http://www.therant.us/staff/nemerov/gun_control_the_united_nations_and_global_disarmament.htm

October 8, 2004

Howard Nemerov

After the collapse of the interim republic following the civil war, Charles II was restored as the king of England, Scotland, and Ireland. He inherited a country filled with religious and political dissenters. (2)

In response to a politically volatile environment, many gun control measures were enacted to sufficiently disarm anybody who might pose a threat to the newly restored crown. These included disarming and disbanding the army that had welcomed Charles II home, a series of royal proclamations to disarm all those who ever fought against the Stuarts, and a new militia act which authorized unwarranted search and seizure of arms in the possession of any person considered a threat to the state. Registration was enacted, where gunsmiths had to report the number of guns made and sold each week, and a list of their customers. This was followed in 1671 with a Parliamentary act that “for the first time prohibited the possession and use of a firearm for all persons unqualified to hunt.” (3)

Thus we have the template for the modern day “sporting use” argument advanced by gun controllers. Of course, once the door was opened in Parliament, the United Kingdom saw ever-more restrictive gun control laws and increasing police power to restrict and confiscate private firearms, resulting in the UK gun ban today. For those who still labor under the delusion that sporting uses will be protected, keep in mind that since the 1997 ban, even the UK Olympic shooting team must train outside the country, as their firearms are banned, and hunting is being curtailed. (4)

One can reasonably conclude that the only purpose of gun control is to control who has guns, leaving all firearms in the hands of police and military organizations loyal to those who control the country, for the purpose of “insuring domestic tranquility” through total government power over those who reside within its borders.

Enter the United Nations
Beginning in the mid-1990s, the United Nations became enamored with the idea of global disarmament as a way of promoting peace. On the face of it, this sounds like a great thing, for who would not want peace? Here are some excerpts from a draft resolution entitled “Consolidation of peace through practical disarmament measures:”

“Convinced that a comprehensive and integrated approach towards certain practical disarmament measures…”

“…the readiness of the international community to assist affected States in their efforts to consolidate peace would greatly benefit the effective implementation of practical disarmament measures…”

“…the importance of such practical disarmament measures has received growing attention from the international community in general, and from interested and affected Member States in particular, as well as from the Secretary-General…” (5)

Rebecca Peters is director of International Action Network on Small Arms, an advocacy group that is working with the UN to ban civilian firearms, which declares as part of its program: “New thematic networks built around key issues, such as public health, women and children will increase international expertise and cooperation in joint efforts for change.” (6)

Apparently, Ms. Peters believes that more women and children being raped and abused is healthy, as long as it is done in a society that is disarmed, as has happened in Australia and England since their gun bans, as pointed out in earlier papers. (7,8) Indeed, she has already done much for women and children in Australia, where her career as a gun banner got its start. (9)

Saddam Hussein is also quite talented in “taking care” of women and children. He employed professional rapists to keep women in line through the threat of violating their honor, beheaded spouses of men who would not support his regime, and kidnapped their children. (10) This is important to remember as we explore the UN/Hussein relationship later in this paper.

Kofi Annan for King of the World?
When interviewing somebody for a job, one must look at the applicant’s work history to determine their qualifications. So let’s look at the Kofi Annan’s – and by inference, the UN’s, since it elected him to a second term as Secretary General – track record to see if he is qualified to be the global “consolidator of the peace.”

In 1998, the UN decided to purchase machine guns for Annan’s personal bodyguards. “The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), which regulates the sale and purchase of the MP5s, originally denied the United Nations permission to purchase the guns. Key factors were the U.N. security department's lack of formal status as a law-enforcement agency and the risk of non-U.S. citizens gaining access to the weapons, State Department sources said. The United Nations, aided by senior officials in the Clinton administration, persuaded the ATF to grant permission.” (11)

Remember, this is the Clinton administration that banned civilian firearms while issuing presidential pardons to arms and drug dealers. (12) They issued special privileges to a non-governmental agency to own arms that are banned for law-abiding citizens. When the government owns all the firearms, it has sole decision-making power as to who is legal and who is criminal.

Twice Damned
The Oil for Food program was established in 1995 to provide for the humanitarian needs of the Iraqi people. The program generated over 63 billion dollars, but with little oversight, much of that money was diverted by the Hussein regime to buy contraband which benefited those in power, and to buy influence in the international community. (13,14)

Due to the UN fronting for Iraq (and taking a 2.2% on all oil sales for their efforts) the damaging effects on Iraq’s health care system and general economy were not known until after the fall of the Hussein regime. Meanwhile, Saddam was buying fleets of Mercedes and other luxury items. (15)

When the corruption was brought to their attention, the UN stonewalled. Perhaps the most interesting revelation was that Marc Rich, the greatest tax evader in the history of our country, who was pardoned by Bill Clinton, wanted in on the program. (16) One of the players in the program was Cotecna, based in Switzerland, where Rich now resides. Even after problems began surfacing, the UN signed a new contract with Contecna. (17)

Perhaps the greatest concern is that some of this money may have been diverted to terrorist organizations, including Al Qaida. (18,19)

Without getting too involved in topics related to, but not specifically focused upon, gun control, let me summarize this section by saying that if Kofi Annan wants to disarm the world in order to set up his UN hegemony, we must ask ourselves if he is qualified to be entrusted with our peace and security. In this case, he either is too incompetent to know when his underlings are dishonest and unethical, or he knew and didn’t care, because he tacitly approved. Therefore, he is either a failure as a leader or as a human being.

But wait! There’s more!

The UN, Disarmament, and Genocide
Remembering that the way to total control runs through civilian disarmament, it is interesting to note that only 46% percent of UN members are considered free countries. (20) A simple majority vote goes in favor of authoritarian government. The percent of free countries on UN Human Rights Commission is even less at 43%. (21) While 71% of the signatories for the global disarmament commission are considered free, all European countries on the commission have licensing requirements to own firearms, restrict or ban handgun ownership, and do not accept self-defense as an acceptable reason for applying for a license. (22) So there is clear prejudice against the right to keep and bear arms.

How does this all affect the general populations of these countries? Especially when the UN is involved?

Here is a partial list of countries that disarmed the populace and proceeded with government-sponsored mass murder, termed democide by researcher Rudy Rummel. (Estimated number of people murdered in parentheses.) USSR (62 million), People’s Republic of China (35 million), Nazi Germany (21 million), Cambodia (2 million). All these countries are (or were) UN member countries during the slaughters, except Nazi Germany, which existed before the UN. Other countries listed by Professor Rummel that were also UN members during democide: Vietnam, Pakistan, and Yugoslavia, for another 4.25 million murdered by their own governments.

As Professor Rummel explains:

“Nearly 170 million people probably have been murdered by governments in the 20th Century, 1900-1987; over four-times those killed in combat in all international and domestic wars during the same years.” (23)

To highlight the effectiveness of a predatory government acting against an unarmed populace, at the current US murder rate, it would take criminals here 127 years to accomplish what Stalin averaged each year.

The Rwanda Massacre
Rwanda was also a UN member during their genocide of 1994. As Professor Rummel explains:

“President Habyarimana's government allowed Rwandans virtually no freedom. He created a strict one-party state with the intention of being able to control and quickly mobilize the population. The government divided people into communes, and if a citizen wanted to move in or out of his assigned commune, he had to report to the police.”

“This was not an act of massacre by the uneducated, undisciplined masses, ordinary folk easily misled and aroused. As with the Holocaust, when Nazi killing squads were often led and composed of PhDs and other professionals, the claims of the powerful and authoritative easily swayed the well educated to murder. In the Great Genocide, Hutu lawyers, teachers, professors, medical doctors, journalists, and other professionals, made their contribution to the methodical annihilation of the Tutsi or defiant Hutu.” (24)

During the tribal conflict, the UN either couldn’t or didn’t protect the refugees, after first making sure they were disarmed according to the UN Council on Small Arms. (25) As told by a Human Rights Watch report:

“This genocide resulted from the deliberate choice of a modern elite to foster hatred and fear to keep itself in power.”

“Policymakers in France, Belgium, and the United States and at the United Nations all knew of the preparations for massive slaughter and failed to take the steps needed to prevent it.” (26)

While over half a million defenseless people were being slaughtered, the UN and Clinton administration did nothing. The report states:

“As the new leaders were consolidating control over military commanders, they profited enormously from the first demonstration of international timidity. U.N. troops, in Rwanda under the terms of the peace accords, tried for a few hours to keep the peace, then withdrew to their posts—as ordered by superiors in New York—leaving the local population at the mercy of assailants.” (27)

To show this is not an isolated incident of innocent neglect on the part of the UN, a recent genocide happened in Burundi under similar circumstances. A report of the recent slaughter in a UN refugee camp notes:

“The DRC [Democratic Republic of Congo] Information Minister Henri Mova Sakanyi, while expressing his government's regret, said he was astonished the refugees protected by the United Nations High Commission for Refugees and the Burundian government ‘should be savagely murdered with impunity.’” (28)

Again, we cannot give this topic the attention it deserves in our current discourse. However, note once again that the UN, while promoting civilian disarmament, would not protect those it disarms, thereby giving the lie to their supposed good intentions for wanting your firearms.

Conclusion
How come when brutal dictators murder millions, the UN practices non-interference out of respect for national sovereignty, but when it comes to our right to keep and bear arms, there is no sovereignty for the US? How come the UN demands we disarm in order to promote the general peace, but refuses to protect unarmed civilians placed under its care, leading to unrestricted violence and genocide, the exact opposite of peace?

Gun control is about taking your guns in order to have control. Kofi Annan, leader of the UN and therefore representative of the UN’s agenda, sees no problem letting mass murder occur under the eye of UN peacekeepers, sees no problem doing business with a homicidal mass murderer, and wants to disarm law-abiding citizens all over the world in order to “keep the peace.” Exactly what kind of peace would this be, other than the peace that occurs when the slaves capitulate to the masters, who happen to have all the guns? The peace the UN seeks is the peace of domination of the masses by the armed few.

Footnotes
(1) The Masquerading Monarch, Professor Ronald Hutton, BBC History, January 4, 2004. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/monarchs_leaders/charlesii_masq_01.shtml

(2) Ibid. http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/state/monarchs_leaders/charlesii_masq_03.shtml

(3) Guns and Violence, The English Experience, Joyce Lee Malcolm, Harvard University Press, 2002, page 52.

(4) Countryside Uprising, James A. Swan, ESPN Outdoors.
http://espn.go.com/outdoors/general/columns/swan_james/1554110.html

(5) Consolidation of peace through practical disarmament measures, General and Complete Disarmament, United Nations, October 31, 1997.
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/source_documents/UN%20Documents/General%20Assembly/First%20Committee%20Draft%20Resolutions/A_C.1_52_L.18.pdf

(6) IANSA About Web Page. http://www.iansa.org/about.htm

(7) What Gun Controllers Don’t Want You to Know. http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=7862

(8) Gun Control, The Australian Experiment
http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=8073&catcode=13

(9) Australia: National Uniform Gun Laws, Rebecca Peters, Trauma Foundation at San Francisco General Hospital, July, 1, 1997. http://www.tf.org/tf/violence/firearms/other/austr2.shtml

(10) Saddam Hussein: crimes and human rights abuses, British Foreign and Commonwealth Office, November, 2002. page 9. http://image.guardian.co.uk/sys-files/Guardian/documents/2002/12/02/hrdossierenglish.pdf

(11) U.N. building to lose submachine gun stash, Stewart Sogel, Washington Times, 2003.
http://www.washtimes.com/world/20030811-112153-1373r.htm

(12) Clinton Pardons http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pardonchartlst.htm

(13) The U.N. Oil-for-Food Scam: Time for Hearings, Nile Gardiner and James Phillips, The Heritage Foundation, March 1, 2004. http://www.heritage.org/Research/InternationalOrganizations/wm438.cfm

(14) Leaked UN audit proves Oil-for-Food shambles, Tim Wood, Mineweb, May 19, 2004.
http://www.mineweb.net/sections/energy/oilshambles.htm

(15) Iraqi People Suffered Under Oil-for-Food Scam, Greg Palcot, Fox News, September 22, 2004. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133087,00.html

(16) Early Warning Not Heeded on Oil-for-Food, Eric Shawn, Fox News, September 21, 2004. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,132970,00.html

(17) U.N. Audit Found Early 'Oil-for-Food' Problems, Fox News, May 20, 2004. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,120391,00.html

(18) Possible Saddam-Al Qaeda Link Seen in U.N. Oil-for-Food Program, Claudia Rosett and George Russell, Fox News, September 20, 2004. http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,132682,00.html

(19) Did Terrorists Benefit From Oil-for-Food? Eric Shawn, Fox News, September 23, 2004.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,133212,00.html

(20) To reach this percentage, I cross-referenced UN members to Freedom House ratings based on political and civil rights.
List of UN Member States http://www.un.org/Overview/unmember.html 
Freedom in the World 2004, Freedom House.
http://www.freedomhouse.org/research/freeworld/2004/table2004.pdf

(21) More Democracies Needed On UN Rights Body, Freedom House, May 3, 2004. http://www.freedomhouse.org/media/pressrel/050304.htm

(22) World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities, International Forearms Legislation page. http://www.wfsa.net/Intl_Leg/Intl_splash.htm

(23) 20th Century Democide, Rudy Rummel. http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM
Cross-referenced with Gun Facts, Version 3.3. Guy Smith, 2003, page 72. Go to http://www.gunfacts.info/ and select the format you prefer.

(24) Freedom Virtually Ends Genocide and Mass Murder, Rudy Rummel.
http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/WF.CHAP6.HTM

(25) Emergency Update No.160 on the Great Lakes, United Nations Department of Humanitarian Affairs Integrated Regional Information Network for the Great Lakes, Tuesday 29 April 1997.
http://www.africa.upenn.edu/Hornet/irin160.html

(26) Leave None to Tell the Story: Genocide in Rwanda, Human Rights Watch, updated April 1, 2004.
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3-01.htm#P6_41

(27) The Genocide, Human Rights Watch, updated April 1, 2004.
http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/rwanda/Geno1-3-02.htm#P21_7273

(28) 160 People Killed In Attack On Burundi Refugee Camp, Esdras Ndikumana, Turkish Press, August 14, 2004http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=24547

For further reading, see the following references:
UN Oil For Food Audit. http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/un_oilforfood_audit.pdf 
The September 11 Commission Report. http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/911Report.pdf