<html><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html charset=windows-1252"></head><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><span class="Apple-Mail-URLShareWrapperClass"><span class="Apple-Mail-URLShareUserContentTopClass" style="line-height: 14px !important; text-align: left !important; ">(Is there any doubt that the NRA is a shill for arms manufacturers? M.S.) </span></span></div><span class="Apple-Mail-URLShareWrapperClass"><span class="Apple-Mail-URLShareUserContentTopClass" style="line-height: 14px !important; text-align: left !important; "><br></span><span class="Apple-Mail-URLShareSharedContentClass" style="position: relative !important; "><div class="original-url"><a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/28/nra-block-un-treaty-gun-control">http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/dec/28/nra-block-un-treaty-gun-control</a><br><br></div><div id="article" class="auto-hyphenated" style="-webkit-hyphens: auto; "><div class="page" style="font-size: 20px; font-family: Palatino, Georgia, Times, 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 1.4; text-align: justify; "><h1 class="title" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.25em; text-align: start; -webkit-hyphens: manual; ">National Rifle Association moves to block UN treaty on gun control </h1><h1 class="title" style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 1.25em; text-align: start; -webkit-hyphens: manual; "><i>by Amy Goodman</i></h1><div class="leading-image" style="font-family: Helvetica, sans-serif; margin-bottom: 0.25em; -webkit-hyphens: manual; font-size: 14px; "><img alt="A protestor is removed by a security guard during a speech by Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice president of the National Rifle Association during a news conference in Washington." style="float: none; margin: auto; max-width: 100%; display: block; clear: both; " id="dcada430-d1ec-4379-929e-3035cff113bb" height="276" width="460" apple-width="yes" apple-height="yes" src="cid:12C007B1-B975-4717-84D1-03E30C2A7D73@att.net"><div class="caption" style="color: rgb(102, 102, 102); font-size: 0.7em; line-height: 14px; margin-top: 0.4em; width: 767px; ">Medea Benjamin of Code Pink is removed by a security guard during a speech by Wayne LaPierre, the executive vice-president of the National Rifle Association during a news conference in Washington. Photograph: Joshua Roberts/Reuters</div></div><p><font size="3">While the final funerals for the victims of the Newtown, Connecticut school massacre have been held, gun violence continues apace, most notably with the Christmas Eve murder of two volunteer firefighters in rural Webster, New York, at the hands of an ex-convict who was armed, as was the Newtown shooter Adam Lanza, with a Bushmaster .223 caliber AR-15 semiautomatic rifle. James Holmes, the alleged perpetrator of the massacre last July in Aurora, Colorado, stands accused of using, among other weapons, a Smith & Wesson AR-15 with a 100-round drum in place of a standard magazine clip.</font></p><p><font size="3"><b>Standing stalwartly against any regulation of these weapons and high-capacity magazines, the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/23/nra-wayne-lapierre-schools-gun-control" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">National Rifle Association continues to block any gun control laws whatsoever</a>, and even trumpets its efforts to block the global <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/arms-trade" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Arms trade" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">arms trade</a> treaty, slated for negotiations at the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/unitednations" title="More from guardian.co.uk on United Nations" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">United Nations</a> this March.</b></font></p><p><font size="3">On Christmas Eve, the same day as the attack in Webster, the UN general assembly voted to move ahead with 10 days of negotiations on the <a href="https://www.un.org/disarmament/convarms/ArmsTradeTreaty/" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">arms trade treaty</a>, to commence 18 March. <b>Recall it was last July that the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/obama-administration" title="More from guardian.co.uk on Obama administration" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">Obama administration</a> said it "needed more time" to review the proposed treaty, effectively killing any hope of getting a treaty passed and sent back to member nations for ratification. This was just one week after the Aurora massacre, and in the heat of a close presidential election campaign.</b></font></p><p><font size="3"><b>The <a href="http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/12/28/us-arms-treaty-nra-idUSBRE8BR03420121228" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">NRA succeeded in helping to scuttle the global arms trade treaty</a>, delivering to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a letter opposing the treaty signed by 50 US senators, including eight Democrats, and 130 members of the House of Representatives.</b></font></p><p><font size="3">The global treaty shouldn't be controversial. By signing on, governments agree not to export weapons to countries that are under an arms embargo, or to export weapons that would facilitate "the commission of genocide, crimes against humanity, <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/law/war-crimes" title="More from guardian.co.uk on War crimes" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">war crimes</a>" or other violations of international humanitarian law. Exports of arms are banned if they will facilitate "gender-based violence or violence against children" or be used for "transnational organized crime".</font></p><p><font size="3">The treaty deals with international exports of weapons and ammunition, not any nation's internal, domestic laws that govern the sale or use of guns.</font></p><p><font size="3"><b><a href="http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/nra-must-drop-its-campaign-of-lies-against-un-global-arms-trade-treaty" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">Amnesty International last week called on the NRA</a> to "immediately drop its campaign of distortions and lies about the pending United Nations' global arms trade treaty."</b> Amnesty USA's Michelle Ringuette elaborated:</font></p><blockquote><p><font size="3"><b>"Every day, 1,500 people die in armed conflicts around the world – one person every minute. These unregulated weapons are used to force tens of thousands of children into armed conflict and to rape women and girls in conflict zones. More than 26 million people around the globe are forced from their homes, and their livelihoods destroyed, by armed conflict.</b></font></p><p><font size="3"><b>"The <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/nra" title="More from guardian.co.uk on NRA" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">NRA</a> must immediately stand down on its campaign to block a global arms trade treaty."</b></font></p></blockquote><p><font size="3">NRA CEO <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/dec/21/nra-full-statement-lapierre-newtown" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">Wayne LaPierre rolled out his public response</a> to the Newtown massacre one week after it happened, blaming the violence on "monsters" and everything from video games to hurricanes, but not allowing that guns and their ready availability in the US might have something to do with it. At his press conference, <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/26/blood_on_your_hands_codepink_interrupts" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">LaPierre was twice dramatically interrupted by peace activists from the group Code Pink</a>.</font></p><p><font size="3">The first banner, held by Tighe Barry, read "NRA Killing Our Kids". Barry held the banner in front of the podium, silently, as LaPierre tried to continue his speech. Barry was then pulled out. After LaPierre resumed his speech, Medea Benjamin rose, holding a banner reading, "NRA: Blood on your hands", after which she was hauled away.</font></p><p><font size="3">Two days later, on NBC's Meet the Press, LaPierre denied that regulating semiautomatic weapons or high-capacity magazines would help stem the epidemic of mass shootings in this country.</font></p><p><font size="3">The NRA exerts enormous influence over state and federal gun regulation. <a href="http://www.democracynow.org/2012/12/26/as_us_faces_gun_epidemic_post" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">Andrew Feinstein, who wrote the book The Shadow World: Inside the Global Arms Trade, told me</a>:</font></p><blockquote><p><font size="3"><b>"I have not seen anywhere else in the world a gun lobby that has the same level of influence on its own government as the NRA does in the <a href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/usa" title="More from guardian.co.uk on United States" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(32, 0, 127); ">United States</a> …</b></font></p><p><font size="3"><b>"The US buys and sells almost as much weaponry as the rest of the world combined. So what happens in the U.S. is going to have enormous impact on the rest of the world."</b></font></p></blockquote><p><font size="3">From the hallways of Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, to Afghanistan, to Somalia, the flood of US weapons and ammunition fuels violence, death and injury. President Obama and Congress need to take action, now.</font></p><p><br></p></div></div></span><span class="Apple-Mail-URLShareUserContentBottomClass" style="line-height: 14px !important; text-align: left !important; "></span></span></body></html>