U.N. gun burning just the beginning
By Henry Lamb
web
posted July 9, 2001
Guns will be burned in New York today, July 9, in a major media dog-and-pony show to draw public attention to the U.N. Conference on Small Arms. The official title of the event is the "United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects." The purpose of the conference is to advance the development of an international treaty to control the availability of small arms and light weapons in warfare. This treaty is a significant step toward the U.N.'s ultimate goal, expressed in the report of the Commission on Global Governance report, Our Global Neighborhood, of eventually controlling the manufacture, sale and distribution of all firearms.
Shortly after the Commission on Global Governance report was released in 1995, the U.N. helped to organize a coalition of NGOs (non-government organizations) to promote the U.N.'s goals around the world. The organization, called IANSA (International Action Network on Small Arms), has been busy organizing gun collection and gun burning events in several countries. They will be conducting workshops and other events during the U.N. meeting in New York.
This is only one of several recent events that demonstrate an acceleration of the U.N.'s global governance agenda.
On June 22, a new International Convention on Cyber-crime was readied for ratification by participating nations - including the United States. This treaty will require participating nations to adopt "harmonized" laws that will compel ISPs (Internet Service Providers) to collect information and data from their subscribers, without notification, and supply that information to "competent authorities." Governments agree to collect and exchange this information for each other. The committee that prepared the treaty is already working on a protocol to control "hate speech" and "xenophobia."
With extraordinary effort, the U.N. has managed to snatch the Kyoto Protocol from certain death after the collapse of negotiations at the Hague last November. Despite President Bush's announcement that he would no longer pursue the Kyoto Protocol, he has agreed to pursue the "Kyoto process," whatever that is. It means that a delegation of Bush administration officials will be in Bonn, Germany later in July to continue negotiations toward some kind of international treaty related to reducing fossil fuel energy use in the United States.
On May 24, the Bush administration signed the U.N. Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants (POPs). The treaty bans outright, eight chemicals, and gives the U.N. control over four others, including some used in the manufacture of PVC products and most plastics. (Dec 15, 2000).
On October 18, last year, The U.S. Senate ratified the U.N. Convention on Desertification to complement the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity. The Convention on Biological Diversity was not ratified. In the waning moments of the 104th Congress, Senator George Miller, then Senate Majority Leader, withdrew the treaty from a vote because of the tremendous pressure brought by the grassroots property-rights and resource-use organizations. The Clinton administration, nevertheless, implemented the primary provisions of the treaty through executive orders and its "Ecosystem Management" policies. The net result is that every square inch of land in the United States, public or private, is subject to policies guided by international treaties - ratified or not.
Hmm. Through international treaties, the U.N. is attempting to take control of small arms; control the use of fossil fuel energy; control or eliminate the use of certain chemicals essential to the manufacture of plastics; and control how both public and private lands are used. This summary does not attempt to describe the U.N. influence on world trade, multi-national corporations, international monetary exchange, education, human rights, or population control. These are subjects worthy of several more articles.
In every facet of life, the United Nations is actively seeking to impose its vision of how Americans, and everyone else in the world, should live. A very comprehensive picture of this vision is available in the U.N. publication, Global Biodiversity Assessment, which endorses a plan to convert at least half the land area in the United States to wilderness. It is no accident that Representative Chris Shays (R-CT) has introduced HR488, that specifically calls for the creation of such wilderness areas, connected by corridors of wilderness, in a massive five-state area in the west. With 47 U.N. Biosphere Reserves already in the United States, and the Clinton-mandated road closures on nearly 60-million additional acres of the United States, we are seeing the U.N. agenda implemented.
It's called incrementalism. Little by little, one policy after another, one law built upon another, the goals of the United Nation are being imposed upon the citizens of the United States.
If the next ten year produce the steady march toward global governance that we have experienced during the last ten years, what little land is left in private hands in America, will be of little use without government approval. The freedom to move about the country in the convenience and privacy of your own automobile will be a memory, except for the super- rich and the politically well-connected. Gone will be the free flow of information through the Internet. Many of the most useful, convenience products, made with plastics, will be outlawed. Any gun that you may own will likely be illegal, unless it is registered, and approved by the government.
The world is changing quite rapidly. The changes are consistent with Agenda 21, a book full of policy recommendations adopted in 1992 at the U.N. Conference on Environment and Development. Next year, in Johannesburg, South Africa, the United Nations will hold another celebration called Rio+10, or the Johannesburg Summit.
More than 64,000 people are expected to gather there to measure and celebrate the progress toward global governance. Far too many Americans fail to see any problem with this agenda, and many are actively promoting it. Others see that national sovereignty cannot exist in a world governed by a central global government. Nations must become administrative units of the global governance machine.
Even a cursory review of the influence the United Nations has already
exerted over domestic policies in the United States, shows clearly how,
through international treaties and agreements, the United Nations is taking
control over our lives. Few people yet recognize that the source of control
comes from the global governance regime. Most people blame Washington,
but it is bigger than Washington. Washington - Congress and the administration
- must bear the blame for yielding to international pressure, but make
no mistake about it: the policies that most constrict and erode our individual
freedoms, originate in the international community. 
Henry Lamb is the executive vice president of the Environmental Conservation Organization , and chairman of Sovereignty International.
Enter Stage Right anti-gun control t-shirts, sweat shirts, mugs, etc.
Other related articles: (open in a new window)
- The
UN seeks global gun control by Tom DeWeese (June 4, 2001)
Tom DeWeese rails against the latest effort to grab your firearms. This time the effort is on a global scale