Gun Baby Gun: A Bloody Journey Into the World of the Gun (56 page)

58
.

https://www.atf.gov/sites/default/files/assets/statistics/TraceData/TraceData_Intl/2013/central_america_-_cy_2013.pdf

59
.

Ian Thomson,
The Dead Yard
(London: Faber and Faber, 2009), p. 316.

60
.

What has muddied the waters about the impact of straw purchasing on the Mexican and Central American markets was the botched sting operation ‘Fast and Furious’ by the ATF. There the US authorities lost track of 1,400 ‘planted’ firearms that they were hoping would lead them to drug leaders, but the guns ended up arming Mexican gangs such as the Sinaloa cartel.

61
.

http://www.vpc.org/florida/FLNeedlemanComplaint080410.pdf

62
.

http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2008-08-08/news/0808070489_1_gun-shop-gun-range-felons

63
.

Investigation by the pro-gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.

64
.

Gun rights activists say that figure is grossly overstated and based on outdated data.

65
.

http://www.atf.gov/sites/default/files/assets/Firearms/chap1.pdf
. A separate pro-gun study concluded gun shows had little effect on deaths in the weeks following the shows. It found tighter California gun show regulations did not, for instance, reduce firearm-related deaths there. But studies have shown that gun crimes rarely involve weapons bought shortly before a crime’s occurrence. And looking at crimes solely within 25 miles of a gun show ignores findings about the geography of illegal gun markets; roughly two-thirds of gun crimes are from firearms purchased out of state or far away from the scene of the deed.

66
.

http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2001-12-13-nceditf.htm

67
.

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/13/us/nation-challenged-gun-control-gun-foes-use-terror-issue-push-for-stricter-laws.html

68
.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/closing-the-terror-gap-and-the-gun-show-loophole/2011/06/06/AGTKubKH_story.html
. Perhaps the most notable non-international case, though, was the Columbine High School massacre. The two perpetrators bought two shotguns and a Hi-Point semi-automatic from a private seller for cash at the Tanner Gun Show in Adams County, Colorado. No questions were asked, and no paperwork was filled out. A fourth gun was also purchased directly by the boys from a private seller, who in turn had got it from an unlicensed seller at the Tanner Gun Show.

69
.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/juangastelum/militia-leader-calls-on-members-to-go-armed-to-the-border#6d6htr

70
.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/09/central-america-child-migrants-us-border-crisis

71
.

http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118759/nra-and-gun-trafficking-are-adding-fuel-border-migrant-crisis

1
.

As Human Rights Watch was to state: ‘It was regularly resupplied by air from South Africa, to the extent that it was better equipped than the Mozambique army.’ See:
http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/Mozamb927.pdf

2
.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13890416

3
.

http://vimeo.com/51739769

4
.

http://pedroreyes.net/palasporpistolas.php

5
.

http://www.jewelryforacause.net/our-collections/caliber-collection
;
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/25/cory-booker-s-murder-accessory-turning-buyback-guns-into-jewelry.html

6
.

http://www.fonderie47.com/products/inversion-principle

7
.

http://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00030721.html

8
.

http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?url=lm/2013/sub/Major_Findings.html

9
.

It was the largest amount ever given. Of this, $32 million was for victim assistance and $15 million spent on advocacy in 2012.

10
.

The treaty covered all forms of major weapons – battle tanks, artillery, combat aircraft, warships and missiles – as well as guns.

11
.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/29/us-arms-treaty-un-idUSBRE92R10E20130329

12
.

Of the fifteen top arms gun exporters, the following have signed but not yet ratified the Arms Trade Treaty: Brazil, Turkey and the United States. India, China, North Korea, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and Canada have not even signed up to it. So Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are the only major gun-producing countries who are signatories and have ratified it;
http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/att
;
http://www.un.org/disarmament/ATT/

13
.

Its full name is the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.

14
.

All of the other eleven top producers: Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States did file a report;
http://www.poa-iss.org/Poa/NationalReportList.aspx

15
.

http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/salw/poa-assessment.pdf

16
.

This tries to do concrete things about stopping the illicit spread of guns. Things like stamping out illegal manufacture; making sure that governments have databases about gun serial numbers; making sure that gun companies have proper security to stop people stealing arms off the manufacturing line; making sure that destroyed guns really are destroyed; and sharing information with other international agencies about gun smugglers.

17
.

Those who have signed it and have yet to ratify it include Austria, Canada, China, Germany, India and the United Kingdom. Those who never even signed it include North Korea, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Switzerland and the United States:
http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/countrylist-firearmsprotocol.html
;
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/weapons-and-markets/producers/industrial-production.html

18
.

There is also the Wassenaar Arrangement. Signed by forty-one countries, it seeks to make the transfer of guns and other weapons more transparent. It does this by trying to establish a baseline as to when a state should decline a small-arms export licence. This was an attempt to stop things like guns fuelling terrorism, ongoing conflict and human rights abuses. It has been reasonably effective in increasing transparency around arms transfers, but there have been endless debates and arguments. How much information should be shared? How do you classify a state as being ‘of concern’? Is this shipment of guns really going to be ‘destabilising transfer’? And, of course, there is the fact that Belarus, China and Israel – significant gun producers – haven’t signed up at all. These hard realities are repeated with the UN Conventional Arms Register. This seeks to prevent large-scale build-ups of arms. It’s mainly about big weapons like tanks and missile launchers, but there is a section on guns, inviting states to provide information on things like gun exports, destinations, stockpiles and manufactured numbers. But its voluntary nature means that in 2012 only seventy-two countries reported.

19
.

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/guns-and-death

20
.

David B. Kopel, ‘Gun Ownership and Human Rights’,
Dialogue
9, 2, Winter/Spring 2003, p. 7,
http://www.davekopel.com/2A/Foreign/Brown-Journal-Kopel.pdf
; whether a well equipped and armed state – with airpower and tanks – could be prevented from human rights violations by small arms alone is debatable.

21
.

http://www.cfi-icaf.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=578:canada-tries-to-exempt-hunting-rifles-from-un-arms-trade-treaty-negotiations-&catid=79:the-toronto-sun&Itemid=113
; though when I contacted Survival International, a charity dedicated to the rights of indigenous peoples, they said: ‘It really hasn’t come up as an important issue’ (personal correspondence with Stephen Corry at Survival International).

22
.

http://www.wfsa.net/about.html

23
.

http://www.nraontherecord.org/john-bolton/

24
.

http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/L-External-publications/2002/2002-Krause-MultilateralDiplomacyNormBuilding.pdf

25
.

http://gunowners.org/a07152011.htm

26
.

http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/nra-must-drop-its-campaign-of-lies-against-un-global-arms-trade-treaty

27
.

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/07/20/un-arms-treaty-aims-at-terror-but-puts-second-amendment-in-crosshairs/#ixzz21dn2xSrx

28
.

http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/untreaty.asp

29
.

http://www.ammoland.com/2013/08/obama-will-sign-un-gun-treaty-while-congress-is-on-vacation/

30
.

http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/individual_rights/aba_chr_white_paper_att_final.authcheckdam.pdf

31
.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/25/us-un-assembly-kerry-treaty-idUSBRE98O0WV20130925

32
.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-nra-square-off-over-small-arms-treaty/2013/03/16/ae495dae-8d76-11e2-b63f-f53fb9f2fcb4_story.html

33
.

http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/290001-senate-votes-to-stop-us-from-joining-un-arms-treaty

34
.

http://fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R42678.pdf

35
.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nra-involved-in-gun-registry-debate-1.923766

36
.

http://www.americasquarterly.org/content/nras-hemispheric-reach

37
.

http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/brazil-police-say-sea-is-new-arms-trafficking-frontier

38
.

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/magazine/17wwln_essay.html

39
.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4368598.stm?words=Breivik

40
.

In one speech he spoke to the hundreds of thousands of ‘good Americans’ who, he claimed, will see his speech online. Six months on only 7,517 had watched it on the NRA official YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCFB0N_jzMk

41
.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/159578/nra-favorable-image.aspx

42
.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/21/american-gun-out-control-porter

43
.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jm2IBUZxZ0&index=7&list=PLyaSPxNidLLvIef8u5rR-6siU2Bs8csn0

44
.

http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/06/cpac-wayne-lapierres-speech/2/

45
.

http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/fact-sheets/2013/more-guns-less-crime-2013.aspx

46
.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/apr/28/nra-war-on-america-wayne-lapierre-indianapolis

47
.

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/05/04/nra-meeting-lapierre-membership/2135063/
;
http://www.businessinsider.com/gun-industry-funds-nra-2013-1?IR=T

48
.

http://www.vpc.org/studies/bloodmoney2.pdf

49
.

http://www.campaign2unload.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Gun-Industry-Members.pdf

50
.

It led Sturm, Ruger and Co. to pledge $1 for each new Ruger firearm sold between the 2011 and 2012 NRA Annual Meetings. Their goal was a cheque
for $1 million to the NRA. Their CEO got his golden jacket – they made over $1.2 million.

51
.

In addition the National Association of Gun Rights spent nearly $6.8 million and the National Shooting Sports Foundation, over $2.3 million;
http://www.opensecrets.org/lobby/clientsum.php?id=D000000082&year=2013

52
.

Dennis A. Henigan,
Lethal Logic: Exploding the Myths that Paralyze American Gun Policy
(Dulles, VA: Potomac Books, 2009), p. 184.

53
.

http://www.businessinsider.com/smith-and-wesson-almost-went-out-of-business-trying-to-do-the-right-thing-2013-1

54
.

Ibid.

55
.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/ukip/10595087/Hand-guns-should-be-legalised-and-licensed-Nigel-Farage-has-said.html
;
http://www.politics.co.uk/news/2014/01/27/police-shoot-down-nigel-farage-s-handgun-call

56
.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/germany-initiates-new-gun-registry/2013/01/19/86bb29f2-60da-11e2-b05a-605528f6b712_story.html

57
.

http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/articles/2013/10/secretary-general-of-interpol-suggests-an-armed-citizenry-to-combat-mass-violence.aspx

58
.

http://www.state.gov/j/ct/rls/crt/2013/224833.htm

59
.

http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/injury.htm

60
.

http://www.propublica.org/article/democrats-push-to-restart-cdc-funding-for-gun-violence-research

61
.

http://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJM198606123142406

62
.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/itsallpolitics/2013/01/14/169164414/lack-of-up-to-date-research-complicates-gun-debate

63
.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/26/us/26guns.html

64
.

Ibid.

65
.

In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook massacre, President Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum directing the CDC and others to conduct research into the causes and prevention of crime. He called upon Congress to allocate $10 million for the CDC to conduct further research, including the relationship between video games, media images and violence. Despite media reports that the funding freeze would be lifted in 2014, at the time of writing it was not clear that this will happen any time soon:
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/cdc-still-cant-get-funding-research