Re: US vs. United Nations

["Ann Li" <annzl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Actually the NRA's info-mercial is quite amusing with its jingoism and
xenophobia, what with the Statue of Liberty framed behind Wayne LaPIerre
telling the viewer that "foreign interests" would take away your rights and
your long gun.

I would wager that the serial numbers are still on the guns our government
provides for "democratic struggles" and foreign police/military agencies. I
fail to see how (inter)national record keeping will curb "the continuation
of a trade which kills 1000 people a day worldwide".

It would probably be better to register machine tools.


----- Original Message -----
From: "Keaney Michael" <michael.keaney@xxxxxx>
To: "PEN-L (E-mail)" <pen-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, July 11, 2001 8:26 AM
>Subject: [PEN-L:14972] US vs. United Nations


> Curbs on illegal sales of arms blocked
>
> IAN BRUCE
>
> The Herald, 11 July 2001
>
> THE United States yesterday thwarted a UN move to curb illegal trafficking
> in small
> arms by declaring that it was prepared to defend the rights of weapons
> manufacturers
> and gun owners, even if it meant the continuation of a trade which kills
> 1000 people a
> day worldwide.
>
> John Bolton, the US under-secretary for arms control, told delegates at
the
> opening of a
> 10-day UN-sponsored conference that "Americans do not find all guns
> problematic" and
> that the responsible use of firearms was "a legitimate aspect of national
> life".
>
> The conference, now close to collapse because of the non-co-operation of
the
> world's
> biggest arms' manufacturers, was told that there were an estimated 500
> million small
> arms in circulation, half of them being used to fight wars from
Afghanistan
> to Africa.
>
> A high percentage had been bought on the black market in a £1bn-a-year
> trade. The
> weapons had been the main cause of four million deaths in 46 conflicts
since
> 1990.
>
> The US has now aligned itself with Russia, India, and China in a power
bloc
> of big
> business interests. They jointly produce more than 80% of the weapons used
> in
> brushfire wars across the globe.
>
> The UN's provisional plan for the conference was to call for national laws
> requiring that
> arms be marked so they could be traced and for national record-keeping to
> make
> tracing easier.
>
> One of Washington's fears is that marking and tracing could be translated
> into domestic
> arms restrictions, something that could cost a US administration millions
of
> votes in a
> country where the right to bear arms is enshrined in the constitution.
>
> Anti-gun activists, supported by Britain and most of the EU countries,
want
> to crack
> down on both legal and illegal arms deals.
>
> Bolton said the US also opposed a proposal to seriously consider banning
the
> unrestricted sale of "weapons specifically designed for military
purposes".
>
> Sporting versions of the US army's M16 Armalite and the ubiquitous Russian
> AK47
> assault weapons are available in gun stores throughout America advertised
as
> "hunting
> rifles". They can be converted from single-shot civilian use to automatic
> fire with a file
> and 10 minutes' work.
>
> Tamar Gabelnick, spokeswoman for the Federation of American Scientists,
> accused
> her own government of projecting US domestic concerns on to problems
> affecting other
> countries. "It is precisely those weapons that Bolton would exclude from
> this conference
> that are actually killing people and endangering communities around the
> world."
>
> Full article at:
> http://www.theherald.co.uk/news/archive/11-7-19101-0-17-41.html
>
> Michael Keaney
> Mercuria Business School
> Martinlaaksontie 36
> 01620 Vantaa
> Finland
>
> michael.keaney@xxxxxx
>
>