:00 to 17:00 (close)
Entry fee: 20 – Eur. including state fee. The Excess of revenues competition our expenses we will give to IAPCAR – International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights http://iapcar.org/!
Weapons: Require approval from including automatic rifles Caliber .223 Rem up (eg Steyr AUG-Z, Oberland Arms Austria OA-15 / OA-10 Austria, Austria SG 550, HK SL-6)
Sights: Each optical sights or magnification allowed; also open sights!
Program: 100m sitting launched; SPSC pistol target, 5 shots for Sample – then 2x 10 shot score (maximum 220 points, timeout 5 minutes); trophy and cash prizes!
Important: Prior notification by e-mail are welcome! Weapons and Ammunition from the shooter bring your own! No lasers!
For more information please contact:
SPSC – Sportlich-Praktischer Schützen Club
ZVR# 039439401
Tel.: +43 660 733 5990
United Nations Launches First Small Arms Control “Standards”
Wednesday, September 12th, 2012Original Story Via: TheDailyCaller
NEWTOWN, Conn. — In late August, an umbrella organization of 23 separate U.N. agencies known as the Coordinating Action on Small Arms (CASA) adopted the first portion of International Small Arms Control Standards (ISACS). The ISACS text is made up of 33 separate modules, some 800 pages in total. So far, eight modules have been adopted as the result of a process begun in the spring.
An Experts Reference Group (ERG), which included a small number of professionals with firearms experience, including Richard Patterson, managing director of the Sporting Arms and Ammunition Manufacturers Institute (SAAMI), provided constructive criticisms on the first draft text of these modules. A second draft, however, revealed that numerous issues identified by the ERG had not been addressed, a fundamental violation of the legitimate standard-setting process.
In response, SAAMI prepared a detailed minority report that Patterson submitted to the ISACS project coordinator covering a range of these issues.
“Sadly, SAAMI is forced to conclude that ISACS has and will continue to fail in the creation of clear and effective guidance because of breaches in standards-setting protocols, and dogmatic adherence to unsubstantiated assumptions, agendas and biases,” Patterson said in a March statement before a U.N. committee working on the matter.
In another statement delivered at an Aug. 29 U.N. conference at the U.N., Patterson described ISACS as “. . . nothing more than a platform for adoption and pseudo-legitimization of the ‘wish lists’ of special interest groups.”
“Advocates of gun control make two fundamental assumptions: First, that more guns will equal more violence and, second, that more gun control will equal less violence. Both of these assumptions are confounded by history and by facts. They are simply not true. Countries with high rates of gun ownership have low rates of violence and countries in which civilian ownership of guns is banned have high rates of violence. Ignoring these facts can cause harm by removing the means by which people protect themselves, their families and their communities — and thereby protect their rights to self-determination.”
About SAAMI
Founded in 1926 at the request of the U.S. Federal Government, SAAMI is an association of the nation’s leading manufacturers of sporting firearms, ammunition and components. It publishes voluntary industry standards, coordinates technical data and promotes safe and responsible firearm use. It handles both domestic and international technical and regulatory issues that affect safety and reliability of firearms, ammunition and components. For more information, visit www.saami.org.
IAPCAR’s Phil Watson featured as leadership graduate of the week
Wednesday, September 12th, 2012Original Story Via: LeadershipInstitute.org
Phil Watson of IAPCAR was featured this week as the Leadership Institute’s Graduate of the Week.
Click here to read the article directly from Leadership Institute’s website.
Article text below
Protecting and Defending: Second Amendment Liberty
These famous words in the Bill of Rights have stirred countless emotion and action for centuries: “A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.”
The right to keep and bear arms is what Leadership Institute graduate Phil Watson has devoted his time and talent toward preserving.
“You are born sovereign with rights given by God, not government. The right of self-defense is one of those rights,” Phil told the Leadership Institute. “Gun rights groups are here to protect your human and civil rights. The police can’t be everywhere at once and are technically not even bound by law to protect you, so you have to take your Second Amendment rights seriously.”
Phil is the Second Amendment Foundation’s (SAF) director of special projects, where he researches Second Amendment court litigation and news surrounding gun issues on a national and international scale.
“Keeping track of the dozens of current Second Amendment lawsuits and opposing the UN Arms Trade Treaty takes up a lot of my time,” Phil said. “Our network of member groups now extends to 23 groups in 15 different countries. Communicating with your base and your members in a timely manner is very important. I also assist in writing and editing various Second Amendment publications.”
Additionally, he’s executive director at the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arm Rights.
“The numbers don’t lie: gun-free zones suffer from high crime rates and only create more victims,” Phil said. “People who have a problem with self-defense usually have a problem with other freedoms and rights as well, which are historically why tyrannical governments like to disarm their people. We are here to stick up for your rights and speak out against those that would force others to be helpless.”
However, Phil hasn’t always been involved in public policy. It’s been a career in the making.
Phil was raised in a “minimum-wage-working world,” where he delivered newspapers to neighbors to earn an extra dime. He also remembers doing yard work and washing dishes at a local restaurant to collect some additional money.
“After I graduated high school, I entered the military and waited awhile to start college,” Phil said. “History, economics, and politics became my favorite subjects after trying most other classes. Later, I had the pleasure of graduating from the University of Washington with a B.A. in Political Economy.”
With a degree in hand, he met some political activists who were regular patrons at the large neighborhood convenience store where he worked.
After several long talks, one of the individuals invited him to work on his campaign.
“It sounded interesting, so I decided to give it a shot. Several people highly recommended the Leadership Institute, so I took the Campaign Management School and was off and running,” Phil shared.
In April 2010, Phil came to LI’s headquarters in Arlington, Virginia to attend the week-long Campaign Management School.
Shortly after, he was asked to be the deputy campaign manager for the 2010 WA-6 congressional race. The opponent was a 17-term incumbent, Rep. Norm Dicks, and while Phil’s candidate didn’t win, Phil valued the experience he gained.
After the election, Phil fought against Proposition 1 – a local sales tax increase. “We won with some creative campaigning and tactics I picked up from LI’s Campaign Management School,” Phil said. “We were outgunned on money by 95 percent, but ended up winning. We defeated the sales tax increase.”
After the campaign, Phil came to the Leadership Institute in the spring of 2011 to intern in the Grassroots department. He’s taken 16 LI trainings from Public Speaking, Campaign Management, New Media, High-Dollar Fundraising, Television Techniques, Youth Leadership, and Conservative Career workshops and schools.
“LI is a political boot camp in many ways,” Phil shared. “I jumped in the political world and was serious about learning how to be effective as an activist. The Leadership Institute taught me how to be effective within a political organization and I still talk with a lot of the people I met there. LI is a great place to learn and connect with other people on the same path.”
After LI’s internship, Phil received a press internship in the office of Congresswoman Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, vice chair of the House Republican Conference and highest ranking Republican woman in Congress.
Next, he trekked across America back to his home state of Washington to influence public policy and protect the right to keep and bear arms.
Read Phil’s interview with the Russian Legal Information Agency here.
His employer—the Second Amendment Foundation—has their 2012 Gun Rights Policy Conference in Orlando, Florida in a few weeks. To learn more, go here.
“LI trainings helped give me a good foundation for the journey ahead,” Phil said.
You too can build a good foundation for your public policy career. Register for one of LI’s upcoming trainings here.
Please welcome Phil Watson as LI’s Graduate of the Week.
Farm tenant arrested after burglars shot, was ‘plagued by break-ins’ (UK)
Thursday, September 6th, 2012Original Story Via: The Telegraph
By Nick Britten
A farm tenant and his wife who were arrested after two suspected burglars were shot at their isolated home had been the victims of a number of robberies.
The man is believed to have grabbed a legally owned gun after they were disturbed by the break-in early yesterday.
He is understood to have fired at the intruders who then fled the isolated house at Melton Mowbray, Leics, before calling the police.
Minutes later, an ambulance was called to treat a man with gunshot injuries nearby. It is understood that call was made by one of the suspected burglars.
The arrested man’s mother said: “This is not the first time they have been broken into.
“They have been robbed three or four times. One of them was quite nasty.
Related Articles
- Farm worker arrested after ‘burglars’ shot 02 Sep 2012
- Man and children found dead in flats 02 Sep 2012
“They have not been injured but property has been stolen.”
Local farmers said the area has been increasingly targeted by car thieves.
One said: “We had three Land Rovers stolen. We had fitted one with a tracker and it was recovered in Birmingham.”
A second man was later treated for gunshot injuries after arriving at Leicester Royal Infirmary, 10 miles from the scene of the shooting. Neither of the men is said to be seriously injured.
Yesterday the businessman and his wife were arrested on suspicion of causing grievous bodily harm. Four men, understood to be the suspected burglars, were also arrested.
The case will reignite the debate over a householder’s right to defend his property, which began in the late 1990s after the farmer Tony Martin shot two burglars at his remote Norfolk home. In 1999, Martin fired at Brendan Fearon, 29, and Fred Barras, 16, after they broke into the house in Emneth Hungate.
Three shots were fired, Barras was hit in the back and despite escaping through a window died moments later. Martin was convicted of murder and jailed for life, which was reduced on appeal to manslaughter and five years’ jail.
In 2009, the millionaire businessman Munir Hussain fought back with a metal pole and a cricket bat against a knife-wielding burglar who tied up his family at their home in Buckinghamshire. Hussain was jailed for two and a half years, despite his attacker being spared prison.
Appeal judges reduced the sentence to a year’s jail, suspended.
The case prompted David Cameron to announce that home owners and shopkeepers would have the right to protect themselves against burglars and robbers.
Last year, Peter Flanagan, 59, who fatally stabbed a burglar armed with a machete at his home in Salford, Great Manchester, escaped prosecution after the Crown Prosecution Service ruled that he was acting in self defence.
Yesterday the Melton Mowbray cottage was sealed off by police. Welby Grange Farm is owned by John Hobill, 84, and his wife Evelyn, 76, and is the registered address for JT and RT Hobill, which lists itself as a farming business.
A woman who answered the phone said they were “not allowed” to talk about the incident. She said the cottage was privately rented and the incident was nothing to do with the family that owned the farm. She said the person living there was not a farmer.
A Leicestershire Police spokesman said: “A 35-year-old man and a 43-year-old woman were arrested in Melton on suspicion of GBH and four men, aged 27, 23, 31 and 33, were arrested at Leicester Royal Infirmary on suspicion of aggravated burglary.” All remain in custody.
Continuous drip-drip of distorted gun-related news reporting
Thursday, September 6th, 2012Derek Bernard
6th September 2012
During the afternoon of Wednesday, 5th September, a British family were attacked in their car while on holiday in France, near Chevaline. The 3 adults were shot to death, together with a cyclist, while 2 little girls in the car survived the attack.
Many of the news reports attempt to link the event to the strictness, or lack of it, of gun control in France.
For instance, Henry Samuel, Daily Telegraph, 5th September 2012, included the following:
“France has one of the highest levels of civilian gun ownership in Europe, with far more relaxed gun laws than the UK.
Handguns, semi-automatic weapons and pump-action shotguns are legal if held by active gun club members who must have a licence for them and undergo a medical check.”
As with virtually everything uttered by governments, police and the media on the subject of gun control, gun ownership and criminal violence, the purported linkage has no connection to reality. But this constant, almost subliminal, flow of distortion maintains and strengthens the fearful fantasy that guns, in and of themselves, are dangerous, nasty things that will turn ordinary, non-violent people into criminals and ordinary criminals into murderers.
This fantasy is what drives the European love of complex, expensive, slow and inconvenient gun control procedures, such as gun registration.
In 2007 the Harvard Journal on Law & Public Policy published an article by 2 of the world’s leading researchers, Professor Gary Mauser and lawyer Don Kates. It contained this interesting paragraph:
“One statistic stands out: There are 9 European nations which have less than 5,000 guns per 100,000 population and 7 that have more than 15,000 guns. The average murder rate of the 9 low-gun ownership nations is 3 times higher than the murder rate of the 7 high gun ownership nations. That is apparently because nations w/ high murder rates adopt stringent gun laws, but these don’t work, so high murder rates come to coincide w/ low gun ownership.”
I don’t expect it to be published, but I have sent the following letter to the Editor of the Daily Telegraph:
Dear Sir,
It was very disappointing to read your correspondent, Henry Samuel (5th/6th September), attempting to link the laxity or otherwise of French gun control laws with the murder of a family of British tourists.
French gun laws are not “relaxed”. Like the UK’s they are complex, expensive and highly anti-social in their effects. In addition to their negative effects on sport, pest control, hunting, manufacture and distribution, as well as police efficiency, they, just as in the UK, disarm honest victims.
Does Mr Samuel think that these killers, who clearly wanted to kill every witness to whatever they were up to, went to the “relaxed” French police and asked if they could have a gun or two as they had some murders to commit?
Yours faithfully,
Derek Bernard
Jersey
Gun owners shuffle weapons to confuse registry (Canada)
Friday, August 31st, 2012Original Story Via: WellandTribune.ca
By Kris Sims
BRIDGEWATER, N.S. – Thousands of gun owners are swapping their shotguns and rifles with friends and neighbours in an effort to obliterate the defunct federal long-gun registry.
“More than two million law abiding Canadians are sick of being portrayed as criminals so we are calling on them to swap their guns so we can make the old data totally useless,” said Tony Bernardo, spokesman with the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
“More than 2,000 guns were shuffled on Thursday.”
Firearms ownership advocates worry that because the Quebec has filed an injunction to save the data in the long-gun registry so it can set up its own, that it will one day come back from the dead and be used to track long-gun owners across Canada once again.
A women’s shelter in Toronto is also in court trying to keep the data.
Dubbed “The Great Canadian Gun Registry Shuffle,” owners are trading and selling firearms without using the old registry numbers, making the old data inaccurate.
“We are taking the new law all the way, doing what the House of Commons said we could because these left-wing groups seem to want to put up blocks to what the government decided,” Bernardo said.
Introduced by the federal Liberal government in 1995, the long-gun registry was a database used to track owners of rifles and shotguns in Canada.
It ran over budget and was largely loathed in rural and Western Canada, with many farmers and hunters feeling targeted by police and politicians.
The Reform Party, the Canadian Alliance and eventually the Conservative Party all promised to scrap the registry. After winning a majority, the Tories passed a law this past spring to officially stop the registry and ordered the data destroyed.
Many groups wanted to keep the registry, saying that it assisted police in finding guns and reduced violence against women.
Quebec has gone to court asking to keep the data for their own purposes and has stalled the destruction of all files.
kris.sims@sunmedia.ca
Twitter: @kris_sims
Canada’s NFA to UN: ‘Self-defense is a natural right’
Thursday, August 30th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
Canada’s National Firearms Association was the only Canadian pro-firearms group represented during the non-governmental organization presentations at the Second Review Conference of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons. (PoA)
According to NFA President Sheldon Clare, “It was important for the NFA to be present at this conference for four main reasons. First, the PoA is alive and potentially dangerous – this was a well-attended conference and vigilance is critical. Second, it was necessary for us to make sure that there was no attempt to make this the Arms Trade Treaty consolation round, or in any way broaden the scope of the PoA. Third, we needed to make our concerns known about the aims of some to include firearms components and ammunition, and to make it clear that we are speaking out strongly in support of civilian rights of self-defense – the only Canadian organization to do so. The fourth reason we were there was to use our strong voice to support our friends.”
According to Clare, “The government seems to be headed in the right direction. I was pleased to hear the concise and clear presentation by Senior Policy Advisor Kim Joslin of the Canadian Delegation which was in strong support of firearms owners. In particular, Canada supported the US position which opposes including any aspect of components or ammunition being included in the PoA. Government representatives Habib Massoud and Steve Torino will be attending the second week of the conference. It was clear to me in listening to the speeches from delegates that it will be difficult to achieve consensus on several aspects of the PoA‘s implementation plan in the two weeks allotted”.
The NFA and other World Forum (WFSA) members, presented to the UN Conference during the NGO session on Wednesday, August 29 and the text of the speech given by NFA President Sheldon Clare is reproduced below:
STATEMENT TO UNITED NATIONS ON PROGRAMME OF ACTION ON SMALL ARMSS and LIGHT WEAPONS
Madame President, I am Sheldon Clare, President of Canada’s National Firearms Association.
The NFA is Canada’s largest advocacy organization representing the rights of Canadian firearms owners. Our members are concerned that UN attempts to regulate small arms and light weapons are misdirected and will have an unjustifiably harmful effect upon the ability of free people to have access to firearms and ammunition for perfectly legitimate purposes. The NFA rejects as false that civilian access to small arms is the problem.
Canada’s National Firearms Association (NFA) recommends that controls on small arms and light weapons be limited solely to major crew-served weapon systems possessed or sold by nation states – not individually operated firearms owned or desired to be owned by civilians, also called non-state actors. The rights and property of Canadians, and our firearms businesses engaged in the lawful trade in firearms and ammunition, including surplus firearms and ammunition, must not be subject to UN edict or control. Quite simply, firearms ownership and use are matters of national sovereignty, civil freedoms, property rights, and are related to national culture. Also, control of ammunition, including marking beyond caliber, date, and manufacturer would be excessive; it is unreasonable, unnecessary, and fiscally impossible to uniquely mark ammunition.
Small arms in civilian hands allow people to defend themselves from aggression. Self-defense is a natural right of all individuals. This is especially important in the event of unrest and disorder, or in case of state-mandated crimes against humanity. Civilian ownership of arms is an important factor in preventing and limiting the effect of government-encouraged murders such as what occurred in Srebrenica and Rwanda. Disarmed in Srebrenica by UN peacekeepers and in Rwanda by their own government, these people were helpless in the face of organized aggression, especially when in both cases the UN was powerless to provide protection. While governments need to act against terrorism, disarming civilians violates fundamental democratic principles. Perhaps Governments should deal with unrest by addressing the economic situations, political differences, and human rights issues that contribute to people agitating for change rather than engaging in one size fits all solutions affecting the rights of free people to own and use firearms.
Thank you for your consideration Madame President.”
Clare concluded: “Other matters to be watchful of are the UN International Small Arms Control Standards, (see http://www.smallarmsstandards.org/isacs/) and what happens with the Arms Trade Treaty talks (ATT) which broke up without consensus in July. There will need to be a vote at the General Assembly if it is to come back next year, which may not be possible due to the UN’s two year budgetary cycle. Simply put, there may not be much support to reopen the ATT so soon in the face of no consensus. Nonetheless, strange things happen at the UN and the NFA has been present to protect the civil and property rights of Canadian Firearms Owners.”
UN hits and misses between the illegal arms trade and the right to bear arms
Thursday, August 30th, 2012Original Story Via: Russian Legal Information Agency
MOSCOW, August 30 – RAPSI, Ingrid Burke. The United Nations is currently hosting its second conference in as many months aimed at regulating illicit arms trafficking. July’s conference strived, albeit unsuccessfully, to reach consensus on a binding international treaty that would regulate the global arms trade as a whole. The conference currently underway aims only to review the progress made by UN member nations individually and the international community as a whole in terms of the implementation of an action plan adopted by consensus in 2001 in order to combat the illegal trade of small arms and light weapons.
Both conferences centered on documents- the first a working document that never earned its wings and the second a binding agreement. Both documents are rooted in concern over the illicit arms trade, but one reached consensus and has entered into force on national, regional, and global levels, and one provoked a heated public controversy that endured beyond the deadline for approval by consensus.
To get into the spirit of things, RAPSI has decided to compare and contrast the documents underlying and the controversies surrounding the two initiatives in an effort to better understand what caused the former to sink and the latter to swim.
The UN Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty
Between 2-27 July, representatives of all 193 member nations gathered at the UN headquarters in New York with the common goal of establishing: “a robust and legally binding arms trade treaty that will have a real impact on the lives of those millions of people suffering from the consequences of armed conflict, repression and armed violence,” in the words of UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon. Negotiations deteriorated in the last few days of the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) conference as competing national interests gave way to stubborn resistance.
A draft of the treaty released shortly before the conference deadline was harshly criticized both by right-to-bear-arms activists and by their human rights/disarmament counterparts. The former took issue with what they perceived to be an overly broad range of arms and activities sought to be regulated. The latter took issue with what they perceived to be an insufficiently comprehensive document that left numerous gaping loopholes.
The document included among the list of arms sought to be regulated: battle tanks, armored combat vehicles, large-caliber artillery systems, combat aircraft, attack helicopters, warships, missiles and missile launchers, and small arms and light weapons. This range of weapons has received criticism from both sides of the advocacy spectrum, for being both too broadly and too narrowly tailored.
The inclusion of small arms and light weapons came under fire by advocacy groups that support the right to bear arms. Speaking to this point, International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) Executive Director Philip Watson explained to RAPSI during the conference, “We are appalled they deemed it appropriate to place civilian firearms used for self-defense in a treaty with tanks, bombs, and attack helicopters. It is dangerous to include civilian self-defense weapons in such an international treaty that could curtail legitimate use or trade of small civilian weapons. Personal security and the defense of one’s home and family are values shared across international borders, regardless of an individual’s background or nationality.”
The opposite side of the spectrum was comprised of disarmament and human rights advocacy groups who argued that the list of arms and activities covered was too narrow. Toward this end, Amnesty International [AI] noted in a press release toward the end of the conference that, “Major loopholes in the draft text include ammunition not being subject to tight decision-making controls, an array of weapons, munitions and related equipment not being covered, as well as the treaty only applying to the international trade of conventional arms instead of all international transfers including gifts and aid.”
A similarly concerned Oxfam released a statement by head of its arms control unit Anna Macdonald around the same time urging that “[t]here are more holes in this draft treaty than in a leaky bucket and these must be urgently closed if we are going to stop weapons from flowing into the world`s worst conflict zones.”
As it became clear toward the end of the conference that hope was lost, some viewed the stalemate as the fault of the US. In a widely publicized move, 51 US senators pledged to vote against ratification of the treaty if it failed to protect the constitutional right of US citizens to bear arms. As US ratification of an international treaty requires the approval of two-thirds of the senate, these numbers were sufficient to ensure against US ratification of the bill.
The pledge came in the form of a letter addressed to the Obama administration. A press release issued shortly thereafter by Republican Senator Thad Cochran of Mississippi quoted a portion of the letter that urged the Obama administration to break the conference’s required consensus if doing so was necessary to protect the right of US citizens to bear arms. The relevant passage stated: “As the treaty process continues, we strongly encourage your administration not only to uphold our country’s constitutional protections of civilian firearms ownership, but to ensure – if necessary, by breaking consensus at the July conference – that the treaty will explicitly recognize the legitimacy of lawful activities associated with firearms, including but not limited to the right of self-defense. As members of the United States Senate, we will oppose the ratification of any Arms Trade Treaty that falls short of this standard.”
Later that day, the US State Department (USDOS) issued a statement acknowledging both the failure of the conference to produce tangible results and the refusal of the US to move to accept the treaty in its ultimate form. USDOS spokesperson Victoria Nuland stated, “we do not support a vote in the UNGA on the current text. The illicit trafficking of conventional arms is an important national security concern for the United States. While we sought to conclude this month’s negotiations with a Treaty, more time is a reasonable request for such a complex and critical issue. The current text reflects considerable positive progress, but it needs further review and refinement.”
Some US-based right-to-bear-arms advocacy groups attributed the stalemate to their own grassroots efforts. The most well-known such group, the National Rifle Association (NRA) took personal credit for the failure of the conference to produce results, stating on its website Friday: “The Conference on the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty has broken down and will not report a draft treaty to the member nations… This is a big victory for American gun owners, and the NRA is being widely credited for killing the [conference.]”
The conference’s launch was drenched with optimism. Prior to the start of negotiations, many lauded the potential of the conference to make the world a safer place through the regulation of the international arms trade. Ban expressed optimism in the face of the daunting task that lay ahead, noting, “It is ambitious, but I believe it is achievable.” During his opening statement, Ban urged the necessity of the conference’s success: “Every day, we at the United Nations see the human toll of an absence of regulations or lax controls on the arms trade. We see it in the suffering of civilian populations trapped by armed conflict or pervasive crime. We see it in the killing and wounding of civilians — including children, the most vulnerable of all. We see it in the massive displacement of people within and across borders. We see it through grave violations of international humanitarian law and human rights law.”
As negotiations fizzled, he lamented, “The Conference’s inability to conclude its work on this much-awaited ATT, despite years of effort of Member States and civil society from many countries, is a setback.”
The Second UN Conference to Review Progress Made in the Implementation of the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects
The conference currently underway has been scheduled to run from 27 August to 7 September. A list of member nations in attendance has not yet been released, but a UN official speaking to RAPSI Thursday confirmed that at least 75-80% of UN states are represented.
The document at issue is the politically binding “Programme of action to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects,” (POA) which was adopted by consensus in 2001.
From the start, the UN has made clear its intention to refrain during the course of the conference from restricting firearm ownership rights. A UN press statement explained, “The Review Conference only reviews progress made in the implementation of the Programme of Action which was adopted in 2001 to combat the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons… It is not about banning firearms or any other type of small arms or prohibiting people from owning legal weapons.”
The release emphasized the conference’s disinterest in imposing lofty regulations, stating: “Each sovereign State determines its own laws and regulations for the manufacture, sale and possession of firearms by its citizens. The United Nations has no jurisdiction over such matters.”
After denying rumors that the conference would essentially serve as a component part of a broader UN conspiracy—in connection with the Arms Trade Treaty—to prohibit civilian gun ownership, the release reiterated the recent failure of the ATT to come into existence: “The Arms Trade Treaty does not yet exist. It was discussed throughout July 2012 and focused on setting common standards for how States could regulate the international trade of all types of conventional arms. No consensus was achieved on a draft Treaty text. “
This conspiracy theory denial points to a critical difference between the conferences and the documents at their core. The ATT sought to regulate the international trade of all types of conventional arms. The POA sought to eliminate the illicit trade of small arms. The goals of the former were extraordinarily lofty; those of the latter, quite narrow.
The POA was born the successful outcome of a conference similar to that which failed to produce the ATT. UN members came together with the goal of combatting, preventing, and eradicating the small arms trade in July 2001, and reached a consensus on how to do so: by targeted, limited means.
Regardless of where one stands on the right to bear arms, it is worth noting the different reactions elicited from the two texts with similar goals but diametrically opposed scopes.
It should be noted that the POA has been criticized by its own implementation support system for lacking key mechanisms to ensure its implementation. It is possible that the inclusion of such mechanisms would have created obstacles to its approval similar to those faced by the ATT.
SAF/IAPCAR DEFEND WOMAN’S RIGHT OF SELF-DEFENSE AT UNITED NATIONS
Wednesday, August 29th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
The Second Amendment Foundation today reminded the United Nations that “if women have the right to be protected against violence, then they have the right to protect themselves against violence.”
So spoke SAF’s Director of Operations Julianne Versnel, whose remarks to the U.N. Programme of Action conference were unlike anything many delegates had ever heard before.
The conference is seen as the first step toward rekindling discussions about an on-going process to continue development of a small arms and light weapons treaty, which earlier this summer collapsed when several nations opposed it.
Noting that she had reviewed what has already been written and said about the violence against women as it relates to the Programme of Action, Versnel emphasized that, “I am struck by what is not said.”
“If there is a basic sanctity of a woman’s person,” she observed, “if there is a right to not be a victim of sexual or personal violence, then that right involves the right to defend one’s self.”
Alan Gottlieb, Laura McDonald, Otis McDonald and Julianne Versnel at the 2011 Gun Rights Policy Conference in Chicago, Illinois.
Versnel stressed that any new global gun control initiatives must “do nothing to disarm women who legitimately and rightfully want to defend themselves.”
While international gun prohibitionists have been pushing a civilian disarmament agenda, Versnel’s warnings may open up a new and politically uncomfortable arena. It is impossible to dismiss female victims of violence as “male American gun nuts.”
“The drive for human rights is a force throughout the world,” Versnel stated, “and especially here at the U.N. A woman’s right to be free from violence is a fundamental human right. That fundamental right is to defend one’s self. The report of this conference should state that without reservation.”
REVCON 2012 – Prelude To A New Arms Trade Treaty
Monday, August 27th, 2012Original Story Via: Ammoland
With the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) currently on the back burner, in just a few days, weapon-prohibitionists will be holding another firearms conference in New York City: the Review Conference 2012 (RevCon 2012).
RevCon 2012 re-visits the UN’s Programme of Action (PoA) to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, adopted in 2001.
While the PoA enumerates many lofty-sounding objectives, to those unfamiliar with the UN’s agenda, to date, with regard to civilian firearm ownership, this might sound like a template for the elimination of human rights abuses. But armed with knowledge of the UN’s past efforts to achieve civilian disarmament, and reading all the provisions contained in the Programme, it is difficult to come away with any impression other than the PoA was really nothing short of a template to accomplish that.
But if the PoA’s proponents said what they really wanted –just like the rest of the weapon-prohibitionists– they likely wouldn’t have gotten to the stage we’re at now: the implementation of a global, legally -binding Arms Trade Treaty!
So they camouflaged their real goals a decade ago, and used the PoA as a guideline.
The goal of this Second Review Conference “[W]ill offer the opportunity to review the progress made in the implementation of the PoA, including the separately agreed International Tracing Instrument (ITI) (2005).” And the goal of the ITI is the “Undertaking [of] effective measures in marking, record-keeping and tracing [which] is vital for curbing the illicit trade and combating the diversion of small arms to unintended users. Although many weapons are marked when produced and some when imported, international cooperation in marking and tracing of small arms is in its infancy.”
RevCon 2012 will take place at the UN from August 27 to September 7, 2012, and one can find its agenda described at the Reaching Critical Will (RCW) website. RCW describes itself as “a project of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF)…. to protest the killing and destruction of the war then raging in Europe. WILPF created Reaching Critical Will in 1999 in order to promote and facilitate engagement of non-governmental actors in UN processes related to disarmament.”
Unlike the Arms Trade Treaty, which will encompass 8 classes of weapons, the PoA is specifically limited to Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW). Just as ATT proponents insist that the ATT was not intended to eliminate civilian weapons, PoA proponents (many of whom are members of the same anti-gun groups) also insist that the PoA is not about the elimination of the private ownership of firearms.
And this is how they laid the trap. Since governments control the definition of what is “lawful,” when the time is ripe, governments can re-define lawful civilian firearm ownership and possession right out of existence.
The weapon-prohibitionists maintain that “Most illicit small arms and light weapons begin as legally manufactured or imported weapons that are subsequently diverted to the illicit realm.” They have no qualms about allowing government to retain strong control over privately-owned weapons. They appear to believe, with utmost confidence, that through their elaborate tracing and tracking schemes, they can locate the points where weapons are diverted into the illicit arms trade, thereby halting further illegal transfers, and punishing violators, as well.
But what their schemes will actually accomplish is decrease licit transfers of arms to civilians, who will then increasingly turn to the black market to obtain what government denies them.
Sadly, many Americans already accept the fact that our government controls just who is allowed to own which weapons, and under what circumstances those weapons can be owned and used. Although not stated outright, it seems apparent to us that PoA restrictions are intended only to reduce the lists –of permissible weapons, of those who can own them, and of how those weapons can be used.
And these lists are rapidly shrinking, day by day.
In a 2001 paper sponsored by Small Arms Survey, “Removing Small Arms From Society,” Sami Faltas, Glenn McDonald & Camilla Waszink confirm the PoA’s goal.
The authors state: “Finally, using a mix of incentives and sanctions and working together with business and civil society, governments must recover stocks of firearms held by the population and dispose of them definitively, preferably through destruction.”
The weapon-prohibitionists have been busy preparing a set of international standards, the International Small Arms Control Standard (ISACS), an early draft of which is currently online. Its update, which has been kept under wraps, is not easily accessible to the public (log-in credentials are required for viewing the document). The update is scheduled to be launched to the public on Wednesday, August 29, 2012.
It is often stated that “actions speak louder than words,” and the weapon-prohibitionists never come up short in this regard. We can best understand the RevCon 2012 advocates’ camouflaged designs to disarm civilians by watching their actions. Although they claim that their intent is to reduce violence and to reduce human rights violations, their acts indicate otherwise.
When voluntary civilian disarmament fails, as it has in the past, forceful disarmament will follow. The weapon-prohibitionists apparently know this, but they don’t seem to care. In an article entitled “Lessons From the Frontiers: Civilian Disarmament in Kenya and Uganda,” the authors discuss attempted civilian disarmament. And, they acknowledge, “In some cases the use of force was clearly excessive, with grave human rights violations occurring.”
The human rights violations referred to included rape, torture, and murder.
If those who condemn the use of such inhumane methods are willing to see them used to achieve their goal of disarmament at any cost, including the loss of innocent life, we should never believe that their goal is benign. Nor should we ever accept their pretense of innocence. We must always seek the hidden lie, for it is there just waiting to be found.
With the knowledge that total civilian disarmament–and government monopoly of force–is the ultimate goal, it is imperative that we watch RevCon 2012 with extreme scrutiny and skepticism.
About the authors:
Dr. Paul Gallant and Dr. Joanne D. Eisen practice optometry and dentistry, respectively, on Long Island, NY, and have collaborated on firearm politics for the past 20 years. They have also collaborated with David B. Kopel since 2000, and are Senior Fellows at the Independence Institute, where Kopel is Research Director. Most recently, Gallant and Eisen have also written with Alan J. Chwick. Sherry Gallant has been instrumental in the editing of virtually all of the authors’ writings, and is immensely knowledgeable in the area of firearm politics.
Almost all of the co-authored writings of Gallant, Eisen, Kopel and Chwick can be found at http://gallanteisen.incnf.
UN Arms Trade Treaty: A threat to the 2nd amendment?
Monday, August 27th, 2012Original Story Via: Chron.com
Negotiations at a United Nations conference over a proposed Arms Trade Treaty, which would regulate conventional arms sales across borders, ended in July without a report. The talks will likely resume, however, and many are concerned about the treaty’s implications for the Second Amendment. The concern is justified, given the treaty’s goal is weapons control. Its terms are vague and could be used to launch efforts to attack the constitutional right to bear arms.
Foreign treaties are signed by the president and ratification is approved or rejected by the U.S. Senate, thereby bypassing the House of Representatives. The current administration has stated on more than one occasion it believes Congress is an impediment to its policies; thus, attempting gun control by foreign treaty may be considered the path of least resistance, particularly if the treaty specifics do not come to light prior to approval. Once passed, vague treaty terms could be more restrictively defined.
How did we get here? The United Nations process started in 2001. In 2006, the U.N. General Assembly requested opinions on an arms treaty, and the results were published in a 2007 report by the Secretary-General. This was followed by a 2008 report and the establishment of an open-ended working group. In 2009 the General Assembly resolved to convene a conference on the Arms Trade Treaty in 2012 “to elaborate a legally binding instrument on the highest possible common international standards for the transfer of conventional arms.”
The initial U.N. conference on the treaty was held July 2-27, 2012. A Review Conference will be held Aug. 27 to Sept. 7, 2012. The supporting resolutions and documents for these conferences reference a “Programme of Action,” but not the points of action themselves. Thus, the original document is critical, and by referencing only the “Programme of Action” the full implications of the treaty language have not been central to the public debate.
The initial goals of the “Programme of Action” were set out in 2001, and subsequent meetings have been held to propose measures to be taken to trace, monitor and control small arms (see page 7 of the hyperlinked document, which is also page 13 of 29 in the pdf file). Among other things, the Programme of Action resolves to “prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects” by “strengthening or developing agreed norms and measures at the global, national and regional levels … placing particular emphasis on the regions of the world where conflicts come to an end and where serious problems with the excessive and destabilizing accumulation of small arms and light weapons have to be dealt with urgently.”
Potential concerns about the process and the language might include:
- References to “regions of the world … [with] serious problems with the excessive and destabilizing accumulation of small arms” and the focus on “porous borders” in more recent U.N. documents, lead many to the conclusion the U.S.-Mexico border is a focus of the treaty. Mexico is part of the leadership of the treaty conference.
- The treaty resolution is to control the “illicit” trade. That leaves “illicit” open for interpretation, and it is not clear what party or parties will set the interpretation. If the U.N. passed a resolution that the manufacture or ownership of any type of gun (or ammunition) was illegal, then all small weapons could be “illicit.”
- If gun (or ammunition) ownership is illicit, the treaty could conceivably justify an international effort to put in place “adequate laws” in the United States as deemed acceptable to the U.N.
- If gun ownership was illicit, the treaty would require criminal penalties.
- Similar issues arise with the interpretation of “stockpiling.” Could the term be defined as a single weapon? More than three bullets?
- The treaty encourages moratoria on weapons.
- Treaty implementation encourages the use of regulations and administrative procedures to accomplish the goal, again bypassing the full Congress.
Experience has taught that an idea or policy can be approved or passed, only to have the idea and concept redefined to implement an entirely different outcome that never would have passed the vote in the first place. This U.N. treaty raises the concern that the U.S. may sign away its sovereignty on the gun ownership issue.
One might wonder what this Arms Trade Treaty would look like when implemented. The answer hinges on the interpretation of specific terms mentioned above, such as “illicit” and “stockpiling,” as well as “adequate laws, regulations and procedures,” “legal” and “destabilizing accumulation.” For one possible outcome, one needs to look no farther than Venezuela. On June 1, 2012, a new Venezuelan gun control law promoted by the administration of President Hugo Chavez went into effect that makes the sale and manufacture of weapons and ammunition illegal and requires all weapons to be registered. Only the military, police and security personnel are permitted to purchase a firearm or ammunition. It is interesting to note that Venezuela’s close ally, Iran, is on the leadership committee for the Arms Trade Treaty.
With mistrust surrounding the recent Fast and Furious scandal, the federal government’s efforts to provide U.S. citizen gun information to foreign governments through eTrace, and a belief Obama administration officials would like to see greater gun control, it is no wonder there is serious concern about the U.N. Arms Control Treaty. The treaty appears to be yet another tactic “under the radar” aimed at the Second Amendment.
As early as last summer, 13 U.S. Senators sent a letter to the president reflecting this concern. On July 26, 2012, a bipartisan group of 51 U. S. Senators sent another letter to President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton threatening to oppose the treaty if it did not protect America’s constitutional right to bear arms. When the Arms Trade Treaty conference group announced on July 27, 2012, that it had failed to come to an agreement, it cited the changing U.S. position the day before as issue. One could therefore assume the Arms Trade Treaty was a U.S.-led effort that could neither stand without the current administration’s participation, nor without language that might infringe on the American right to bear arms.
Have efforts for gun control slowed? No. As a separate move toward gun regulation, a Senate amendment was submitted on July 25, 2012, the day before 51 Senators sent a letter to Obama regarding the Arms Trade Treaty. The amendment was submitted for attachment to the Cyber Security Act (S.B. 3414) and would make it illegal to transfer or possess large capacity feeding devices such as gun magazines, belts, feed stripes and drums of more than 10 rounds of ammunition with the exception of .22 caliber rim fire ammunition. As reported in the Congressional Record for July 25, 2012, the amendment has been tabled for the time being.
What will likely happen in current months? A variety of tactics may be at work. U.N. committee members are discussing efforts to bring the proposed report and treaty before the U.N. General Assembly in September. Mexican representatives have been quoted as saying there will certainly be a treaty in 2012. Western diplomats believe the negotiations will be revived after the election. The State Department has stated the U.S. would support a second round of negotiations next year. Then there may also be continued efforts to attach amendments to legislation that otherwise is deemed vital to the nation.
Joan Neuhaus Schaan is the fellow in homeland security and terrorism at the Baker Institute, and the coordinator of the Texas Security Forum, and serves on the advisory board of the Transborder International Police Association. She has served as the executive director of the Houston-Harris County Regional Homeland Security Advisory Council and on the board of Crime Stoppers of Houston, Inc.
Global gun control treaty may return in the fall at UN
Friday, August 24th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
by Dave Workman
Senior Editor
Following a stunning last-minute derailment of the United Nations’ highly-touted international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) negotiations, global gun control proponents are expected to bring the issue back again in the fall.
That was the forecast from Julianne Versnel with the Second Amendment Foundation and International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR). She was at the UN when the ATT meltdown occurred, as was Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms. Both were instrumental in creating IAPCAR, which now has member organizations all over the globe.
The treaty talks essentially imploded in the final 24 hours when ATT proponents did not produce a final draft of their proposed treaty until late in the afternoon of the day prior to a scheduled vote. Another problem was that the document was printed only in English, leaving many delegates from non-English speaking nations in the lurch because they had no document to study.
The US delegation and other delegations simply did not have enough time to study the proposal, and there were problems with it even if they had.
The final draft came barely 48 hours after an initial document was circulated that met with tepid reactions from several delegations including North Korea and Iran. In a press release, Gottlieb called the proposed treaty, “a blatant attempt to negate the recent Second Amendment court victories we’ve had in the United States, and to get around Second Amendment protections.” A coalition of global gun control organizations has been pushing for the most extreme language and tenets in the proposed treaty, and now they are apparently back at the drawing board trying to come up with language that will be acceptable. That group includes International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), Oxfam International and Control Arms. The latter group was apparently responsible for a handout depicting their vision of the treaty provisions highlighted in Olympics-style rings, timed with the opening of the summer games in London.
Two of those items were “Arms and Bullets” and “Global Standards Over National Views.” The former alluded to privately owned firearms, and the latter was a veiled but direct threat to the Second Amendment, Gottlieb said.
Various gun rights organizations, including CCRKBA and the National Rifle Association, had been lobbying against this treaty for weeks. If the Obama administration signs it, the document must still be ratified by the US Senate, and after intense lobbying by the National Rifle Association, that doesn’t seem likely.
Now, with the national elections looming, President Barack Obama may be painting himself into an ever-tightening corner with American gun owners, if the treaty comes up again in October as anticipated.
Did the NRA Kill the Arms Trade Treaty?
Friday, August 24th, 2012Original Story Via: The Duck of Minerva
By Cliff Bob
UN members last month failed to reach agreement on the Arms Trade Treaty after a month-long conference. This is the latest setback in a decades old attempt to control the trade in small arms. A broad network of states, NGOs, and the UN bureaucracy had pushed for the treaty and earlier measures. In their view, proliferation of guns contributes to hundreds of thousands of casualties per year in conflict zones and to large numbers of shooting deaths in countries at peace.
But the international campaign to control the illicit trade in small arms has long faced skepticism from certain states, most notably the U.S, but also Russia, China, India, and others. For an interactive map of state views on the ATT, click here. Since its start in the early 1990s, the campaign has also faced outright opposition from NGOs such as America’s National Rifle Association. The NRA and other American gun groups have joined with overseas counterparts to promote gun rights and the right to self-defense. Most notable is the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities (WFSA) and more recently the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR). The groups help one another in their own countries and work together to lobby states against international gun control.
It is this network, spanning governments and NGOs, that killed the ATT. The Obama administration administered the coup d’grace, but other American politicians and civil society groups strongly influenced this decision. Other states cheered them on, if only privately. All of this holds important lessons for studying international policymaking and transnational advocacy.
The ATT had been billed as an alternative to a prior, failed try at controlling the illicit trade, in the late 1990s and early 2000s. This began as the Cold War ended and ethnic warfare became the fear du jour of the early ’90s (as terrorism is today), with gun proliferation blamed for much of the bloodshed. The Bush administration gutted that attempt in 2001, using a UN conference’s consensus rules to allow only the nonbinding Programme of Action on Small Arms (PoA). The PoA was so weak that a key proponent of small arms control, Human Rights Watch, dubbed it a “program of inaction” and shuttered its campaign. Nonetheless, this zombie policy—alive on paper but in reality dead—lurched along until 2006, when the U.S. finally killed the PoA completely at another UN confab.
The ATT was supposed to be different, negotiated only by likeminded states and without the consensus rules that allowed key opponents to block an effective PoA. In the Bush era, this seemed the best that could be achieved, given the close ties between gun groups and the U.S. administration. But keeping America out of the ATT negotiations would have led to another form of zombieism—a key arms exporter not part of the treaty, notwithstanding the fact that the U.S. already has some of the world’s toughest export controls. Thus when the Obama administration took office and expressed interest in the ATT, members of the ATT coalition opted to allow it in, accepting its demand that consensus rules again be followed and U.S. laws be used as a basis for negotiations. (At the time, a number of activists raised red flags, warning that it could end with the ATT’s failure, but to no avail.)
From the start, American gun groups decried the ATT because of its supposed threat to American gun rights. State negotiators did their best to reduce controversial issues. And by the end of the conference last month, a cascade of some 90 states supported the text. But opposition remained strong in many states, particularly to the marking of ammunition and to sales of guns to nonstate actors. In the U.S., opposition was particularly ferocious, as encapsulated in a letter signed by 51 U.S. Senators, including Democrats, expressing “grave concern” about the “dangers” to U.S. sovereignty and individual rights under the Second Amendment. The Senators, voicing the views of American gun groups, warned that the treaty’s draft text could force the U.S. to monitor and control domestic transfers, to maintain records of imports and shipments, and to increase regulations to prevent transfers to illicit or unintended end users.
Farfetched? Although the intent of the draft was clearly to control the illicit international trade, its terms, if broadly construed, could be read in these ways. And there is little doubt that in an issue as hot as guns, American control advocates would have read them in this way, to score points and influence judicial and legislative outcomes. The real menace to American gun rights is doubtless small, given the power of the Second Amendment and the fact that, even if the U.S. had signed, the 51 Senators opposing the draft, meant that the ATT could not be ratified. But the vehement opposition is nonetheless explicable as part of the bitter warfare between gun and gun control proponents in the U.S.
Ultimately, in an election year, the Obama administration bowed to these pressures and refused to agree to the final draft of the ATT. Some gun groups celebrated this “grassroots victory” for the right to self-defense, but others, like a commentator at Ammoland, were more cautious: “We cannot view this as a victory for us because the Treaty has not been abandoned. Nor can we view it as a defeat for its proponents—merely a temporary setback.”
Indeed, it is likely that some form of ATT will be reintroduced at the next UN session, and it is possible that a substantial number of states will agree to controls. Whatever the precise outlines of the final ATT, there are some broader lessons here:
- States remain key players in transnational advocacy networks. Focusing on the NGOs, as much of the academic literature does, is too narrow a perspective.
- NGOs and civil society networks nonetheless influence states, especially democratic states. But they probably do so more through everyday lobbying at home, than by efforts in UN hallways or in some kind of transnational normative space.
- International civil society, just like domestic civil society, is ideologically diverse and conflictive. Conservative groups are powerful there, as activists in the trenches well know. It is by no means the exclusive preserve of progressive groups, notwithstanding scholars’ focus on them.
- As a result, zombie policy and failed policy are far more common than policy successes—although, as the gun control case shows, one network’s failure is usually another’s triumph. As scholars, we can learn a great deal by dissecting the corpses and living-dead that strew policy battlefields. By contrast, to focus only on the relatively few policies that stagger, battered and bruised, off the field (typically to face further attacks in ongoing policy wars) is misleading.
Finally, the requisite plug: For more on battles over transnational gun control—as well as lots more on conservative transnationalism, policy conflict, and zombie policy—see my new book, The Global Right Wing and the Clash of World Politics.
Governments not people craft UN Arms Trade Treaty
Wednesday, August 8th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
By Joseph P. Tartaro
Executive Editor
Perhaps the United Nations should have a motto that reflects its focus on “government stability” and the balance of power between the people of the world and their respective governments.
I’d suggest the UN consider clearly stating, “The most despicable government we’ve ever known was pretty good.” If you need evidence beyond the fact that the lambs have been feeding at the same trough as the crocodiles all of these years, just look what the UN did as the much anticipated and dreaded conference on a binding Arms Trade Treat (ATT) began in July.
With the shadow of Syrian repression cast across most news media in the world and clouding the ATT talks, the UN turned to Iran to help negotiate a global arms treaty in a move that is drawing scorn and ridicule around the globe. But apparently not among the striped-pants diplomats meeting in New York City.
The appointment was made by members of the UN Conference on the ATT shortly after the month-long conference began in July. The committee to which Iran was appointed is tasked with coming up with a treaty regulating the international trade of conventional small arms and, proponents hope, ammunition.
“Right after a UN Security Council report found Iran guilty of illegally transferring guns and bombs to Syria, which is now murdering thousands of its own people, it defies logic, morality, and common sense for the UN to now elect this same regime to a global post in the regulation of arms transfers,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, a non-governmental monitoring group based in Geneva.
“This is like choosing Bernie Madoff to police fraud on the stock market.
And the UN’s scandalous choice of Iran is exactly why we fear that Syria’s declared bid for a UN Human Rights Council seat is not impossible.” The 15-nation committee is led by Argentina, which serves as president, and includes the US, Iran, China, and Russia as nations that serve as vice presidents.
UN Watch called on UN Secretary- General Ban Ki-moon to condemn the decision to name Iran to the committee.
“He should remind the conference that the Security Council has imposed four rounds of sanctions on Iran for refusing to halt its prohibited nuclear program, and that Iran continues to defy the international community through illegal arms shipments to the murderous Assad regime,” Neuer said.
US officials played down the significance of the appointment.
“Obviously we oppose (Iran’s appointment), but it’s a symbolic position with little impact on a month-long negotiation that must be decided by consensus,” one senior State Department official told Fox News.
“It will ultimately face the approval of the United States regardless of which country holds one of 14 powerless vice president positions. At that point, we will be looking for an arms trade treaty that makes the legitimate global weapons trade safer by bringing the rest of the world’s arms trade regulations up to the high US standard.” However, two weeks into the deliberations on the ATT, there seems to be a wide divergence of position by different governments. There is no guarantee the negotiations now in progress will produce a treaty, let alone a good one. In February, preparatory talks on the ground rules for this month’s talks nearly collapsed due to procedural wrangling and other disagreements.
In the end, the US and other countries succeeded in ensuring the treaty must be approved unanimously, so any one country can effectively veto a deal.
In spite of Iran and Syria, there are still deep divisions on key issues to be tackled in the treaty negotiations, such as whether human rights should be a mandatory criterion for determining whether governments should permit weapons exports to specific countries.
China wants to exempt small arms, while several Middle East states oppose making compliance with human rights norms a mandatory criterion for allowing arms deliveries. Meanwhile, Canada wants to exclude civilian small arms and ammunition altogether.
Britain has joined France, Germany and Sweden in calling for a solid, effective and legally binding treaty.
According to Peter Brookes of the Heritage Foundation, a treaty would damage US foreign policy and prevent it helping friends such as Taiwan. But he noted the treaty was not yet a done deal.
“Diplomats will natter away about it all month over cappuccinos in Turtle Bay,” he wrote. “But the White House isn’t doing the country any favors by playing footsie with a UN effort to take aim at our liberties and disarm our foreign policy.” Meanwhile, many organizations opposed to the treaty have been allowed to speak at the UN, and more than 130 congressmen, led by Rep.
Mike Kelly (R-PA), signed a letter sent to President Barack Obama in early July expressing their opposition to a UN arms trade treaty if it violates US gun owner rights and sovereignty.
The letter includes specific demands— that the treaty leave out small arms and ammunition and recognize an individual’s right to self-defense.
The Obama administration has claimed that there are safeguards to their treaty approach, but the safeguard is insufficient for opponents of the US participation, not least because UN talks invariably involve compromise.
“The administration swears they have a whole bunch of red lines, and they will block consensus if anyone crosses them,” said a government relations consultant as senior associate with the Commonwealth Consulting Corporation.
“But the dynamics of international negotiations are that once you get 90% of what you seek, you say, ‘Maybe there is a way we can finesse the final 10%.’ ” A clause permitting arms transfers solely between UN member states would allow UN member China to object to US arms sales to Taiwan, a non-UN member that China considers to be a renegade province.
This would be highly problematic for the US at a time when Beijing is engaged in an unprecedented arms buildup.
Another fear is that Arab or other states critical of Israel may use any treaty language on human rights standards to argue against US arms transfers to the Israeli government—as they currently use the UN Human Rights Council to condemn Israel.
US gun lobby concern focus on the emphasis the treaty places on governmental— as opposed to individual— rights to guns, according to Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president.
“They’re trying to impose a UN policy that gives guns to the governments— but the UN doesn’t in turn make moral judgments as to whether these governments are good or bad,” he said.
“If you’re the government, you get the guns, if you’re a civilian, you don’t.
This will just end up helping evil governments and tyrants.”
Pakistan – Extortion, killings: Businessmen may take up arms for their defence
Monday, August 6th, 2012Original Story Via: The Express Tribune
KARACHI: Office-bearers of the Karachi Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI) on Thursday said they would take up weapons to defend themselves if law enforcement agencies failed to end extortion, targeted killings and kidnappings for ransom.
Addressing the business community and media in the presence of Sindh Inspector General of Police Fayyaz Ahmed Leghari at KCCI, former KCCI president Siraj Kassam Teli said he would quit chamber politics for good if the poor law and order situation persisted after Eid.
“Enough is enough. We’ve lost patience with the government as well as the Sindh police,” said Teli, who is also the chairman of the Businessmen Group, whose favoured candidates have won KCCI elections unopposed for many years. KCCI is the largest chamber of commerce and industry in Pakistan with over 18,000 members.
Taking a cue perhaps from the influential gun lobby of the United States, Teli said he was going to ask every businessman to carry arms and be responsible for his own security. “I’m in favour of a free-for-all. A criminal wouldn’t have the courage to pull a gun in a crowded bazaar if no gun rules existed.”
Calling Interior Minister Rehman Malik a “liar,” Teli said the federal and provincial governments, along with the Sindh police, had shown little willingness to curb rising incidents of extortion so far.
Expressing his dismay over the frequent use of unregistered mobile phone SIMs to send death threats to the business community, he accused the federal government of criminal negligence and deliberate ineffectiveness.
Responding to the comments of Teli, Sindh IGP Leghari said the biggest challenge facing the provincial police was extortion. Kidnappings for ransom and street crimes are the next priorities of the police department, he said.
“I’ve proposed that neighbourhood committees should be formed in all markets where members of traders’ associations, in cooperation with police personnel, take care of law and order,” Leghari said.
India – Delhi women gun for arms licences
Monday, August 6th, 2012Original Story Via: The Times of India
NEW DELHI: It could be a new measure of women’s emancipation or just a passing fad, but Delhi Police has been stumped by the huge number of working women seeking gun licences. The trend is partly a response to the city’s lawlessness but may also reflect the growing need of women to be in control, claim senior officers.
In the past two years, Delhi cops have received over 900 applications for guns from women. While year 2010 saw around 320 applications, the figure had grown to around 500 in 2011. But it’s not only the numbers that’s a break from the past. There’s a change as well in the reasons cited by women for bearing arms.
“Women earlier mostly cited the inheritance clause – saying their fathers or husbands had a licence which they want to continue holding. Many women applying under this clause were proxies for men who themselves would not have got a licence. But of late women are citing ‘self-defense’ to apply for a licence,” said an officer in the licencing department.
In general, 20-22% of all applicants are now women. The officer said 27 licences were issued to women in 2010. Of these, 17 were those who had applied under the inheritance clause. In 2011, 33 women were granted gun licences, 12 of whom had cited self-defense as a reason.
Till July this year, five women have been granted licences on the basis of personal threats and six on the inheritance clause. In 2010 and 2011, over 600 rejected applications were rejected as no “personal safety threat was assessed”.
Rajya Sabha MP Renuka Chaudhry, herself a gun licence holder, was recently quoted as saying that women need guns more than men “who flaunt the weapons at weddings”.
Mridula Nandy, who unsuccessfully attempted to get a license last year, expresses a similar view. “They kept on asking what do I have to fear. Well, I stay in a place where I am taunted on the roads. At night, I feel unsafe. I will not necessarily fire at someone but a gun boosts confidence,” she said.
Interestingly, even as Indian shooters are doing reasonably well at the Olympic Games bagging silver and a bronze, some women are also applying for gun licences to pursue sport. While two women were granted license under the sports quota, the number doubled in 2011. This year, three women have already been granted licences for pursuing shooting.
In general, police are accused of being too strict while granting women licenses, with the age old inheritance clause still being is the surest way of acquiring a licence. Some allege “a recommendation from a higher up” is crucial in securing a licence.
Cops deny the charges, claiming the criteria for both sexes remain the same. “We grant licenses on three accounts. We check whether the woman has to travel alone at night, whether she is being stalked or harassed or whether she visits a crime-prone area,” said a senior police officer.
He added, “India cannot be seen as a state that promotes guns, unlike some western nations. We will ask everyone to go through the necessary checks and balances.”
UN ATT: Anti-gunners not finished with push for global gun control
Wednesday, August 1st, 2012Original Story Via: Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
Despite Friday’s breakdown on the global Arms Trade Treaty, international gun control proponents are determined to push their agenda, according to a report carried in the Saturday issue of the Seattle P-I.com.
Alan Gottlieb, chairman of the Bellevue-based Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, watched it all unfold at the United Nations, tipping this column early in the day that the United States would not be signing on, as American anti-gunners had hoped. He told Examiner via e-mail and telephone that the ATT’s momentum hit a massive speed bump because the final draft of the treaty was not produced until late in the day.
Anti-gunners are blaming the National Rifle Association for riling up its members, but that’s hardly the entire story. It’s just that the NRA is an easy target. The NRA did a remarkably effective job alerting its members, and NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre left no doubt when he spoke at the U.N. that his organization would fight this treaty with every available resource.
Amnesty International’s Suzanne Trimel, quoted by the Huffington Post, accused the NRA of “spreading lies” about the treaty.
“Basically,” Trimel reportedly stated, “what they’re saying is that the arms trade treaty will have some impact on domestic, Second Amendment gun rights. And that is just false, completely false.”
Gottlieb’s CCRKBA also mounted a massive grassroots effort to thwart the treaty, and gun owners responded by calling Capitol Hill. This resulted in a groundswell of gun owner fury over a document that was far too much in flux. One wonders what Trimel might say about that organization.
And in the background, domestic firearms and ammunition manufacturers were none-too-thrilled with the proposed treaty, either because it could have had a severe impact on their international business. Likewise, European gun makers were not happy because they sell a lot of firearms here in the United States and elsewhere.
This column’s revelation that the treaty would create a new gun control “secretariat” — translation: a new international bureaucracy — raised even more alarms. That detail was buried several pages back in the treaty draft, and as the saying goes, the Devil is in the details.
The meetings actually went on for about three weeks with little or no movement until the past few days. Gottlieb, who was at the U.N. with his wife, Julianne Versnel, both told Examiner that many people were frustrated at the process. Because the final treaty draft was not delivered until late Thursday afternoon, people simply did not have the opportunity to study it. Versnel noted that other countries — China and Russia most notably — threw up roadblocks as well.
Global gun control proponents are determined to bring this treaty proposal back to the table in September. They are an unhappy lot, so much so that Suzanne Nossel, executive director of Amnesty International USA, felt compelled to say this:
“This was stunning cowardice by the Obama administration, which at the last minute did an about-face and scuttled progress toward a global arms treaty, just as it reached the finish line. It’s a staggering abdication of leadership by the world’s largest exporter of conventional weapons to pull the plug on the talks just as they were nearing an historic breakthrough.”—Suzanne Nossel, quoted by USAToday.
The irony of this statement is perhaps most stunning to American gun owners, who see the Obama administration as the archenemy of gun rights. It was, after all, President Obama who appointed two liberal anti-gunners to the U.S. Supreme Court. It was Mr. Obama who provided last-minute cover to embattled Attorney General Eric Holder in his effort to withhold documents from the Fast and Furious investigation. It was the president who said in 2009 that he supported the ATT and indicated he would sign it.
Now the president is taking a verbal beating from those with whom he might be most closely allied, both politically and philosophically.
Victoria Nuland, spokeswoman for Hillary Clinton’s State Department is quoted by the Associated Press story that appears in the Seattle P-I.com. She reportedly said the U.S. — meaning the Obama administration — wants another round of negotiations next year, as in “after the November election.”
Gun owners are coming to full realization just how important the election is, not only on domestic issues but also on an international scale. Because this treaty still has a genuine possibility of resurrection, it remains a threat and in the collective mind of the firearms community the most effective way to stop it is to replace the administration that wants to sign it.
NFA Canada shares thoughts on the UN ATT
Monday, July 30th, 2012Original Story Via: National Firearms Association (Canada)
UN Arms Trade Treaty Talks Close Without Consensus
The United Nations talks on an Arms Trade Treaty ended today without consensus on any of the latest proposed treaty drafts. The UN’s self-imposed deadline of July 27 saw considerable disagreement remaining on the part of many nations as to the content and goals of various draft treaty language.
Speaking from Orangeville, Ontario NFA President Sheldon Clare stated that, “While many may view this as a relief, it is important to realize that there is still significant pressure from many anti-gun NGOs and governments to achieve such a treaty. In short, the international and domestic firearms communities must continue to be informed about what happens next as part of the larger UN programs of disarmament and any potential effect on civilians who own firearms.”
Clare praised the Canadian delegation, “Canada’s National Firearms Association wishes to acknowledge the professionalism and patience of the Canadian government’s delegation during what were clearly very difficult negotiations to achieve a treaty that would impose “no new burdens” on Canadians.” He continued, “While the NFA has stronger views on the talks than some of those of the government, I believe that Canadians were well served by our national representatives. In particular, the Canadian delegation was vocal in supporting the NFA’s right to have our voice heard at the talks.”
Mr. Clare continued, “The key question for Canadians is what will happen next. Canada’s National Firearms Association will be watching the UN’s next moves and it is important that all firearms owners stay tuned for new developments. One thing is clear, vigilance is important to ensure that we are able to fully protect all aspects of our rights and freedoms.”
In addition to its participation at the UN with the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities, Canada’s National Firearms Association is a founding member of The International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) which includes many national and international organizations promoting civilian ownership of firearms. At over 62,000 members, Canada’s National Firearms Association is this country’s largest advocacy organization promoting the rights and freedoms of all responsible firearm owners and users.
For more information contact:
Blair Hagen, Executive VP Communications, 604-753-8682 Blair@nfa.ca
Sheldon Clare, President, 250-981-1841 Sheldon@nfa.ca
Canada’s NFA toll-free number – 1-877-818-0393
NFA Website: www.nfa.ca
BREAKING NEWS: CCRKBA CREDITS GRASSROOTS FOR U.S. DECISION TO NOT SIGN ARMS TREATY
Friday, July 27th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
The Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms today applauds the decision by the United States to not sign the proposed International Arms Trade Treaty, and CCRKBA credits grassroots action for the gun rights victory.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb, who is at the United Nations in New York, said the announcement came Friday morning after a week of intense negotiations.
“I think the grassroots surge by American gun owners against this treaty convinced our government to not sign this document,” Gottlieb said. “The proposed treaty, as written, poses serious problems for our gun rights, and the sovereignty of our Second Amendment.”
CCRKBA has been active in raising public awareness about the proposed treaty, and Gottlieb said he is proud of members and supporters who made “stepped up to the plate” and contacted their U.S. senators.
“This is freedom in action,” Gottlieb stated. “We are gratified that so many did so much to protect their Second Amendment rights from an international gun rights grab.
HARD COPY: UN Arms Trade Treaty Final Draft
Thursday, July 26th, 2012UN Arms Trade Treaty Final Text
The draft of the Arms Trade Treaty
Submitted by the President of the Conference
Preamble
The States Parties to this Treaty,
Guided by the Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations;
Recalling that the Charter of the United Nations promotes the establishment and maintenance of international
peace and security with the least diversion for armaments of the world’s human and economic resources;
Underlining the need to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade of conventional arms and to prevent their diversion to the illicit market and for unauthorized end use;
Recognizing the legitimate political, security, economic and commercial rights and interests of States in the international trade of conventional arms;
Reaffirming the sovereign right and responsibility of any State to regulate and control transfers of conventional arms that take place exclusively within its territory, pursuant to its own legal or constitutional systems;
Recognizing that development, human rights and peace and security, which are three pillars of the United
Nations, are interlinked and mutually reinforcing;
Recalling the United Nations Disarmament Commission guidelines on international arms transfers adopted by the
General Assembly;
Noting the contribution made by the 2001 UN Programme of Action to preventing, combating and eradicating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects, as well as the 2001 Protocol against the illicit manufacturing of and trafficking in Firearms, their parts and components and ammunition, supplementing the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime;
Recognizing the security, social, economic and humanitarian consequences of the illicit trade in and unregulated trade of conventional arms;
Recognizing also the challenges faced by victims of armed conflict and their need for adequate care, rehabilitation and social and economic inclusion;
Bearing in mind that women and children are particularly affected in situations of conflict and armed violence;
Emphasizing that nothing in this Treaty prevents States from exercising their right to adopt additional and more rigorous measures consistent with the purpose of this Treaty;
Taking note of the legitimate trade and use of certain conventional arms, inter alia, for recreational, cultural, historical, and sporting activities and lawful ownership where such ownership and use are permitted and protected by law;
Recognizing the active role that non-governmental organizations and civil society can play in furthering the object and purpose of this Treaty; and
Acknowledging that regulation of the international trade in conventional arms should not hamper international cooperation and legitimate trade in materiel, equipment and technology for peaceful purposes.
Principles
Guided by the Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations, States Parties, in promoting the object and purpose of this Treaty and implementing its provisions, shall act in accordance with the following principles:
1. The inherent right of all States to individual or collective self-defence;
2. The settlement of international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered;
3. To refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any State, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the Un ited Nations;
4. Non-intervention in matters which are essentially within the domestic jurisdiction of any State;
5. The duty to respect and ensure respect for international humanitarian law and to respect and ensure human rights;
6. The responsibility of all States, in accordance with their respective international obligations, to effectively regulate and control international transfers of conventional arms, as well as the primary responsibility of all States in establishing and implementing their respective nation al export control systems;
7. States Parties should respect the legitimate interests of States to acquire conventional weapons for legitimate self-defence and peacekeeping operations and to produce, export, import and transfer conventional arms; and
8. The necessity to implement this Treaty consistently and effectively and in a universal, objective and non – discriminatory manner.
Have agreed as follows:
Article 1
Goals and Objectives
The goals and objectives of the Treaty are:
a. For States Parties to establish the highest possible common standards for regulating or improving the regulation of the international trade in conventional arms; and
b. To prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade in conventional arms and their diversion to the illicit market or for unauthorized end use;
in order to:
c. contribute to international and regional peace, security and stability;
d. Prevent the international trade in conventional arms from contributing to human suffering; and
e. Promote cooperation, transparency and responsibility of States Parties in the trade in conventional arms, thus building confidence among States Parties.
Article 2
Scope
A. Covered Items
1. This Treaty shall apply to all conventional arms within the following categories at a minimum:
a. Battle Tanks;
b. Armoured combat vehicles;
c. Large-calibre Artillery systems;
d. Combat aircraft;
e. Attack helicopters;
f. Warships;
g. Missiles and missile launchers; and h. Small Arms and Light Weapons
2. Each State Party shall establish or update, as appropriate, and maintain a national control list that shall include the items that fall within paragraph 1 of this article, as defined on a national basis and, at a minimum, based on relevant United Nations instruments. Each State Party shall publish its control list to the extent permitted by national law.
B. Covered Activities
3. This Treaty shall apply to those activities of the international trade in conventional arms set out in articles 5, 6, 7,
8 and 9, hereafter referred to as “transfer,” for the conventional arms covered under the scope of this Treaty.
4. This Treaty shall not apply to the international movement of conventional arms by a State Party or its agents for its armed forces or law enforcement authorities operating outside its national territories, provided the conventional arms remain under the State Party’s ownership.
Article 3
Prohibited Transfers
1. A State Party shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms if the transfer would violate its obligations under measures adopted by the United Nations Security Council acting under Chapter VII of the Charter of the United Nations, in particular arms embargoes.
2. A State Party shall not authorize any transfer of conventional arms within the scope of this Treaty if the transfer would violate its relevant international obligations, under international agreements to which it is a Party, in particular those relating to the international transfer of, or illicit trafficking in, conventional arms.
3. A State Party shall not authorize a transfer of conventional arms within the scope of this Treaty for the purpose of facilitating the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes constituting grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, or serious violations of Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.
Article 4
National Assessment
1. In considering whether to authorize an export of conventional arms within the scope of this Treaty, each State Party shall assess whether the proposed export would contribute to or undermine peace and security.
2. Prior to authorization and pursuant to its national control system, the State Party shall assess whether the proposed export of conventional arms could:
a. be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law;
b. be used to commit or facilitate a serious violation of international human rights law; or
c. be used to commit or facilitate an act constituting an offense under international conventions and protocols relating to terrorism to which the transferring State is a Party.
3. In making the assessment, the exporting State Party shall apply the criteria set out in paragraph 2 of this article consistently, and in an objective and non-discriminatory manner, taking into account relevant factors, including information provided by the importing State.
4. In assessing the criteria set out in paragraph 2 of this article, the exporting State Party may also take into consideration the establishment of risk mitigation measures, including confidence-building measures and jointly developed programmes by the exporting and importing States.
5. If, after conducting the assessment called for in paragraph 1 and 2 of this article, and after considering the mitigation measures provided for in paragraph 4 of this article, the State Party finds that there is an overriding risk of any of the consequences under paragraph 2 of this article, the State Party shall not authorize the export.
6. Each State Party, when considering a proposed export of conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty, shall consider taking feasible measures, including joint actions with other States involved in the transfer, to avoid the arms:
a. being diverted to the illicit market or for unauthorized end use;
b. being used to commit or facilitate gender-based violence or violence against children;
c. being used for transnational organized crime;
d. becoming subject to corrupt practices; or
e. adversely impacting the development of the importing State.
Article 5
General Implementation
1. Each State Party shall implement this Treaty in a consistent, objective and non -discriminatory manner, in accordance with the goals and objectives of this Treaty.
2. The implementation of this Treaty shall not prejudice obligations undertaken with regard to other instruments. This Treaty shall not be cited as grounds for voiding contractual obligations under defence cooperation agreements concluded by States Parties to this Treaty.
3. Each State Party shall take all appropriate legislative and administrative measures necessary to implement the provisions of this Treaty and shall designate competent national authorities in order to have an effective and transparent national control system regulating the international transfer of conventional arms.
4. Each State Party shall designate one or more national points of contact to exchange information on matters
related to the implementation of this Treaty. A State Party shall notify the secretariat, established under article 12, of its national point(s) of contact and keep the information updated.
5. States Parties involved in an international transfer of conventional arms shall, in a manner consistent with this
Treaty, take appropriate measures to prevent diversion to the illicit market or for unauthorized end use.
6. If a diversion is detected, the State or States Parties that made the detection may notify the State or States Parties that could be affected by such diversion, to the extent permitted in their national laws, in particular those States Parties that are involved in the transfer or may be affected, without delay.
Article 6
Export
1. Each exporting State Party shall conduct national assessments, as detailed in paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of article
4 and taking into account the considerations as detailed in paragraph 6 of article 4, whether to authorize the export of conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty under its jurisdiction. Each State Party shall apply articles 3 and 4, taking into account all relevant information.
2. Each State Party shall take measures to ensure all authorizations for the export of conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty are detailed and issued prior to the export. Appropriate information about the export in question shall, upon request, be made available to the importing, transit and transshipment State Parties, in accordance with national laws.
3. If, after an authorization has been granted, a State Party becomes aware of new relevant information that causes it to reassess that there is an overriding risk of any of the consequences of paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of article 4, the State Party may suspend or revoke the authorization.
4. Each State Party shall establish and maintain a national control system to regulate the export of ammunition for conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty, and shall apply article 3, and paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 o f article 4 prior to authorizing any export of ammunition.
5. Each State Party shall establish and maintain a national control system to regulate the export of parts and components, to the extent necessary, for the conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty, and apply article 3 and paragraphs 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 of article 4 prior to authorizing any export of those parts and components.
Article 7
Import
1. Each importing State Party shall take measures to ensure that appropriate and relevant information is provided, upon request, in accordance with its national laws, to the exporting State Party to assist the exporting State Party in its national assessment.
2. Each importing State Party shall put in place adequate measures that will allow them to regulate, where necessary, imports of conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty. Each importing State Party shall also adopt appropriate measures to prevent the diversion of imported conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty to the illicit market or for unauthorized end use.
3. Each importing State Party may request information from the exporting State Party concerning any pending authorizations where the importing State Party is the country of final destination.
Article 8
Brokering
Each State Party shall take the appropriate measures, within its national laws, to regulate brokering taking place under its jurisdiction for conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty. Such controls may require brokers to register or obtain written authorization before engaging in brokering transactions.
Article 9
Transit and Transshipment
1. Each State Party shall adopt appropriate legislative, administrative or other measures to regulate, where necessary and feasible, conventional arms covered by this Treaty that transit or transship through its territory.
2. Importing and exporting States Parties shall cooperate and exchange information, where feasible and upon request, to transit and transshipment States Parties, in order to mitigate the risk of diversion.
Article 10
Reporting and Record-Keeping
1. Each State Party shall maintain national records, in accordance with its national laws and regulations, of the export authorizations or actual exports of the conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty and, where feasible, details of those conventional arms transferred to their territory as the final destination or that are authorized to transit or transship territory under its jurisdiction.
2. Such records may contain, inter alia, quantity, value, model/type, authorized international transfers of conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty, conventional arms actually transferred, details of exporting State(s), importing State(s), transit and transshipment State(s) and end users, as appropriate. Records shall be kept for a minimum of ten years, or longer if required by other international obligations applicable to the State Party.
3. Each State Party may report to the secretariat, when appropriate, any actions taken to address the diversion of conventional arms to the illicit market or for unauthorized end use.
4. Each State Party shall, within the first year after entry into force of this Treaty for that State Party, provide an initial report to the secretariat of relevant activities undertaken in order to implement this Treaty, including national laws, regulations and administrative measures. States Parties shall report on
any new activities undertaken in order to implement this Treaty, when appropriate. Reports shall be made available and distributed to States Parties by the secretariat.
5. Each State Party shall submit annually to the secretariat by 1 July a report for the preceding calendar year concerning the authorization or actual transfer of conventional arms under the scope of this Treaty. Reports shall be made available and distributed to States Parties by the secretariat. The report submitted to the secretariat may contain the same information submitted by the State Party to relevant United Nations frameworks, including the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms. Reports may exclude commercially sensitive or national security information
Article 11
Enforcement
Each State Party shall adopt appropriate national measures and policies as may be necessary to enforce national laws and regulations and implement the provisions of this Treaty.
Article 12
Secretariat
1. This Treaty hereby establishes a secretariat to assist States Parties in the effective implementation of this Treaty.
2. The secretariat shall be adequately staffed. Staff shall have the necessary expertise to ensure the secretariat can effectively undertake the responsibilities described in paragraph 3 of this article.
3. The secretariat shall be responsible to States Parties. Within a minimized structure, the secretariat shall undertake the following responsibilities:
a. Receive, make available and distribute the reports as mandated in this Treaty;
b. Maintain and distribute regularly to States Parties the list of national points of contact;
c. Facilitate the matching of offers of and requests for assistance for Treat y implementation and promote international cooperation as requested;
d. Facilitate the work of the Conference of States Parties, including making arrangements and providing the necessary services for meetings under this Treaty; and
e. Perform other duties as mandated by this Treaty.
Article 13
International Cooperation
1. States Parties shall cooperate, as appropriate, to enhance the implementation of this Treaty, consistent with their respective security interests and national laws.
2. Each State Party is encouraged to facilitate international cooperation, including the exchange of information on matters of mutual interest regarding the implementation and application of this Treaty in accordance with its respective security interests and national legal system.
3. Each State Party is encouraged to consult on matters of mutual interest and to share information, as appropriate, to support the implementation of this Treaty.
4. Each State Party may cooperate, as appropriate, in order to enforce the provisions of this Treat y, including sharing information regarding illicit activities and actors to assist national enforcement and to counter, prevent and combat diversion to the illicit market or for unauthorized end use, in accordance with national laws. States Parties may also exchange experience and information on lessons learned in relation to any aspect of this Treaty, to assist national implementation.
Article 14
International Assistance
1. In implementing this Treaty, each State Party may seek, inter alia, legal or legislative assistance, institutional capacity building, and technical, material or financial assistance. Each State Party in a position to do so shall, upon request, provide such assistance.
2. Each State Party may request, offer or receive assistance, inter alia, through the United Nations, international, regional, subregional or national organizations, non-governmental organizations, or on a bilateral basis.
3. States Parties may also contribute resources to a voluntary trust fund to assist requesting States Par ties requiring such assistance to implement the Treaty. The voluntary trust fund shall be administered by the secretariat under the supervision of States Parties.
Article 15
Signature, Ratification, Acceptance, Approval or Accession
1. This Treaty shall be open for signature at the United Nations Headquarters in New York by all States and shall remain open for signature until its entry into force.
2. This Treaty is subject to ratification, acceptance or approval by each signatory State.
3. This Treaty shall be open for accession by any State that has not signed the Treaty.
4. The instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession shall be deposited with the depositary.
Article 16
Entry into Force
1. This Treaty shall enter into force ninety days following the date of the deposit of the sixty-fifth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession with the depositary.
2. For any State that deposits its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession subsequent to the entry into force of this Treaty, the Treaty shall enter into force for that State ninety days following the date of deposit of its instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession.
Article 17
Provisional application
Any State may at the time of its ratification, acceptance, approval or accession, declare that it will apply provisionally articles 3 and 4 of this Treaty pending its entry into force for that State.
Article 18
Duration and Withdrawal
1. This Treaty shall be of unlimited duration.
2. Each State Party shall, in exercising its national sovereignty, have the right to withdraw from this Treaty.
It shall give notice of such withdrawal to the depositary, which shall notify all other States Parties. The instrument of withdrawal shall include an explanation of the reasons motivating this withdrawal. The
instrument of withdrawal shall take effect ninety days after the receipt of the instrument of withdrawal by the depositary, unless the instrument of withdrawal specifies a later date.
3. A State shall not be discharged, by reason of its withdrawal, from the obligations arising from this Treaty while it was a party to the Treaty, including any financial obligations that may have accrued.
Article 19
Reservations
1. Each State Party may formulate reservations, u nless the reservation is incompatible with the object and purpose of this Treaty.
2. Reservations may be withdrawn at any time.
Article 20
Amendments
1. At any time after the entry into force of this Treaty, a State Party may propose an amendment to this
Treaty.
2. An y proposed amendment shall be submitted in writing to the secretariat, which shall then circulate the proposal to all States Parties, not less than 180 days before the next meeting of the Conference of States Parties. The amendment shall be considered at the next Conference of States Parties if a majority of States Parties notify the secretariat that they support further consideration of the proposal, no later than
120 days after its circulation by the secretariat.
3. An y amendment to this Treaty shallbe adopted by consensus of those States Parties present at the Conference of States Parties. The depositary shall communicate any adopted amendment to all States Parties.
4. A proposed amendment adopted in accordance with paragraph 3 of this article shal l enter into force for all States Parties to the Treaty, upon deposit with the depositary of the instruments of acceptance by a majority of States Parties at the time of the adoption of the amendment. Thereafter, it shall enter into force for any remaining State Party on the date of deposit of its instrument of acceptance.
Article 21
Conference of States Parties
1. A Conference of States Parties shall be convened no later than one year following the entry into force of this Treaty. The Conference of States Parties shall adopt rules of procedure and rules governing its activities, including frequency of meetings and rules concerning payment of expenses incurred in carrying out those activities.
2. The Conference of States Parties shall:
a. Consider and adopt recommendations regarding the implementation and operation of this Treaty, in particular the promotion of its universality;
b. Consider amendments to this Treaty;
c. Consider and decide the tasks and budget of the secretariat;
d. Consider the establishment of any subsidiary bodies as may be necessary to improve the functioning of the Treaty; and
e. Perform any other function consistent with this Treaty.
3. If circumstances merit, an exceptional meeting of States Parties may be convened if required and resources allow.
Article 22
Dispute Settlement
1. States Parties shall consult and cooperate to settle any dispute that may arise between them with regard to the interpretation or application of this Treaty.
2. States Parties shall settle any dispute between them concerning the interpretation or application of this
Treaty through negotiations, mediation, conciliation or other peaceful means of the Party’s mutual choice.
3. States Parties may pursue, by mutual consent, arbitration to settle any dispute between them, regarding issues concerning the implementation of this Treaty.
Article 23
Relations with States not party to this Treaty
States Parties shall apply articles 3 and 4 to all exports of conventional arms within the scope of this Treaty to
States not party to this Treaty.
Article 24
Relationship with other instruments
States Parties shall have the right to enter into agreements in relation to the international trade in conventional arms, provided that those agreements are compatible with their obligations und er this Treaty and do not undermine the object and purpose of this Treaty.
Article 25
Authentic Texts and Depositary
The original text of this Treaty, of which the Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish texts are equally authentic, shall be deposited with the Secretary-General of the United Nations.
International gun banners pulling out all stops at UN
Thursday, July 26th, 2012Original Story Via: TheGunMag.com
By Dave Workman
Senior Editor
The gloves have come off at the United Nations as negotiations over the proposed global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) are moving toward a climax, and two leading gun rights advocates on the scene are convinced treaty proponents want to include small arms and ammunition in the document, and slip around the Second Amendment.
Alan Gottlieb, founder and executive vice president of the Second Amendment Foundation, told TGM that, “Some movement in our direction is anticipated, but it will not be enough to make a difference. These would be minor modifications to placate us, but they will not be enough to address the concerns of American gun owners.”
“This is a blatant attempt to negate the recent Second Amendment court victories we’ve had in the United States, and to get around Second Amendment protections,” he asserted.
His wife, Julianne Versnel, said the ATT “is, in essence, an attempt by the rest of the world to impose their view of civilian firearms ownership on us, and negate the Second Amendment.”
They are at the UN representing the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the Second Amendment Foundation and the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR). Both helped create IAPCAR, which now has member organizations around the world.
A coalition of global gun control organizations is pushing for the most extreme language and tenets in the treaty, which is supposed to be signed this week. That group includes International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and Oxfam International and Control Arms. The latter group is apparently responsible for a handout depicting their vision of the treaty provisions highlighted in Olympics-style rings.
Ominously, two of those items are “Arms and Bullets” and “Global Standards Over National Views.” The former alludes to privately owned firearms, and the latter is a veiled but direct threat to the Second Amendment, Gottlieb said.
Various gun rights organizations have been lobbying against this treaty for weeks. If the Obama administration signs it, the document must still be ratified by the U.S. Senate, and after intense lobbying by the National Rifle Association, that doesn’t seem likely.
But with less than four months to go before the national elections, Barack Obama is painting himself into an ever-tightening corner with American gun owners. That represents a significant and influential voting bloc, and a global gun control treaty could easily push many undecided voters into the Romney camp.
Int’l gun control lobby sets sights on ammo, 2A at United Nations
Thursday, July 26th, 2012Original Story Via: Dave Workman, Seattle Gun Rights Examiner
UN Olympics Gun Control Flyer
The gloves are definitely off at the United Nations as negotiations continue over the proposed global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), where Bellevue’s Alan Gottlieb and Julianne Versnel are raising alarms about a handout distributed Thursday morning by Control Arms, one of the gun control groups pressing for the most extreme provisions.
They say global gun control proponents are directly targeting small arms and ammunition – including civilian-owned rifles, shotguns and handguns – and the Second Amendment. With a layout deliberately designed to mimic the Olympic rings, the handout specifies “Arms and Bullets” and “Global Standards Over National Views.”
The latter, they suggest, is a thinly-veiled reference to world gun control regardless of what the U.S. Constitution might say.
Gottlieb and Versnel are in New York representing the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, the Second Amendment Foundation and the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR).
Versnel supplied Examiner with the image above that makes it clear the gun ban crowd – a coalition which includes the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA) and Oxfam International – are after small arms and ammunition.
In a telephone interview, Versnel made it clear what that means.
“The ATT is, in essence, an attempt by the rest of the world to impose their view of civilian firearms ownership on us, and negate the Second Amendment,” she said.
Negotiators recessed Thursday morning but were to resume in the afternoon. Gottlieb said there are “rumors” that a slightly revised document, discussed by this column yesterday and posted on the IAPCAR website, might be introduced.
“Some movement in our direction is anticipated,” he said, “but it will not be enough to make a difference. These would be minor modifications to placate us, but they will not be enough to address the concerns of American gun owners.”
Gottlieb’s bottom line: “This is a blatant attempt to negate the recent Second Amendment court victories we’ve had in the United States, and to get around Second Amendment protections.”
Various gun rights organizations have been lobbying against this treaty for weeks. If the Obama administration signs it, the document must still be ratified by the U.S. Senate, and after intense lobbying by the National Rifle Association, that doesn’t seem likely.
But with less than four months to go before the national elections, Barack Obama is painting himself into an ever-tightening corner with gun owners. As this column noted earlier, he is “out of the closet” as a gun control proponent, even hinting at renewed focus on so-called “assault weapons.”
Unfortunately for gun prohibitionists, the proverbial horse has left the barn on that subject. With millions of semiautomatic rifles and shotguns now in circulation, banning them is out of the question unless the president thinks he can charm gun owners into surrendering them.
In that, the president and the United Nations are in the same leaky boat, with a gun rights tidal wave coming right at them.
NFA Warns of Problems With UN Arms Trade Treaty
Wednesday, July 25th, 2012NFA Warns of problems with UN Arms Trade Treaty
25 July 2012
A near final draft and the closing days of the UN Arms Trade Treaty talks could spell trouble for Canadian interests. There is tremendous pressure to conclude a deal by July 27 and if the latest draft is any indication, the deal will not be a good one for Canadians.
“The draft treaty still affects civilian ownership of firearms and could cause trouble for Canadians travelling with firearms,” according to Sheldon Clare, President of Canada’s National Firearms Association who was present for part of the talks. “Even more significantly though, are clauses which would establish an expensive and intrusive Implementation Support Unit, a body which would be engaged in keeping firearms trade records. The ISU would be a likely conduit for providing money to unscrupulous regimes from UN coffers partially funded by Canadian taxpayers. That is certainly not something that Canadians want or need.”
Clare continued, “One of the most potentially dangerous clauses is the proposed amending formula which under Article 20 introduces a two-thirds majority requirement to amend the ATT. Such a clause is a direct threat to national sovereignty in that it removes the traditional need for consensus in UN decision making. It could easily lead