With Caveats, U.S. Backs Session at U.N. on Curtailing Illegal Arms

The Subtance

The Bush administration gave its backing on Tuesday to a United Nations conference on curtailing the international flow of illegal arms, but warned delegates against adopting measures that would restrict individual possession of weapons. The two-week conference, which began Monday, is intended to improve ways of curbing the $1 billion black market in the manufacture and distribution of small arms and light weapons that supply brutal civil wars and organized crime networks and end up killing an estimated 1,000 people every day worldwide.

The NRA was quick to overreact.

The conference’s absurdly lengthy title tells you all you need to know -- this meeting is about "action to prevent and eradicate" your rights.

And:

This 4th of July, while you and your family celebrate the 230th Anniversary of the founding of our great nation, there’s one party you won’t be invited to...

...And that’s the party that Kofi Annan is throwing at United Nations headquarters in New York — using your tax dollars — for nearly fifty dictatorships, six terrorist states, governments that endorse execution based on religious faith, and a multitude of other nations from around the globe.

You see, this party isn’t to honor your freedoms -- but to conspire to take them away. That’s right. Over our 4th of July holiday, while taps is played at Arlington National Cemetery to honor Americans who have sacrificed their lives for freedom...

...These dictatorships, terrorist states and so-called “free” nations of the world plan to meet on our home soil to finalize a U.N. treaty that would strip all citizens of all nations of their right to self-protection, and strip you of your rights under the Second Amendment.

The UN has made repeated statements that they had no designs on the legal gun trade but rather illegal gun trafficking, you know, the kind that terrorists depend upon.

In a pdf called Setting the Record Straight, they are unequivocal.

• The Review Conference is not about banning small arms or prohibiting people from owning legal weapons.
• The Review Conference will not be negotiating any treaty to prohibit citizens of any country from possessing firearms or to interfere with the legal trade in small arms and lights weapons (SALW).
• The United Nations Programme of Action on small arms does not prescribe or suggest any action against the legal trade, manufacture, possession or ownership of weapons.
• 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. The UN Programme of Action is focused on the illicit trade in SALW. The programme was
• agreed to in 2001 by the 191 Member States of the General Assembly including the Permanent Members of the Security Council. They committed to collecting and destroying illegal weapons, adopting and/or improving national legislation that would help criminalize
• the illicit trade in small arms, regulating the activities of brokers, and setting strict import and export controls.
• It is not the wish of nations attending the Conference to discuss outlawing the legal manufacture or trade of these weapons, nor their legal ownership. This Conference is about preventing the diversion of such weapons into the illicit market.
• Each country is sovereign and has its own laws governing gun ownership by its citizens. The United Nations has no jurisdiction over such national matters.
• The UN is not pursuing a global treaty to ban gun ownership by civilians. In the Programme of Action, States committed to tightening their controls over the import, export and transfers of SALW, because without such controls it is easier for weapons to be diverted
• from the legal trade into the illegal market, and into the hands of warlords, drug traffickers and criminal cartels.
• Gun-control advocates and pro-gun organizations alike have participated in UN meetings on small arms and light weapons. All organizations have an equal opportunity to present their views.
• No meetings have been scheduled for the 4th of July, as UN Headquarters will be officially closed in commemoration of the United States national day. In fact, the UN grounds will be used by some 10,000 spectators of the fireworks display on the East River.

But perhaps the most overlooked element is this:

[Robert G. Joseph, under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs] also said Washington would object to any steps to establish international regulation of ammunition or to ban governments from selling arms to rebel groups, known in diplomatic jargon as "nonstate actors."

I'm guessing the only government they want to be free to traffick in weapons in contravention of other nation's law is the US. I cannot imagine the Whitehouse being in favor of allowing, say, Iran to have the right to sell "arms to rebel groups."June 28, 2006
With Caveats, U.S. Backs Session at U.N. on Curtailing Illegal Arms
By WARREN HOGE

UNITED NATIONS, June 27 — The Bush administration gave its backing on Tuesday to a United Nations conference on curtailing the international flow of illegal arms, but warned delegates against adopting measures that would restrict individual possession of weapons.

"The U.S. Constitution guarantees the rights of our citizens to keep and bear arms, and there will be no infringement of those rights," Robert G. Joseph, under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs, told the General Assembly. "Many millions of American citizens enjoy hunting and the full range of firearms sports, and our work will not affect their rights," he said.

He also said Washington would object to any steps to establish international regulation of ammunition or to ban governments from selling arms to rebel groups, known in diplomatic jargon as "nonstate actors."

"While we will of course continue to oppose the acquisition of arms by terrorist groups," he said, "we recognize the rights of the oppressed to defend themselves against tyrannical and genocidal regimes and oppose a blanket ban on nonstate actors."

The two-week conference, which began Monday, is intended to improve ways of curbing the $1 billion black market in the manufacture and distribution of small arms and light weapons that supply brutal civil wars and organized crime networks and end up killing an estimated 1,000 people every day worldwide.

Secretary General Kofi Annan reminded the gathering that "these weapons may be small, but they cause mass destruction." He urged member countries to toughen existing laws governing arms deals.

Steps that Mr. Joseph said the United States would support included the marking and tracing of weapons, controls on transfers, certification of the ultimate recipients, effective management of national stockpiles and destruction of illicit and government-declared surplus weapons.

Mr. Annan said the conference was not contemplating a global ban on gun ownership. "Nor do we wish to deny law-abiding citizens their right to bear arms in accordance with their national laws," he said.

He seemed to be referring to a campaign by the National Rifle Association, which has charged in mass mailings that the United Nations is plotting to take away Americans' guns through a treaty banning ownership.

John R. Bolton, the United States ambassador to the United Nations, confirmed that he had received hundreds of the form letters. Asked why all three citizen delegates from the United States to the conference were prominent members of the gun lobby group, he said he made it a practice not to comment on the activities of nongovernmental organizations.

Copyright 2006 The New York Times Company