10 July 2001

Representative Barr Supports U.S. Position at Small Arms Conference

United Nations - U.S. Representative Bob Barr (Republican, Georgia), an official observer at the United Nations Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, voiced concern July 10 that an international program of action currently being considered by conference delegates might infringe on Americans' constitutional right to bear arms.

Barr told reporters in New York that the two-week conference should remain focused on how to stem the international flow of illicit arms, and conference participants should not shift their focus to national gun control matters. He expressed support for U.S. Under Secretary of State John Bolton's July 9 statement to the conference that the United States will not support the current draft Program of Action, which includes wording that might impinge upon Americans' gun-ownership rights.

"While I certainly would appreciate the assurances by the United Nations that it has no intention of involving itself in domestic policy," Barr said, "the written word speaks for itself. And if you look at this document, which is the draft Program of Action to prevent, combat, and eradicate the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons ... there are a number of areas very explicitly set forth in here, as Mr. Bolton indicated, that could very well be used directly to involve the United Nations in domestic firearms policy."

According to statistics issued at a New York press conference July 10 by the Small Arms Survey located at the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva (http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/index.html), 200 to 250 million of the 550 million legally-owned weapons in the world are owned by Americans.

Barr, who is an official member of the U.S. delegation to the conference, also said that if the United Nations moves in a direction that could interfere in domestic policy matters, it would then be more difficult for the international organization to achieve needed support from the U.S. Congress "to further its legitimate goals."

Speaking on the opening day of the conference, Bolton, who is under secretary of state for arms control and international security affairs, said the United States will work to help create a final document that can be accepted by all member states and that deals practically and effectively with the illegal trafficking of these weapons.

Barr said he believes that the United States is off to a good start in the negotiations.

The goal of the conference is to draft and gain consensus of UN member states on a final "Program of Action" that would define ways nations can curb and eliminate illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons internationally. The document would not be legally binding.

Barr, a board member for the National Rifle Association, said he was not at the conference as a representative of the four million member organization, but as a member of Congress concerned with Americans' constitutional rights.

"My presence here is as a member of the Congress of the United States with a concern over the relationship between international organizations, treaties and documents and our domestic laws and our domestic Constitution," he said.

Barr said other nations interested in seeing the United Nations perform valuable work in illicit firearms stockpiling and trafficking should pay attention to Bolton's statement.

"I think he identifies those areas where there's room to work together," he said. Without such cooperation, he added, "nothing productive" will come out of the conference "because we'll be splintered."