WFSA Current News - April, 2003 

April 23, 2003  

Japanese Ambassador comments on illegal trafficking
            The UN Small Arms Review Conference is scheduled to take place in New York , on July 7-11, 2003 . The chair of that meeting is to be Ambassador Kuniko Inoguchi of Japan.
            An international workshop in Oslo, Norway, has been held on small arms. It was sponsored by the Netherlands and Norway. A report by Reuters today has Ambassador Inoguchi urging the manufacturers of firearms to mark their products in order to help hamper the activities of illegal arms traffickers.
            Inoguchi is quoted as saying, “"This trade is linked to other kinds of trade, in drugs, human beings. . .  "It's linked to all types of criminal organizations and to terrorism."
            It is interesting that the report also indicates her view that  ". . .we need every national government to have the commitment to do a better job”. There is considerable disparity between the two quite different kinds of arms production in the world. On the one hand, there is the manifested commercial production of the legitimate sporting arms trade. On the other there is the less prominent – and, indeed, sometimes completely undisclosed – production of certain government-related manufacturing groups.
            The WFSA through the Manufacturers Advisory Group has sponsored considerable work on measures such as firearm marking, measures not at all resisted by the legitimate commercial trade. The Manufacturers Advisory Group sees the importance of marking and is prepared to work with the international community with strategies of this kind to help minimize the impact of the illegal trade referred to by the Ambassador.

April 3, 2003

 Anti-gun lawsuits reconsidered in US
            Numerous lawsuits have been running in the United States trying to have it established in law that blame for criminal gun usage may be placed on lawful firearm manufacturers. In a move described in an Associated Press article today, the House Judiciary Committee has voted to approve measures forbidding lawsuits brought against manufacturers for misuse of their wares.
            The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) has vigorously pursued such a case, arguing ( http://www.naacp.org ) that certain community groups are disadvantaged because of the way guns are marketed. The website follows the unfortunate practice of quoting so-called ‘gun deaths’ as a generic group, the figures for which include suicide. There are no independent studies from anywhere in the world which show a reduction in suicide follows increased gun restrictions.
            The article also suggests that over thirty municipalities and other official bodies have floated such cases against gun manufacturers. It is to the detriment of this reporting that there is no suggestion these cases may be futile. There is no mention of the criticism they have received, or, perhaps even more important, of the large and growing body of independent evidence that shows the use of firearms in self-defence constitutes a many times greater good than the evil of their offensive use.
            It is sad that net benefit figures regardless of their availability are simply not acceptable fare in most popular news outlets. However, increased attention will inevitably be paid to the right to self defence both in principle and in fact.

April 2, 2003

Another English firearm amnesty
            Reuters today ran an article describing the seizure in London of over a hundred illegal handguns destined for the black market.
            Citing a rise in gun crime of 42 per cent since 1997, the article quotes various police and other figures who are justifiably concerned about increasing criminal activity involving firearms. England was outraged by the murder of two young women recently caught in a gangland shooting crossfire, and conforming to what has become an entrenched pattern of reactive legislation, further measures are contemplated to tighten gun laws.
            The article indicated that a new amnesty of a month’s duration has just begun, with the laudable intention of reducing firearms crime. It did not mention the well-noted historical failure of such programs to lower crime rates.