http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32887 

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Some world leaders at the G8 summit meeting are floating the idea of a global tax on arms sales, including – at French President Jacques Chirac's suggestion – a tax on gun purchases by individuals.

In a speech at the annual meeting of the "Group of Eight," or G8, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pushed the arms-sales tax as a scheme whereby the world's wealthiest nations could fund efforts to eliminate world hunger, reports Bloomberg News.

The "Group of Eight" includes the U.S., UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia.

Citing the Brazilian paper Folha de S. Paulo, Bloomberg reports Lula said such taxes would create "a global fund capable of giving food to those who are hungry and for creating the conditions to end the causes of hunger."

Calling the Brazilian leader's proposal "forceful and convincing," Chirac was reluctant to back a levy on weapons manufacturers in France and elsewhere, but suggested a global tax on firearms purchases made by individuals, said the report.

"Lula's idea is a simple one. People must be able to eat three times a day, and that is not the case today," Chirac added, according to Agence France-Presse. "This unacceptable situation must be debated."

Lula's speech containing the controversial proposal came after a meeting of leaders of 12 developing countries with the G-8. The Brazilian leader also suggested wealthy creditor nations could donate part of the debt payments they receive back into a global fund to relieve hunger.

Chirac later said the proposed tax on arms sales might serve as an alternative to the "Tobin tax," which has been floated previously as a possible global tax on currency transactions, according to a CNSNews.com report. "Perhaps a tax on the sale of weapons would be quite justified," Chirac said, according to CNSNews.com. "I'm very much in favor of studying this proposal. For the time being, that's all he's asked. There's lots of trade in weapons, and there's no doubt whatsoever that this trade attracts everyone's concern."

The very thought of a global tax on arms sales and possibly even on individual gun purchases is like walking on glass to many, who feel doubly threatened by a global tax and by another encroachment on private gun-ownership. Although many in public policy positions might downplay such concerns as overblown or even paranoid, global bodies do have a long, if rarely reported, history of trying to foster various sorts of international gun bans.

As far back as Sept. 24, 1999, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called on members of the Security Council to "tackle one of the key challenges in preventing conflict in the next century" – the proliferation and "easy availability" of small arms and light weapons, which Annan identified as the "primary tools of violence" in conflicts throughout the world. (Though the terms tend to be used interchangeably, the United Nations defines small arms as weapons designed for personal use, while light weapons are those designed for several persons operating as a crew. Together, they account for virtually every kind of firearm from revolvers, pistols, rifles, carbines and light machine guns all the way to heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, mortars up to 100 mm caliber, and land mines.)

"Even in societies not beset by civil war, the easy availability of small arms has in many cases contributed to violence and political instability," said Annan at that time. "Controlling that easy availability is a prerequisite for a successful peace-building process."

Talk is one thing, but the Security Council then unanimously adopted the "Report of the Group of Governmental Experts on Small Arms." The 26-member group's various recommendations, two dozen in all, add up to a comprehensive program for worldwide gun control, and call for a total ban on private ownership of "assault rifles." A few of the recommendations:

• All small arms and light weapons which are not under legal civilian possession and which are not required for the purposes of national defense and internal security, should be collected and destroyed by States as expeditiously as possible.

   

• All States should determine in their national laws and regulations which arms are permitted for civilian possession and the conditions under which they can be used.

   

• All States should ensure that they have in place adequate laws, regulations and administrative procedures to exercise effective control over the legal possession of small arms and light weapons and over their transfer in order ... to prevent illicit trafficking.

   

• States are encouraged to integrate measures to control ammunition ... into prevention and reduction measures relating to small arms and light weapons.

   

• States should work toward ... appropriate national legislation, regulations and licensing requirements that define conditions under which firearms can be acquired, used and traded by private persons. In particular, they should consider the prohibition of unrestricted trade and private ownership of small arms and light weapons specifically designed for military purposes, such as automatic guns (e.g., assault rifles and machine-guns).

The report notes with approval countries like China that have enacted measures to "strengthen legal or regulatory controls." China reported that some 300,000 "illicit" guns were seized and destroyed by officials acting in response to "new and more stringent national regulations that have come into force ... on the control on guns within the country and on arms exports."

France, too, in 1998 "acted to reinforce governmental control over military and civilian arms and ammunition, and introduced more rigorous measures regulating the holding of arms by civilians."

A State Department official, requesting anonymity, has previously told WND "the United Nations will not dictate domestic gun control for any nation. They can make recommendations and nations can act on those recommendations as they see fit, but we will never have the United Nations telling countries what they should do."

Questioned about specific recommendations, he replied, "Those are just recommendations – and surprisingly, a number of countries, including the U.S., take them up on those recommendations. In fact, we support all 24 of those recommendations."

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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=32887

By Jon Dougherty
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

Just days after French President Jacques Chirac called for a a global tax on individual firearms purchases, the United Nations has announced it is gearing up to sponsor a global gun-control forum next month in New York City.

The July 7-11 meeting builds on a similar forum held in 2001, in which participating nations signed a "Program of Action" to "Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects."

The Program of Action, or PoA, "sets the first global norms of good behavior to reduce small-arms proliferation," says a statement by the U.N. Small Arms Conference. "By agreeing to this document, all countries have formally committed themselves to take action" regarding the proliferation of "illicit" small arms and light weapons.

Among the provisions in the PoA agreed upon by member states:

• A commitment to make "illicit gun production/possession a criminal offense";
• The establishment of a national coordination agency on small arms;
• A pledge to identify and destroy stocks of surplus weapons;
• Track "officially held guns";
• The notification of nations who were the original supplier of weapons when those weapons are re-exported;
• The marking of guns and light weapons at the point of manufacture, so they can be tracked and traced globally; and
• The maintenance of gun manufacture records.

"The purpose of the [meeting of states] in July 2003 is for governments to report their progress and lessons learned in the first two years of implementing the PoA," said the conference statement. Groups "will make their own independent report on governments' activities, as well as showcasing the important contributions that [non-governmental organizations] themselves are making to stop gun violence."

U.N. officials did not return requests for comment before press time.

News of the gun-control event comes on the heels of statements made by some Group of 8 members who say they support a global tax on individuals for every gun purchase they make.

In a speech at the annual meeting of the G8, Brazil's President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva pushed the arms-sales tax as a scheme whereby the world's wealthiest nations could fund efforts to eliminate world hunger, Bloomberg News reported earlier this week.

The G8 countries are U.S., UK, France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan and Russia.

Quoting the Brazilian paper Folha de S. Paulo, Bloomberg reported that Lula said such taxes would create "a global fund capable of giving food to those who are hungry and for creating the conditions to end the causes of hunger."

The idea was championed by French President Jacques Chirac, who said Lula's proposal was "forceful and convincing."

"Lula's idea is a simple one. People must be able to eat three times a day, and that is not the case today," Chirac added, according to Agence France-Presse. "This unacceptable situation must be debated."

According to CNSNews.com, Chirac also said a tax on weapons could be "quite justified."

The United Nations has a history of pushing an anti-gun agenda. As early as Sept. 24, 1999, U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan called on members of the Security Council to "tackle one of the key challenges in preventing conflict in the next century" – the proliferation and "easy availability" of small arms and light weapons. Annan identified them as the "primary tools of violence" in conflicts throughout the world.

Though the terms tend to be used interchangeably, the United Nations defines small arms as weapons designed for personal use, while light weapons are those designed for several persons operating as a crew. Together, however, such weapons account for virtually every kind of firearm from revolvers, pistols, rifles, carbines and light machine guns all the way to heavy machine guns, grenade launchers, portable anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, mortars up to 100-mm caliber, and land mines.

"Even in societies not beset by civil war, the easy availability of small arms has in many cases contributed to violence and political instability," said Annan "Controlling that easy availability is a prerequisite for a successful peace-building process."

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http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33584

© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com

A U.N. group is working toward establishment of an international system to register and regulate civilian possession of firearms, according to a former congressman.

The ultimate aim of many members of the conference on small arms is to outlaw personal ownership of guns altogether, said Georgia Republican Bob Barr in an interview yesterday on the newly syndicated WorldNetDaily Report with Joseph Farah.

 

Bob Barr

Barr was an official representative of the U.S. State Department's delegation at the conference's week-long session last week. It is known officially as the first Biennial Meeting of States on the Implementation of the Program of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.

At the beginning of the session, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged members to redouble efforts to curb small arms and light weapons.

"The United Nations remains firmly committed to prevent, combat and eradicate the illicit trade of small arms and light weapons in all its aspects," he said.

The group will meet again in 2005, followed by a review conference scheduled for 2006.

If not for the U.S. State Department and organizations such as the National Rifle Association, "this locomotive would have had a lot more steam," Barr said.

Barr commended U.S. Undersecretary of State John Bolton for focusing the U.N.'s attention on international trafficking of illicit arms and not on U.S. ownership of arms.

"He has done an outstanding job of monitoring this and standing up to it in a way the State Department frequently does not do," Barr said.

However, Barr warned that many member nations, including the UK, Netherlands and India, want to set up a legally binding protocol requiring all U.N. countries to start registration of firearms.

The potential implications of that are enormous, he said, noting it is a small step toward the ultimate nightmare of American gun owners – "the U.N. knocking on our door to get our firearms."

"If we were to allow in any way, shape or form the U.N. to begin the process of registering and regulating fire arms – ultimately their goal of doing away with personal firearms – we would have dealt a blow to our sovereignty," he said.

Barr called on citizens to urge their representatives to stay on top of the issue and ensure the U.S. is not faced with a legally-binding document that would commit the country to some form of firearms registration and regulation by the U.N. or any outside authority.

"The presence of several anti-gun groups at this and other related conferences underscores the threat they pose to the constitutional rights of American citizens if we fail to closely monitor their activities," Barr said in a statement. "In fact, many of these groups receive substantial funding from anti-firearms governments to move their agenda."

During the conference, the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey released its findings for 2002, which paid special attention to U.S. gun ownership.

"By any measure the United States is the most armed country in the world," the report said. "With roughly 83 to 96 guns per 100 people, the United States is approaching a statistical level of one gun per person."