Global Gun Control Is On The Agenda
For farmers in Uganda, AK-47 assault rifles are used instead of spears. In Somalia, weapons are so common that some children are named “Uzi” or “AK.” In countries such as Iraq, there is more than one gun per person.
These findings were included in a report released Thursday by Amnesty International, Oxfam and another group as they launched a campaign in more than 50 countries aimed at controlling what they call a dangerously unregulated global arms trade that routinely allows weapons to reach repressive governments, human rights abusers and criminals.
The report said the possession of increasingly lethal weapons is becoming an integral part of daily life in many parts of the world. It also said that the U.S.-led war on terror, launched after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States, has “fueled weapons proliferation rather than focusing political will on controlling arms.”
But here’s the scary part:
The “Control Arms” campaign — launched by the three groups at news conferences around the world Thursday — focuses on promoting a new international treaty covering arms transfers, as well as a number of regional and local measures designed to limit arms proliferation and misuse.
The groups began a petition drive aimed at gathering 1 million signatures supporting their draft international Arms Trade Treaty, which they hope to have adopted by the United Nations and its member countries by 2006.
