U.N., Swiss Call Small-Arms Meeting, U.S. Not Invited

USA's gun regs are as discredited to the civilized world as our healthcare system.

W has never met a weapon, conventional or nuclear, that he didn't embrace. It's the macho cowboy thing...from the frat brat who attendend prep school in New England, where he was born.

laws..............



IS THE DAY THEY PRY MY COLD DEAD HANDS>>>>>>>>>

Irrelevant. This is an international summit.

Don't knock the Swiss. They have gun regs that work!

...report this too....

The RW sites must be waiting for the distorted UPI version.:mad:

I just wish the ICC would abandon any policy for the US to be immuned from punishment.

The Bush administration has consistenly opposed collective security accords
especially those under the U.N. They especially oppose provisions that
would restrict non-state actors' access to guns.

It is unfortunate, but the U.S. does not have a constructive role to play here.

protection of vicious, criminal arms dealers and war profiteers all over the world, and one has to wonder why. It's very similar to the conflation of an individual's human and civil rights with those of corporations. For instance, in California, the infamous Proposition 13 was supposed to protect old people from losing their homes to tax re-assessments, but in truth ended up hugely benefiting corporate landowners, who never die--they just accumulate more and more property, to ever more powerful mega-corps, who now pay little or no property tax. The interest of small property owners was conflated with the interests of Chevron and Bank of America and the L.A. Times, et al. It's a good bet that the money behind the NRA is in gun running and the illicit arms trade. It's not just sales of hand guns or hunting rifles that they're interested in--but rather protection and promotion of massive movements of weapons (small and large, including WMD), the militarization of every conflict, and the NEED (or perceived need) for more and more weapons of every kind.

From local US gun dealers and arms bazaars all the way up to Cheney's dirty weapons/nuke dealings worldwide, war profiteering is the signature of the Bush regime. Little wonder they have no interest in controlling any part of it. They are permitting war profiteers to dictate US policy. They ARE war profiteers. They PREFER a country and a world that is violent, chaotic, ruled by "might makes right," and easy to bully and bludgeon into submission. The Bush Cartel attitude toward arms control is exemplified by their treatment of the CIA's counter-proliferation network that they "outed" in 2003. They would just as soon see our counter-proliferation agents/contacts around the world killed off, to clear the field for illicit arms dealings.

I'm glad to see the Swiss leading this effort to curtail at least small arms trade. They have a tradition of what we would call "militia men"--every household with a rifle--based on their very vulnerable geographic position in Europe, the idea being that the Alpines would prevent mass assault on them, and the rifle in every household would take care of the rest. (The idea of civil militia goes way back to Machiavelli--that oft-maligned political thinker--who gave Thomas Jefferson and Co. the notion of citizens being able to defend their communities and states against TYRANNY--it was a way of separating citizens' rights and responsibilities from 'the king,' and instilling civic virtue--pride in your own independence, and being able to defend your independence against any outside interference; and grew out of the Italian independent city-states of the 15th century, the fairly democratic (merchant/middle class-controlled) entities where the Renaissance and many of our ideas about democracy were born.)

So the Swiss are deeply attached to the notion of individual gun ownership. In Switzerland, individual gun ownership is very nearly equivalent to BEING a citizen. Also, the Swiss undoubtedly have massive investment in arms. I don't know details on this, but the Swiss talent for precision instruments, and of course their huge investment funds, make it highly likely. So, WHO is militarizing every conflict in Africa? WHO is turning traditional tribal warfare into heinous paroxysms of genocide, by arming all sides? That is ONE consequence of the arms trade. And it is very likely European, including Swiss, arms manufacturers and peddlers, who are moving this trade and hugely profiting from it. The US is not the only bad actor in the weapons trade. The odds against the UN/Switzerland being able to curtail this highly lucrative, deadly trade are not good. I hope they succeed. Typically, the US is on the WRONG SIDE AGAIN. Will we ever again see a US government that tries to do the right thing?*

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*Throw Diebold and ES&S election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

No, actually IANSA, the NGO that essentially runs the conference, is the one doing that. They are the ones trying to incorporate language in the July 4th UN small arms conference to restrict the lawful CIVILIAN ownership and use of firearms.

Don't take my word for it, go straight to IANSA's web site and see for yourself. Some excerpts:



The IANSA agenda document also includes these gems:



That is COMPLETELY unacceptable to American gun owners, whether Dem or indie or repub. Fuhgetaboudit.

I should point out that the head of IANSA is the individual who brought sweeping gun confiscation to Australia, and she has made it explicitly clear that she intends to bring it here.


No need to speculate; look it up for yourself. The NRA's money comes primarily from annual membership dues and contributions from individual gun owners; corporate donations are a very small piece of the pie and come mostly from companies that do NOT sell arms to foreign governments or combatants (most don't even make military weapons at all).

This conference would not be in the LEAST bit controversial had IANSA not declared war on civilian gun ownership in the United States. The July 4th conference has very little to do with Lord-of-War-style arms smuggling, and very much to do with bringing Aussie-style gun confiscation to the USA.

I don't blame them I don't even trust this sick regime neither.

I hate Bush co.

No sense inviting the number one arms dealer in the world to a meeting on stopping the arms trade.