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What is this global campaign against arms?

"It's a strange world we live in, Master jack...." That's a line from some old song, but it applies so well to the UN - led coalition of some 700 organisations worldwide, spearheaded by IANSA (International Action Network on Small Arms) who are pushing what appears to have become, in effect, a ban on private ownership of guns in law-abiding civilian hands.

With major funding by the governments of UK, Belgium, Sweden and Norway, as well as the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Compton Foundation, Ploughshares Fund, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Institute, Samuel Rubin Foundation and Christian Aid, IANSA has been working for years to surreptitiously take away civilian guns under the guise of controlling the spread of military and terrorist weapons.

But the campaign did not start out as that - in the mid-1990s it appeared under the guise of proposed global action against the "Illicit trade in small arms and light weapons", referring in UN documents and meeting minutes to small arms used in conflicts around the world - from the Balkans to Africa and the Middle east.

This news report from that time is worth viewing as background: Published on Tuesday, January 9, 2001 by the InterPress Service - Global Campaign Launched To Battle Illicit Small Arms Trade

Please note the emphasis in the report, which omits entirely any reference to legal ownership of firearms by civilians - quote: "The preparatory committee, comprising all 189 member states, is expected to establish several working groups to deal with the following: measures to prevent, combat and eliminate the illicit manufacture, acquisition, stockpiling and transfer of small arms; measures related to stockpile management, safe storage and destruction of illicit surplus small arms; and measures related to transparency and exchange of information."

Examine the UN 2001 document setting out the Programme of Action which reveals how either

a) the campaign has been hijacked by rabid anti-gun fanatics - or
b) the campaign was all along designed to be a Trojan horse to lull legal civilian owners into a false sense of security? Only Rebecca Peters and the others at the top of the fanatics pyramid would be able to answer that!

Control of trade in small arms, so went the hypothesis would hinder the ability of insurrectionist movements to slaughter civilians and each other, likewise tyrannical governments to repress their citizens and attack their neighbours.

Laudable aims, many agreed - but the question that needs to be asked today years after this mega-funded campaign got underway is "What effect has this had on human rights abuses by governments, militias, rebel groups etc?"

The answer is clear - very little discernible effect, for the simple reason that the campaign quickly metamorphorsised into being a campaign against law-abiding owners of legally licenced guns in every country that signed on to this treaty.

Perhaps it was too tough to actually make any impression on the real bad guys who have flooded, for instance Africa, with millions of Chinese manufactured AK47 rifles in support of whatever political objectives they were pushing at the time?

So today this UN led campaign, spearheaded by IANSA is having an easy time, demonising legal owners for having a firearm and arranging for their last line of defence in an often hostile and mismanaged society beset by violence and criminality against the good and the decent citizen, to be confiscated by government edict.

From the IANSA website:

" Small arms proliferation is on the agenda of the United Nations.

In July 2001, member states met for the UN Conference on the Illicit Transfer of Small Arms & Light Weapons in All its Aspects. The result was a Programme of Action (PoA) to address gun trafficking. It commits countries to:
• adopt effective regulations to control SALW production, export, import and transfer
• identify and prosecute those engaged in the illegal manufacture and trade in small arms
• ensure that manufacturers adequately mark all small arms for identification and tracing
• ensure comprehensive, accurate record-keeping on SALW manufacture, holding and transfer
• take appropriate measures against violations of any UN Security Council arms embargo
• ensure confiscated, seized or collected small arms are destroyed. "

The preceeding paragraphs make no mention of legally obtained, legally held weapons - but today almost the entire thrust of the campaign has devolved on to this class of firearm.

Meanwhile, we are expected to believe that criminals are somehow affected, or eventually going to be affected in the future by success of the campaign. This of course is the most mendacious lie, propagated by the likes of IANSA surrogate Gun Free South Africa, who have to this day not managed to refute the claim of thinking people that, since criminals are by definition law-breakers they then do not obtain weapons through legitimate or even identifiable channels and cannot be affected by this campaign or any laws designed to prohibit them from having guns.

No - as this campaign is currently focussed, only legal owners can and will be disarmed - and we have already heard reports of handed-in weapons being sold out of the back door of South African police stations!

GFSA continually avoids the crux question - "How will disarming legal gun owners stop criminals using guns?", preferring to punt the wishful thinking that once guns are outlawed there will be no crime - but wait! - are not illegal guns already outlawed, as a result of having to obtain a licence for a firearm?

It is our belief that there are millions of gun owners in SA who have still not thought this whole thing through - even as they are faced with the prospect of having to relinquish their legally-acquired and licenced property without any compensation. Not too surprising, since the vast majority of gun owners in SA are not "gun-lovers", but keep a gun for practical, defensive reasons. They do not, in fact spend every weekend at the shooting range or hunting animals, and only want to have the means available if that dire need arises.This quote encapsulates what needs to be understood.

" I use my gun the same number of times I've used my fire detector, my smoke detector, my fire insurance, my earthquake insurance. Which is to say, never. And always." — Clarence Martinelli, 70-year-old school crossing guard and racial unity activist, as told to the Los Angeles Times.

To those owners we say - wake up - it is happening, you and I are moving inexorably to a point in time where you and I will be faced with a dreadful decision - you will either overnight become a criminal facing a minimum mandatory 10 year sentence for keeping an unlicenced gun, or you will hand in your firearm and leave yourself and those you love and are responsible for, defenceless in the face of continually escalating violent crime.