Thursday at U.N.: Panel on voluntary surrender of firearms
October 22, 2013
Apparently hosted by Ambassador Maria Cristina Perceval, permanent representative of Argentina to the U.N., according to the invitation obtained by this column, the gathering was described as a “side event” scheduled during the daily lunch break, from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m.
Last year, according to the U.N. Office of Drugs and Crime, Argentina authorities destroyed nearly 11,000 firearms that had been voluntarily turned in. Argentine President Cristina Fernandez Kirchner, now recovering from serious surgery, spoke last month at the U.N.
During this Thursday’s event, presentations will be made by Dr. Julio Alak, minister of justice and human rights of Argentina; Angela Kane, high representative of the Secretary General for Disarmament Affairs; Matias Molle4, director of the National Register of Arms of Argentina; Dr. Ernesto Kreplak, under-secretary for Coordination and Control of Registral Management of Argentina; Melanie Regimbal, director of the Regional Centre of the U.N. for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America, and Daniel Prins, director of the Conventional Arms Branch of ODA (Office of Disarmament Affairs).
Dr. Alak was quoted last year when news agencies reported the gun destruction. He told reporters that “we have now reached the figure of 160,531 firearms taken out of circulation.” He said at the time that civilian disarmament “is a priority goal for the national state because it is a tool for reducing the level of violence in society.” Alak’s appearance on Thursday has yet to be confirmed, according to the invitation.
If that sounds familiar, it is essentially the same rhetoric used by the American gun prohibition lobby. Every scheme to erode gun rights is aimed at “reducing violence,” which comes right out of the gun control playbook exposed first by this column and The Gun Mag.com on Aug. 1. On page 9 of “Preventing Gun Violence Through Effective Messaging,” readers are counseled, “Do talk about ‘preventing gun violence’,” but “Don’t talk about ‘gun control’.”
Voluntary surrender of firearms is perhaps one step behind so-called “gun buybacks” like that conducted by Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn’s office in January. That event has been the subject of a public records act probe by Bellevue’s Second Amendment Foundation.
The other day in a letter to President Barack Obama, all 45 Republican senators and five of their Democrat colleagues said they will not vote to ratify the treaty. Among their objections are alleged conflicts with the Second Amendment. The letter contends that “the treaty includes only a weak non-binding reference to the lawful ownership, use of, and trade in firearms, and recognizes none of these activities, much less individual self-defense, as fundamental individual rights,” according to the Times of Israel.
Thursday’s “side event” is proof that international anti-gunners and domestic gun ban proponents have much in common, and they are not finished.
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