Ever since its creation in the aftermath of World War II, the United Nations has looked for ways to stick its nose into all manner of policies and programs that often have little, if anything, to do with its basic charter of ending hostilities between nations and preserving international peace. Since the turn of the 21st century, that meddlesomeness has led bureaucrats at the U.N. and in other international organizations to claim authority over firearm policies and activities by member nations, including, of course, the United States.
These threats by the U.N. and other international organizations target rights guaranteed to us by our Constitution and are the reason the NRA Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) continues to pay close attention to what is happening or might happen in the international arena.
This important issue came to mind recently as I was preparing for a late-February trip to Nuremberg, Germany, for a meeting of the World Forum on Shooting Activities (WFSA). WFSA is an association of more than 50 hunting, shooting and firearm industry organizations from around the globe dedicated to promoting and preserving hunting and sport-shooting activities worldwide, and the NRA is a key (actually, founding) member of the organization. James Baranowski at ILA closely monitors what is going on at the U.N., in the European Union and elsewhere, and attends meetings when it is important that the NRA’s presence be felt. Thus, while it is not necessary for me to attend many such meetings, as the chair of the NRA’s International Affairs subcommittee, it’s important that I keep tabs on what’s going on around the world, to head off anti-gun efforts from creeping into our domestic policy arena.
The NRA’s interests in this regard moved into high gear in the fall of 2001 when the United Nations decided to indirectly take on the task of restricting the Second Amendment-protected rights of American citizens through what it called its “Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons In All Its Aspects” (PoA).
While the initial PoA was held ostensibly to “create a framework for activities to counter the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons (SALW), which includes handguns, fully automatic weapons, ammunition, explosives and land mines,” it was actually an avenue to curtail the rights of lawful Americans through international means.
The NRA quickly got involved. Tom Mason, who was NRA-ILA’s lead representative at the U.N. proceedings at the time, summed up the real purpose of the program quite nicely.
“The key words are ‘In All Its Aspects,’” Mason told America’s 1st Freedom at the time. “They’re not just looking at illicit trade; they’re looking at the legal manufacture, commerce and ownership of firearms all over the world. For the first time in United Nations history, the arms they want to regulate are not held by nations, but arms owned by citizens.”
John Bolton was a top official in the State Department at the time and did not hesitate to make clear that the United States would have nothing to do with such efforts and would strongly oppose them, even giving a speech that some participants described as “undiplomatic” and “un-U.N.-like.”
Since the initial meeting nearly 25 years ago, the PoA and related activities it spawned have ebbed and flowed. Significantly, however, in 2013, then-President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State John Kerry signed the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), signifying U.S. support for the international gun-control movement. Thankfully, the U.S. Senate never ratified the treaty, and six years later, in 2019, then-President Donald Trump publicly “unsigned” the ATT during an address at the NRA Annual Meetings and Exhibits in Indianapolis.
“We will never surrender America’s sovereignty to an unelected, unaccountable, global bureaucracy,” Trump said to thunderous applause.
Still, the plot to thwart our liberty through international means continues. The U.N. disarmament regime is very patient. It waits out its opponents and hopes they will forget about the whole scheme and move on to other concerns. At the same time, it methodically builds up its bureaucracy, sets up different components and holds periodic meetings. Just last June, the U.N. program held its latest 10-day meeting in New York, continuing its attempt to make inroads into American freedoms.
I say all of this to make an important point: Our right to keep and bear arms as we know it is always on the minds of international meddlers who want us to conform to their anti-freedom agenda and enforcement efforts through international agreements and “consensus” (a term favored by international bureaucrats). They might not highlight it publicly, but it’s still at the very top of their list of ways to get America to conform to the standards of the “international community.”
As the undisputed leader of the American freedom-rights movement, the NRA cannot ignore the international threat to our members’ Second Amendment rights. Rest assured that we constantly monitor and address international threats both large and small, and we will continue to do so into the future.
