Alphecca

Weekly Check on the Bias

"We at Amnesty International are not going to condone the escalation of the flow of arms to the region," said Trish Katyoka, director of Africa Advocacy. "You are empowering (the victims) to create an element of retaliation.

"Whenever you create a sword-fight by letting the poor people fight back and give them the arms, it creates an added element of complexity. You do not know what the results could be."

Well, we already KNOW what the result is when the "poor people" can't fight back! That quote was a response to the possible arming of the victims in Darfur being, as Dimitri Vassilaros wrote last April:

The slaughter, rape and torment of the citizens of Darfur would end if humanitarian aid included guns.

Darfur is a Texas-size region of Sudan. The Sudanese government and its militia proxies have killed roughly 70,000 civilians, raped and mutilated untold numbers of others and caused about 3 million refugees to live in camps.

Sudan could teach Serbia a thing or two about ethnic cleansing.

This carnage has been going on since 2003. The Sudan People's Liberation Army, a small band of revolutionaries from Darfur, were the only excuse the government needed to wage war on unarmed citizens in the region, who also happen to be fellow Muslims.

The United Nations is currently holding their conference on controlling small arms. Cam Edwards' radio show is broadcasting from NY this week providing coverage of this farce.

Read that Amnesty International statement again. Because the victims might fight back or defend themselves, they should not be allowed to own firearms. And yes, folks, firearms means ANY firearm as we see from this UN statement:

Small arms are weapons designed for personal use, while light weapons are designed for use by several persons serving as a crew. Examples of small arms include revolvers and self-loading pistols, rifles, sub-machine guns, assault rifles and light machine-guns.

Emphasis mine. So even this:

...is a no-no. Glenn Reynolds was on Cam's show yesterday and said:

"I think we really need to look at the right to gun ownership as a human right. And the UN was formed, in no small part, in order to ensure that we never again have a genocide, like what we saw in the Holocaust [note: Hitler disarmed all the Jews before rounding them up --js] and in fact we decided to protect against it with international law. We got a convention on genocide which was signed by such nations as Cambodia, the Congo, and Rwanda, all of which have been sites of some of the greatest genocides in the 2nd half of the 20th century. The UN, in each case, did nothing and in the case of Rwanda was in fact complicit. And as a result, the notion of relying on international law to protect us from genocide seems pretty dubious. In every case the international community just stood aside and did nothing except offer tea-and-sympathy when it was all done.

What we need to do, instead, is think about things that actually prevent genocide. And there is a lot of evidence that armed populaces are not generally subject to genocide because -- and this is so obvious that it shouldn't require explanation -- it's harder to kill people [armed] with guns. And if we don't think of mass-murder and genocide as good things then we ought to make it harder to kill people.

And in a response to a question from Cam about Amnesty International's quote (above) that you don't want to "empower the victims to create a climate of retaliation", Glenn said:

Yes, [empowering people is] exactly right! But they're not really about justice and they're not really about preventing genocide and I think they unfortunately made that quite plain. Some in the international community are far more interested in feathering their own nest than then they are in protecting people. That's disappointing, it's a big disappointment to me, but the evidence speaks for itself.

Incidentally, I enjoyed this particular exchange earlier in the interview where Cam says that Amnesty International points to Canada as an example of a country enacting strict gun control and the gun murder rate has gone down. Glenn replies:

I think it's important that they point out that it's the "gun murder rate" and not the overall murder rate. I have no idea what those statistics are. I prefer to be murdered with a blunt object. That's always been my first choice. Whenever I am murdered, that's what I choose.

Getting serious again, I have to ask: Why is it that in most countries that allow the citizenry to be armed, do we not read of torture and abuse by their governments? In the case of the US, I believe it is because of the Second Amendment that in part allows the people to defend themselves from an out-of-control fascist government.

UN Secretary General issued a statement yesterday that included:

In my report “In Larger Freedom: Towards Development, Security and Human Rights for All”, I urge the international community to expedite negotiations on a legally-binding instrument to combat illicit brokering in small arms and light weapons. I hope the World Summit will provide high-level impetus toward this goal. My recent broad-based consultations on this issue were constructive and highlighted areas of major concern to be addressed further by the General Assembly -- mandated Group of Governmental Experts.

Next year, Member States will convene for the first Conference to review the implementation of the Programme of Action. I am hopeful that they, and representatives of civil society, will seize the opportunity of this Biennial Meeting to compare experiences and lessons learnt, with a view to identifying actions needed to enhance further the implementation of the Programme of Action at the national, regional and global levels.

Folks, they're talking about imposing gun control on the whole world and you know perfectly well that they are pointing their message towards the United States. I guarantee you that the "one world after all" crowd including most Democrats will be insisting that we create laws that are in sync with the UN.

Naturally, press around the world picked up on the conference such as this one:

Most victims of war die these days from small arms like machine guns, pistols and rifles, making them the true weapons of mass destruction in the world today, according to a new report released yesterday.

The report, the latest annual small arms survey conducted by researchers at the Geneva-based Graduate Institute of International Studies, concludes that conflict deaths due to small arms have been vastly underreported in the past.

What they left out, of course, is that many of those deaths came from defensive gun use warding off invaders, murderous governments, and terrorist tribal factions. Imagine how many more deaths there would be if these victims couldn't defend themselves?

The simple fact is that all the UN worshipers who claim to want to have peace in the world ignore the fact that many are under siege from their own governments. But peace activists would rather have quiet -- even the murderous quiet of a Saddam Hussein -- than a conflict where people try to protect themselves and restore their rights. I can't personally think of any right greater than the right to remain alive.

Back in OUR country, the hurrumphing over the "assault" to restore constitutional rights to our nation's capital continues with this NY Times editorial today:

There is no end to Congressional intrusion in the lives of the residents of Washington, and lives is the operative word this time around.

The House has cavalierly overruled the city and voted to repeal a local law that requires licit gun owners to keep their weapons unloaded and locked or disassembled when stored at home. What could be more sensible in an American gun culture that is regularly punctuated by the tragic deaths of children who happen upon family weapons? Yet this worthy precaution proved too much for the gun lobby and its lock-and-load sycophants on both sides of the aisle, who voted 259 to 161 for repeal.

Deprived of fair representation at the Capitol, the city has been historically abused by Congress's plantation whimsy. The one practical idea in the gun debate came from Representative David Obey, a Wisconsin Democrat, who said a $70,000 pay cut was logically in order for his colleagues. "If the people in this House want to act like your D.C. city councilman, then they can be paid like a D.C. councilman," he said. The House, of course, clung to its salary the way the gun lobby clings to its symbolic musket.

And if David Obey wants to rewrite the Constitution so that the District is a state with full representation, then he is free to crawl into an alternate universe. So is the New York Times, which calls the repeal of minor parts of the District's gun control laws "cavalier" and "deprived of fair representation". Apparently THEY haven't read the Constitution beyond the part about free speech. If they had, they would recognize that the part about the right to keep and bear arms was denied to Washington DC residents and they would be shouting from their editorial page about the injustice of it all.

Notice that where -- in the past -- the New York Times would only decry the gun-lobby "sycopnants" among Republicans, now, given the lop-sided vote for the measure, there are "sycophants" on both sides of the aisle.

Meanwhile in England we get the story of a criminal-turned-informant killed by his ex-colleagues with the headline: "BODYBUILDER DIED IN HAIL OF AK47 BULLETS". From the Daily Record (UK):

A BODYBUILDER was executed with 26 rounds fired from an AK47 assault rifle in just two seconds, a court heard yesterday.

Glasgow-born Dave King was murdered after criminal associates allegedly took a contract out on him because they thought he was a grass The 32-year-old, known to pals as 'Muscles', was shot repeatedly outside a gym in October 2003.

He was wounded in the arm, hip, stomach and thigh and died as a result of a chest wound.

Yesterday, four men went on trial charged in connection with his death Andrew Bright QC, prosecuting, said the weapon used was 'a highly effective killing machine'.

This happened in "gun free" Britain. But reading the lead, plus the first four paragraphs, you'd think this was all about the AK-47 used, not why the guy was probably killed, or by who, or about the fact that it might just as well have been Glenn's "heavy blunt object" (isn't that part of A Thurber Carnival?) The fact is that a terrible crime has been committed. It isn't how, but why? Apparently not to the reporter, though.

Back in the states... I've been covering this story for awhile. Last night the Columbus, Ohio City Council decided -- again -- to ban "assault weapons":

The Columbus City Council has for the third time passed an assault weapons ban that it hopes this time will pass a likely federal court challenge.

A pro-gun group that successfully challenged the legislation twice before said it is contemplating another lawsuit.

The ordinance outlaws the sale or possession of semiautomatic rifles with pistol grips and detachable magazines.

In an attempt to pass federal court muster, it tries to distinguish between legitimate sporting weapons and military-style assault weapons.

After Aug. 11, the sale of guns fitting the city's description of an assault weapon will be outlawed.

Residents who own an assault weapon will have 90 days from Monday night to register their firearm with Columbus' Department of Public Safety or face a first-degree misdemeanor charge.

Twice previously, the state supreme court struck similar measures down as violating the Ohio constitution. This time, the city allowed the anti-gun group, Legal Community Against Violence, to write the ordinance. Ironic considering how many times mainstream media accuses states that support gun rights of allowing the NRA to write their laws. Since the current bill still relies on cosmetics and other features common to many guns, I expect that this one too will be struck down. In the meantime, it's a tiresome "assault" on the rights of folks who live in Columbus.

How about a positive story? I gave a list on Sunday, but here's one more from the NJ Herald:

Repeatedly pulling the trigger on a loaded gun seems like an unusual way for a teacher to spend a weekend, but that is what many area educators did Sunday during the Franklin Rifle and Revolver Association's first ever firearm training geared toward those in the field of education.

"We want people to know what we do," George Ambrose, the association's special events director said. "We want to show the positive side of the sport and thought the best way was through education."

After a brief but thorough safety lesson, 17 teachers, social workers and others in the educational field took to the range to fire shots of their own; some for the first time.

"I loved it," Maryanne Gherlone, a librarian at Mount Olive's Sandshore School said. "I grew up with hunting and love the outdoors, but this was my first time shooting a pistol."

Gherlone heard about the class through a friend who is a member of the association. After a few practice sessions, Gherlone ended the day by hitting the target with every shot from her last round.

"I was aiming down at first, but then I calmed down and it really helped," Gherlone said.

The association usually holds two training sessions a year, which are targeted toward women. Sunday's course was for a new group to get the word out to more people, John Heller, president of the association, said.

"Part of our constitution is to provide firearm safety training for the community so we're looking to reach more people," Ambrose said.

Since teachers have such an influence on others, it's the association's hope that Sunday's lesson will be passed on, Ambrose said.

One convert at a time. Firearms are about much more than personal defense and thanks to clubs such as the Franklin Rifle and Revolver Association, people are learning and hopefully changing their views.

TV Channel covers Cowboy Action Shooting. Really!

Badgerman's right hand blurs into motion like a hummingbird's wings, and when the hand comes back into focus it's holding a stainless steel revolver that sprays lead hail in .44-caliber chunks.

His targets down, Badgerman jams the revolver back into its leather holster and lets go of the pistol's shiny black buffalo horn handle.

Then he moseys 10 feet to his left, grabs a double-barreled shotgun and slips a 12-gauge shell into each cylinder. He snugs the gun's butt against his shoulder and empties both chambers - a pair of ear-numbing thuds blending into a single concussion.

This gunfight is over. And although Badgerman's aim was true, not one drop of blood has been spilled in the sagebrush near Virtue Flat, about seven miles east of Baker City.

Badgerman is one of Baker County's Vigilantes of Virtue, who compete in one of the country's fastest-growing sports involving firearms: cowboy action shooting.

The basic idea is to recreate a world where Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday would feel at home.

Cowboy action shooters wear cowboy boots and cowboy hats and wrap brightly hued cowboy bandannas around their necks.

They adopt colorful monikers like Little Bullett, German Jack, Old Rawhide and Grubslinger.

A pleasant article and a rarity for a metro-area television station. Again folks, let them know that you appreciate such coverage.

By scrolling down at Alphecca (or returning to the main page here) you can read about much more media coverage and bias of firearms ownership.

Naturally, I'll be on Cam's doing my regular Tuesday gig (this report LIVE) at about 3:20 eastern time. But of course you should be listening to the whole show (3-6pm).

Time to get this up. Thanks for stopping by!

Posted by Jeff Soyer at July 12, 2005 09:57 AM