U.S. guns safe from U.N.
The NRA has been telling Americans that the United Nations is scheming to take away their guns on the 4th of July. And it's working:
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Americans mistakenly worried the United Nations is plotting to take away their guns on July 4 -- U.S. Independence Day -- are flooding the world body with angry letters and postcards, the chairman of a U.N. conference on the illegal small arms trade said on Wednesday.
"I myself have received over 100,000 letters from the U.S. public, criticizing me personally, saying, 'You are having this conference on the 4th of July, you are not going to get our guns on that day,"' said Prasad Kariyawasam, Sri Lanka's U.N. ambassador.
"That is a total misconception as far as we are concerned," Kariyawasam told reporters ahead of the two-week meeting opening on Monday. [...]
Hat tip to Digby.
If you want to see gun control efforts in this country fail, as does the NRA, it might be advisable to NOT advertise yourselves as a bunch of whacky paranoid schizophrenics with rifles.
Posted by: Mike Nilsen | June 22, 2006 at 03:35 PM
The people who fell for this shit also believe that the UN has black helicopters with which they're going to attack the US some day. They also believe the markings on the back of interstate highway signs are code for invasion routes, and that Yellowstone National Park is now controlled by the UN. I heard that last item shortly after I moved here to Wyoming. I assured most of the people who believed this that the UN does NOT control Yellowstone; it is simply designated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site by the United Nations. WORLD of difference. However I couldn't convince two die-hard wingnuts that they were wrong. Talk about fear and loathing on the range.
Posted by: John | June 22, 2006 at 05:50 PM
http://www.opiniojuris.org/posts/1150953354.shtml
Posted by: JPBurns | June 22, 2006 at 06:01 PM
>Yellowstone National Park is now controlled by the UN. I heard that last item shortly after I moved here to Wyoming.
Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" show had a politician from Wyoming, who kept talking about "black heelocopters!" She said it once, pronouncing it in that strange way, and the second time, the cameras caught Bill Maher's eyebrows knitting, as if he was thinking, "what the fuck?" The audience all caught his look and laughed, either because of her pronunciation of "heelocopters," or the wacky conspiracy-theory idea behind it, or both.
Posted by: 1984 Was Not a Shopping List | June 22, 2006 at 06:51 PM
I started a post on the small arms trade a couple of weeks ago, did some searches, and discovered some of this stuff on right-wing gun blogs. I kind of said to myself "oookaaaay" and never finished the post. I never realized this was a meme the NRA itself was promoting. So what gives? Donations drying up? Are they worried about the gun rights of child soldiers in Africa? Or is this just a way of identifying their most easily manipulated members?
Posted by: Dan Nexon | June 22, 2006 at 08:59 PM
Dan--
I have to go with the theory that the NRA is trying to keep its members scared. They've effectively stopped the push for gun control in this country, so there's really not much reason for their members to donate any more than their regular dues. So to keep the donations flowing in the future, they'll have to look around for things to scare their members with.
Posted by: gordo | June 22, 2006 at 09:07 PM
Bill Maher can nit with his EYEBROWS? Cool!
Posted by: Mandos | June 22, 2006 at 09:35 PM
"That is a total misconception as far as we are concerned," Kariyawasam told reporters ahead of the two-week meeting opening on Monday.
----
Ah, but they WOULD say that before an attack, wouldn't they!
Posted by: Anthony Damiani | June 23, 2006 at 12:29 AM
Bill Maher's "Politically Incorrect" show had a politician from Wyoming, who kept talking about "black heelocopters!"
See what I have to deal with out here? To be fair, most people here aren't that nutty. Still, there is a small but noticeable segment of the population here that sees left wing New-World-Order conspiracies everywhere. They drive me nuts some times.
Posted by: John | June 23, 2006 at 12:35 AM
I know a couple of people who moved to Wyoming, and they're finding it great. I wonder why it's specific to Wyoming?
The thing that gets me about it is, and um--don't tell any of the people there, but--I sort of wouldn't mind a one-world government, if it's not just a cheap collusion to enrich the already rich and enslave the poor. For instance, I absolutely loathe the idea of the borders that arbitrarily keep one people working in sweatshops, just because they speak Spanish or Indonesian and were born a couple of hundred miles south. Why? Also, I see massive inequities springing from international monetary exchanges, since we have so many different currencies around the world. The former device isn't helping me much, and the latter will soon act against the US itself, though it's helped us until now. Besides which, if they're worried about overarching tyranny, why aren't they agitating for devolution and local control? But anyway.
Posted by: 1984 Was Not a Shopping List | June 23, 2006 at 01:54 AM
Got my guns cleaned and oiled. Got enough ammo. Got the windows sandbagged. Got me enough water and rations. Got me a barrel to shit in. I'm ready for the blue-helmet UN bastards when they come.
Posted by: cfrost | June 23, 2006 at 02:46 AM
There is a national gun registry...it's called the NRA. Suckers.
Posted by: mudkitty | June 23, 2006 at 09:59 AM
" Are they worried about the gun rights of child soldiers in Africa? "
Yes, actually.
Remember, the NRA is not an organization of gun owners. It is an organisation of gun sellers. Gun owners join, but gun sellers run it. To them, a totally unrestricted market of gun sales is a good thing. The fact that typical NRA members would not generally share the belief that unrestricted gun sales to foreigners is a good thing, merely necessitates more egregious lying than usual.
Posted by: Njorl | June 23, 2006 at 11:39 AM
We did an analysis of crime statistics on the John Kerry website (when it existed) of 2 urban areas, one that had absolute restriction on guns and one that allowed absolute free carry, and found that there was either no difference or the free carry area had a slighly higher crime ranking. This was based off FBI crime data compiled for that year. It's interesting because one of the arguments used by the NRA is that gun owners can reduce crime if allowed to open carry. It was also interesting that in a completely restricted area, gun crime was about the same as that of an free carry area. The two areas we compared were Phoenix (proper) and Washington D.C. (metro).
Posted by: Godstar | June 23, 2006 at 02:58 PM
>There is a national gun registry...it's called the NRA.
Hee!
Posted by: 1984 Was Not a Shopping List | June 23, 2006 at 03:56 PM
There is a bit of a problem with calling DC a completely restricted locality. It is adjacent to Virginia, which considering issuing liscense plates emblazoned with "The Straw Purchase State".
Posted by: Njorl | June 23, 2006 at 03:58 PM
The big problem facing the UN's Small Arms conference is that the moustachio'd fuckstick who scuppered any agreement last time is now the US ambassador. And he's a paid-up agent of the NRA. Objectively pro-child soldiers with AK47s.
Posted by: ahem | June 23, 2006 at 05:13 PM
>the moustachio'd fuckstick who scuppered any agreement is the US ambassador
>And he's a paid-up agent of the NRA
>Objectively pro-child soldiers with AK47s
There's a Gilbert and Sullivan musical for you! Great lines.
Posted by: 1984 Was Not a Shopping List | June 23, 2006 at 05:34 PM
There is a bit of a problem with calling DC a completely restricted locality. It is adjacent to Virginia, which considering issuing liscense plates emblazoned with "The Straw Purchase State".
True, but that's the case with any state. I was just refering to the law being completly restrictive, not it's enforciblity.
Posted by: Godstar | June 23, 2006 at 05:42 PM
every state is adjacent to Virginia?
I kind of like the idea of renting a dumpster, painting it sky blue with the UN Logo, stenciling "UN GUN COLLECTION" on it, and sticking it outside of the NRA Headquarters.
Posted by: Marc | June 27, 2006 at 02:41 AM