The UN is NOT Trying to Take Your Guns Away. (Unless you are a terrorist or enlist child soldiers, that is)

Mark Leon Goldberg - February 9, 2010 - 1:16 pm

One of the most persistent stories about the UN that is circulated by people, who, shall we say, are pre-disposed to believing conspiracy theories, is that the UN is plotting to take Americans' guns away.  The latest manifestation of this meme occurred last month on the blog of National Association of Gun Rights, which is circulating an online petition to demand that the Senate vote against the UN "Arms Control Treaty."  The petition says, "The UN’s “Small Arms Treaty” is nothing more than a massive GLOBAL gun control scheme, designed to register, ban and CONFISCATE firearms from law-abiding citizens."  The NAGR also warns that the treaty, "would almost certainly FORCE national governments to...CONFISCATE and DESTROY ALL “unauthorized” civilian firearms (all firearms owned by the government are excluded, of course)."[CAPS from the original].

This post has been picked up by certain reaches of the blogosphere, including  World Net Daily which quotes John Bolton who says, "There's no doubt that the real agenda is domestic firearms control."

Needless to say, the UN does not want to confiscate Americans' firearms.  What many member states do want to do, however, is make it more difficult for guerrilla movements, insurgents and irresponsible governments from easily obtaining small arms.  Nine years ago, member states proposed setting in motion a treaty process that would do just that. The Bush administration, though, opposed the treaty process.  This was problematic for the cause, as it were, because the United States is among the world's largest exporter of small arms.  Any treaty without the United States on board would not be very effective.  

The Obama administration does not share the previous administration's view of the utility of a small arms trade treaty.  This fall, Secretary Clinton made clear that the United States would support the arms trade treaty process. However, understanding that any treaty requires senate passage, the United States set one big condition on the treaty negotiation process: that it proceed by consensus. This means that unanimity is required for all votes, which, in turn, gives the United States an effective veto over the entire process.   This has not seem to quell the conspiracy spinners, who apparently remain convinced that the UN is plotting to take Americans' guns away. But the fact of the matter is, this treaty process is all about restricting the international transfer of small arms to irresponsible end users, like terrorist groups, militias that use child soldiers, or governments that use the weapons to commit terrible human rights abuses.

For more information about the treaty process, check out ControlArms.org.

Image: Flickr

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2) Subscribe to these comments

Devid @ Mar 17th 2010 7:56AM

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Reggie @ Mar 13th 2010 7:51PM

It is ineffective to attempt to reassure us about the treaty process. We have already seen how outrageous treaties such as NAFTA can get passed quite legally, especially by left-leaning administrations. So to reassure us, you'd need to provide information not about the process which we already don't trust, but about the treaty itself.

I have been all over the UN website, but key information seems to be missing - such as last year's statement from the "Group of Government Experts" which the USA is on record as agreeing with. What are we agreeing to? The information is not there. Where are the treaty drafts? Document not found / invalid URL / missing web host / empty page / etc.

I assume this is not because the UN has something to hide, but rather because they are incapable of even running a web site successfully.

What I did see on the site seems to be in reference to the reporting and control of international movement of arms of all types by governments. That's a joke. Does anybody imagine that the CIA or whoever is behind some "covert" operation supplying arms to an insurgency is going to report what they're doing and abide by some treaty's restrictions? If you'd believe that, you're crazier than any conspiracy theorist.

So what am I to conclude from this? Either:

A: The UN is blowing steam over a planned treaty, which cannot possibly ever be enforced, regarding the international transfer of arms by governments.

B: The UN's one-world-government agenda of citizen disarmament is being cleverly veiled.

Just judging by how incompetently the UN web site has been put together, I'd go with conclusion "A" above.

I don't give the UN very much credit. They're wasting everybody's time, but likely having a wonderful time doing so - jetting around the world First Class, staying in the finest hotels, riding diplomatic limos and attending fancy dinners everywhere they go. They're like a wannabe ruling class, which doesn't actually rule anybody.

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Ákos Szederjei @ Feb 10th 2010 12:03PM

Says the american citizen, who's administration is so much less corrupt. I think the removal of the UN from US soil would hurt the USA the most, but go ahead, many would applaud to that move.

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Montana Libertarian, USA @ Feb 9th 2010 9:38PM

.

Here's the bottom line: I don't believe Mark Leon Goldberg. I don't trust the UN. I'm positive we don't need any more gun laws. In fact, every damn one on the books here in the USA should be repealed. We should expel the UN and withdraw from membership.

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Steve Preston @ Mar 13th 2010 10:22AM

I agree with that.

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Visitor @ Feb 9th 2010 7:09PM

This is the problem with left wing progressives. They think that criminals are the only ones who should have rights. They have no brain nor thinking capacity of their own in order to comprehend that the answer is to arm all the citizens.

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Tony @ Feb 9th 2010 4:36PM

The odd capitalized words and excessive exclamation points are indicative of fear-mongering right-wing conspiracy believers. You'll find it on any number of websites that suggest the rest of the world is out to get Americans and/or Christians. It's an almost definitive sign that the writer has no substantive arguments and is compensating by YELLING at his readers, often spinning innocuous or unrelated phrases by actors seeking their own independent, sovereign agendas into a massive collaborative plan that defies both reality and common sense.

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