09 July 2001

White House Report on Small Arms

With the July 9th opening in New York of a United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons, White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer was asked at the July 9 White House briefing if President Bush had any comments regarding how to prevent smuggled arms from getting into the hands of terrorists.

The Press Secretary responded: "The President is very concerned about all issues involving arms to terrorists. As you know, it's something that he and (Russian) President Putin have discussed at great length, about the problems of extremism on the border of Russia. And the President shares that concern and believes that we need to have an approach where all developed nations and developing nations work together to have a nonproliferation strategy to prevent terrorists from receiving weapons."