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WORD COUNT
715
JULY 28, 2004
IT’S THE GUNS, STUPID –
by Wendy Cukier, Rebecca Peters and Rachel Stohl
As the threat of weapons
of mass destruction spurs our government to action, a far more insidious
threat endangers citizens around the world. The massive proliferation of
guns! Gun trafficking has always been President Bush's blind spot in the
war on terror. The inherent danger from the 4,000 gun shows a year in the
United States,
where terrorists and criminals can load their vans with countless weapons --
no questions asked -- may actually grow worse in the coming months.
Without leadership from
the President, the federal ban on assault weapons will expire on September
13th and a new generation of assault weapons will enter the civilian market
- and be readily available to terrorists. During the 2000 presidential
campaign, then- Candidate Bush pledged to renew the ban. On
November 10, 2001,
President Bush addressed the United Nations. In his speech he stated, "We
have a responsibility to deny weapons to terrorists and to actively prevent
private citizens from providing them."
Unfortunately, since
taking office, the Bush administration has stood in the way of efforts to
renew the ban and close the gun show loophole – a loophole which allows
criminals and terrorists an easy opportunity to evade background checks.
Moreover, in many instances, the administration has actually turned back the
clock on public safety. Attorney General John Ashcroft led the effort to
destroy background check records after 24 hours of a gun purchase from a
federally licensed dealer. His records destruction recommendation was
included in gun industry backed legislation that also eroded law
enforcement's ability to target crooked gun dealers.
While the Bush
administration may be interested in allowing free access to guns for
responsible American citizens, these policies have worldwide effects. Like
pollution, guns know no borders. Whether it's
Washington DC, Toronto,
Port-au-Prince or Beirut, the permissive gun laws in the United States offer
the world's criminal market easy access to an extraordinary range of lethal
weapons. In fact, 50% of handguns recovered in crime in Toronto come from
the United States. 80% of guns used in crimes in Mexico come from the U.S.
In addition,
U.S. domestic policy is
also helping arm terrorists abroad. On September 10, 2001 -- just one day
before 9/11 -- Ali Boumelhem was convicted on a variety of weapons
violations plus conspiracy to ship weapons to the terrorist organization
Hezbollah in Lebanon. He and his brother Mohamed had purchased an arsenal
of shotguns, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, flash suppressers and assault
weapon parts from
Michigan gun
shows.
Just as worrying, found
among the mounds of rubble in Kabul after the U.S. led assault there, was
the manual entitled, "How Can I Train Myself for Jihad" containing an entire
section on "Firearms Training." The manual singles out the
United States
for its easy availability of firearms and stipulates that al-Qaeda members
living in the United States "obtain an assault weapon legally, preferably
AK-47 or variations." Criminals in the U.S. and abroad have long known what
has become doctrine to al-Qaeda: The United States is the Great Gun Bazaar.
Moderate gun control
offers enormous dividends in public safety that will pay out for
generations. A recent report by the
Brady Center to Prevent
Gun Violence notes that if the federal ban on assault weapons had not
passed, "approximately 60,000 additional assault weapons would have been
traced to crime in the last 10 years -- an average of 6,000 additional
assault weapons traced to crime each year." Assault weapons are designed
to spray bullets on a battlefield, not in Mexico City or Toronto or
Washington, DC neighborhoods.
While the world community
has experienced the realities of terrorism too often in the last several
years, too many of our neighborhoods already know what it means to live with
terror. They've been surviving widespread gun violence for decades. Closing
the gun show loophole and continuing the ban on assault weapons, can provide
dramatic leaps forward in the safety of communities in the
United States as well as
those around the world. Failing to act condemns thousands of families around
the globe to years of suffering.
The President can't
remain silent on the pending expiration of the assault weapon ban and remain
true to his UN statement or campaign pledges. It's a question not only of
public safety, but also of national security.
--
Wendy Cukier is President
of the Canadian Coalition for Gun Control, Rebecca Peters is Director of the
International Action Network on Small Arms, and Rachel Stohl is Senior
Analyst at the Center for Defense Information. CDI is dedicated to
strengthening security through: international cooperation; reduced reliance
on unilateral military power to resolve conflict; reduced reliance on
nuclear weapons; a transformed and reformed military establishment; and,
prudent oversight of, and spending on, defense programs.
www.cdi.org
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