Power to the Sheeple

U.S. gun owners accuse U.N. of July 4 conspiracy

By Irwin Arieff

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, criticising 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.

For one, July 4 is a holiday at U.N. headquarters and the world body's staff will be watching a fireworks display from the U.N. lawn rather than attending any meetings, he said.

For another, the U.N. conference will look only at illegal arms and "does not in any way address legal possession," a matter left to national governments to regulate rather than the United Nations, he added.

The campaign is largely the work of the U.S. National Rifle Association, whose executive vice president, Wayne LaPierre, warns on an NRA Web site ( http://www.stopungunban.org/ ) of a July 4 plot "to finalise a U.N. treaty that would strip all citizens of all nations of their right to self-protection."

Kariyawasam said, "The U.N. conference will not negotiate any treaty to prohibit citizens of any country from possessing firearms or to interfere with the legal trade in small arms and light weapons." (continued)

So let's review: The same UN that couldn't stop us from waging a unilateral, preemptive war on the other side of the globe is going to curtail gun sales within the U.S.? What, other than Wayne LaPierre's paranoid rantings, makes them think that the UN could influence our domestic gun laws, even if it wanted to?

Confronted--again--with reality frustratingly biased against them, the usual mouthpieces swing into action with another "reinforce through repetition" campaign making ranting and fact interchangeable. Now even if one of their drones is stirred from his usual somnambulant state by the obvious contradiction in meassage, and looks up "UN gun ownership," "UN gun control," etc., the first thing he finds is a dutiful regurgitation of LaPierre's Chicken Little routine courtesy of wingnutdaily.

Once again, the far right has no problem assuming whatever side of an argument suits it at the time. The ineffectual, do-nothing entity that can't accomplish anything regarding terrorism, Iran, North Korea, etc., now is an imminent threat to individual rights in the most powerful country in the world...and, based on no evidence whatsoever, 100,000+ Americans fall, obediently, into slackjawed lockstep, nodding slowly.

And these are the folks who fancy themselves armed defenders of freedom...