Coalition wants tighter control on small arms trade

CanWest News Service ^ | June 19, 2006 | Meagan Fitzpatrick

[neverdem]

CREDIT: CP PHOTO/Adrian Wyld

Detective Sergeant Greg Getty gestures towards guns seized during recent police raids at a news conference at police headquarters in Toronto, Friday. Police says 106 suspected members and affiliates of the Jamestown Crew -- considered one of the city’s most violent gangs -- were arrested Thursday.

OTTAWA — Canadians want a tighter grip on the flow of guns and ammunition in and out of the country, according to a survey released Monday.

A report by the Control Arms Campaign, a joint initiative by Amnesty International, Oxfam International and the International Action Network on Small Arms, surveyed people in six countries and found that Canadians aren’t the only ones concerned about the global trade of guns and bullets.

Overall, 87 per cent of respondents said there should be strict international controls on where weapons can be exported and 89 per cent agreed they would like better regulations on arms coming into their country. The survey was conducted in Brazil, Guatemala, Canada, South Africa, Great Britain and India in May.

Ninety per cent of Canadian respondents want tighter control over exports and 92 per cent want the same with imports, according to the study.

The release of the Control Arms Campaign survey was timed to coincide with a United Nations conference on small arms starting June 26 in New York.

“What’s on the table next week is a set of global principles that all countries would agree to abide by, it would be voluntary, but it would set principles that would be standardized,” explained Mark Fried of Oxfam Canada. The coalition of non-governmental organizations hopes the agreement will then kickstart a binding international treaty later in the year. There are some standards within various treaties, but they are too easy to bypass, according to the Control Arms Campaign and they need to be co-ordinated as one strong global agreement. The lack of control over the worldwide arms trade helps to fuel conflict, poverty and human rights abuses, argues the group, and governments too often turn a blind eye.

“Canada has played a very positive role to date in these negotiations and we’re asking Canada to lead on this because it takes a country as important as Canada leading and championing it for these things to move forward at the UN,” said Fried.

The campaign appears to have the backing of Canadians, according to the survey data. The report also found that more than half of respondents, 58 per cent, think it is too easy to obtain a gun in Canada and that easy access accounts for the worry by one in three Canadians that they will be a victim of crime.

“There is a fear of gun violence, but also an understanding that doing something about the trade in guns and bullets can help to reduce gun violence,” said Fried.

The Control Arms Coalition estimates there are around 639 million small arms and light weapons in the world today and eight million more are produced every year.

© CanWest News Service 2006

[Lion Den Dan]

I will support a global agreement on arms when that agreement concurs with the 2nd amendment of the U.S. Constitution and is enforced in its most literal and originalist form.

Dan

[Cindy]

ON THE NET...

WORLDNETDAILY.com: "NRA WARNS OF U.N. GUN CONTROL U.S. participating in upcoming small-arms conference" (JUNE 16, 2006)

"www.un.org/events/smallarms2006"

"usinfo.state.gov/xarchives/display.html?p=washfile-english&y=2006&m=June&x=20060609171603sjhtrop0.2761042&t=xarchives/xarchitem.html"

[Cindy]

ping

[SWAMPSNIPER]

How long are the 106 arrested going to stay locked up? Dumb question, huh! I'll bet most of them are on the street right now!

[fanfan]

Thanks for the ping Cindy.

Canada ping!

Please FReepmail me to get on or off this Canada ping list.

[2harddrive]

With stupid ideas like this, that's why it is called CanaDUHHH !!!!