What a bunch of crap. I hate to read this junk. Ofcourse, it makes me want to work even harder at defending my RKBA.
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From an ATLANTA news org.
Constitution: U.S. gun stance endangers children
Staff
Thursday, July 19, 2001
In every contest pitting the safety of American children against the political power of the National Rifle Association, the kids lose. Now, the NRA can add the children of developing countries to its trophy case, as well.
[b]The NRA --- in the guise of the Bush State Department[/b] --- is blocking an effort by the United Nations to crack down on the 500 million small arms and light weapons that kill at least half a million people each year. [b]The White House maintains that keeping guns out of the hands of child soldiers in Sierra Leone will infringe on the rights of deer hunters here.[/b]
At least 300,000 children are fighting in foreign conflicts, many of them armed with American-made M-16s. In Africa, illegal guns fuel the 20 civil wars and armed conflicts now under way.
"The problem is so acute and urgent that any further waiting or delay will seriously undermine democracy," said Marsden Madoka, Kenya's presidential minister of state.
The United Nations proposes a nonbinding accord to cut down on the numbers of submachine guns, assault rifles, hand grenades, grenade launchers and portable missile launchers that are currently reaching crime syndicates, drug dealers and warlords. Since small arms trafficking transcends national borders, an international pact is essential. But it does not jeopardize the rights of private gun owners in this country in any way.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration announced its opposition before the U.N. conference on small arms began in earnest last week. "The United States will not join consensus on a final document that contains measures contrary to our constitutional right to keep and bear arms," said John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security affairs.
The White House position further frays relations with our European allies.
"We should not allow ourselves to be blown off course by [b]unfounded fears [/b]spread by powerful lobbying organizations,'' said Ben Bradshaw, Britain's Foreign Office's undersecretary of state, in reference to the NRA.
As Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) pointed out earlier this week, the Bush administration's stance gives the world a distorted view of Americans' position on gun control. [b]Most Americans support more domestic gun control laws.[/b] She also noted that the United States ought to be leading the effort to curtail trafficking in small arms, not blocking it.
[b]In refusing to consent to the small arms ban, the White House is appeasing the camouflage and militia types who sleep with machine guns under their pillows and canned corn under their beds.[/b]
[b]Unfortunately, while their fears of black government helicopters are delusional,[/b] the carnage from guns in war-torn Third World countries is real.
[b]President Bush's opposition to a global ban on illicit gun sales will contribute to the massacre of thousands more women and children by illegally sold, U.S.-made guns. [/b]
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