Seventy-four-year-old Willie Brown had shrugged off the noises downstairs as typical bumps in the night. But then, a man holding a knife appeared in his bedroom doorway. Brown described the ensuing events to a local reporter: "He said, 'Don't move, I got a knife.' I said, 'You got a knife, huh?' He said 'Yeah' ... I reached under my pillow and came up firing my .38 Smith and Wesson. He said, 'Oops' and turned and ran down the steps.’” An officer later spotted the wounded suspect driving erratically at high speeds and arrested him. "I might be old, but I am not slow:' said Brown. "I think [the intruder] might be through breaking in people's houses for a while.'"' (Belleville News Democrat, Belleville, IL, 06/16/06)
Fortunately for McRon Thompson, two armed teens up to no good proved to be not very bright. According to police, Thompson was washing his car when a 15-year-old boy forced him into the back seat at gunpoint while an 18-year-old man got behind the wheel. They drove to a vacant lot that, apparently unbeknownst to the carjackers, was just a few hundred feet from a police station. At that point, Thompson was able to retrieve his 40-caliber pistol from his pocket and open fire on his assailants. Police officers, hearing the shots from the station, quickly responded and caught the teens as they ran. The suspects were taken to the hospital with gunshot wounds and later faced aggravated robbery charges. (Houston Chronicle, Houston, TX, 05/27/06)
A homeowner answered a knock at his door to find a man in an energy company uniform, who warned him of a gas leak. Knowing that the surrounding homes were not fueled by gas, the homeowner became suspicious. Police say he grabbed a pistol and went to investigate, where he encountered the man and at least two others. One of the suspects shot the homeowner in the arm, but he returned fire and fatally wounded the uniformed man. The others fled and were still being sought by police. The phony utility worker's uniform included handcuffs, a tool kit and a badge that identified him as a restaurant employee. "It was clear he was intent on doing some kind of robbery or home invasion."' said Harris County Sheriff's Lt. John Martin. The homeowner was taken to the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. (Houston Chronicle, Houston, TX, OS/22/06)
Dameko Roberson and his family were 'awakened by the sound of someone jiggling the locked front door knob. According to police, an intruder unlocked the door and charged into the apartment as Roberson grabbed his rifle. "The occupant fired, fearing for his safety and for the safety of his family."' said Detective Jeff Felton. The suspected burglar was pronounced dead at the hospital from gunshot wounds to the torso. (Tulsa World, Tulsa, OK, 06/17/06)
Unable to fend off an alleged intruder on her own, a woman ran to the home of her neighbor, Roger Ledford. But police say the suspect continued to pursue her, even shooting the lock off Ledford's side door. As he attempted to breach the door, Ledford shot him with a shotgun, killing him. "The homeowner was fearful of what was going on and shot and killed him."' said Capt. Brad Stanley of the Forsyth County Sheriff's Office. Police also said the assailant had poured a flammable substance inside the woman's home. (Winston-Salem Journal, Winston-Salem, NC, 06/06/06)
Police said a carryout restaurant employee was restocking shelves and cleaning after hours when two masked burglars entered the store by breaking a lock off a security gate and shattering the glass of the front door. Hearing the ruckus, the employee, armed with a handgun, went to investigate. When one of the intruders confronted him with a crowbar, he shot him once in the upper chest, killing him. The dead man's accomplice fled, but police apprehended him two blocks away. The suspect was charged with murder for committing a felony in which an accomplice was killed, and with aggravated burglary. (The Columbus Dispatch, Columbus, OH, 07/01/06) |
With those two elements-a tough Senate majority and an administration committed to keeping the U.N. gun-ban crowd at bay-our liberty is safe, but only for the moment. That protection could be weakened in an instant were the power structure of the U.S. overturned in the upcoming November elections. It is not hard to imagine the welcome mat for international gun-ban moneybags George Soros and his minion, Rebecca Peters, if the Senate were controlled by the likes of Teddy Kennedy, Charles Schumer, Dianne Feinstein, John Kerry and Hillary Clinton. Were they to wrest control of the Senate, we would not only fight all manner of domestic gun control-from a new ban on semi-autos, to criminalizing all now legal firearms sales between individuals, to approval of new lawsuits to kill the firearm industry-we would see an effort to "normalize" international gun control on our shores. Further, we would see an end to confirmation of judges who oppose the notion that American law and our Constitutional rights should conform to "international standards." To understand the true intent of the U.N. gun-ban crowd and the true meaning of slippery words like "illicit trade" and "illegal guns" requires only a look at what was said during the conference. Take the stated U.N. purpose of its global gun control plan-"preventing, combating and eradicating the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in all its aspects." To curb "illegal" guns, they say, "legal guns" must be "controlled." So your guns and my guns-in U.N. parlance-are merely future "illicit" guns. "Illicit trade in all its aspects" was forever defined by the U.N.-sponsored referendum campaign in Brazil to add a total ban on the legal sale of all guns and ammunition to that nation's already draconian anti-gun laws. Ultimately, Brazilians overwhelmingly rejected the ban, prompting the home-grown gun-confiscation leader to tell a U.N. meeting "First lesson is, don't trust direct democracy." To understand the connection between "illicit trade" and American freedom, try these official U.N. summaries of positions proffered by various national governments pressing for a universal borderless gun control. The position of the Belgian Minister for Foreign Affairs-touting his nation's new law-was an "approach based on the notion that the illicit trafficking of small arms and light weapons could only be effectively addressed by setting forth clear criteria regarding the trade and possession of lawful weapons." To specifically conform to U.N. standards, Belgium mandated "strict controls on the possession of arms by private citizens in the country. Henceforth, any firearm would be subject to permit and the bearing of prohibited arms would be punishable. "That law also provided for the establishment of a central registry for arms .... Non-regularized weapons would be collected, securely stored and ultimately destroyed." The platform of the Mexican government-which confiscated millions of firearms from its citizens long ago-further defined the imminent danger to the Second Amendment: "The Conference should also safeguard the right of citizens to legal ownership, but should also find ways to adopt language which steps up national controls on such weapons, since it was often those, which had been sold legally, that fell into the hands of criminal networks or even terrorists." The U.N. summary stressed that "regulating ownership by civilians and ensuring that small arms and munitions did not fall into the hands of criminals was critical," and that Mexico "would call on all States to adopt commitments that would lead to the true and real eradication of small arms and light weapons." The Canadian representative was paraphrased demanding: "It was imperative to reduce the misuse of small arms and light weapons by civilians, since civilians possessed more than 60 percent of the world's 600 million small arms .... States could make tremendous gains through simple measures such as implementing licensing regimes that set clear criteria for the lawful ownership and use of firearms." Licensing, registration, destruction and eradication define the goal of the U.N. under that rubric "in all its aspects." That's us, folks. Those are our rights. Only we can make sure that we are shielded against this international tyranny by re-electing a pro-Second Amendment majority in the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives this fall. Without your vote, without the votes of your families, friends, neighbors and co-workers, our liberties could someday soon become just another U.N. "aspect:' |
In the months of preparation for the ill-fated United Nations July gun-ban conference, I was haunted by the awesome importance of our pro-Second Amendment majority in the u.s. Senate. And during the conference itself I saw, firsthand, stalwart Bush administration diplomats telling the globalists, "Hands off American freedom:' But in that message is a lesson.
The U.N. Review Conference on Small Arms convened to examine progress on a program begun in 2001 purportedly designed to address the proliferation and misuse of illicit firearms. In reality, the program has worked to pass a treaty that would ban civilian possession of small arms worldwide. I attended the conference along with NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre. The U.N.'s philosophy about firearms is evident even before you enter the building. There is a large bronze sculpture in the Visitors' Plaza of a revolver with its barrel twisted into a knot, titled "Non-Violence." Looking at it, I realized that the revolver is primarily a civilian defensive firearm, not a military offensive weapon, so this so-called peace symbol is actually a statement against the basic human right of self-defense. Inside the building, exhibitors hawked anti-gun magazines, brochures and posters, all designed for maximum emotional impact showing gruesome photos of victims of violence, especially women and children. What you cannot tell from the pictures is whether these victims were made helpless and defenseless by their own country's misguided gun-ban laws denying them the means of self-defense. Because NRA members like you responded to the NRA call, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan received more than 100,000 postcards, letters, e-mails and faxes objecting to the conference's attempt to infringe on our Second Amendment rights. Prasad Kariyawasam, the Sri Lankan ambassador who chaired the Review Conference, told me that he had received so many such communications that his office stopped responding. He hastened to assure me that the conference was not intended to deprive Americans of their right to legally possess firearms. I told him that while I appreciated his assurances, they were unnecessary because Americans would never tolerate any attempt by the U.N. or anyone else to take away their constitutionally guaranteed freedoms. Leading the U.N. gun prohibition movement is IAN SA, a coalition of anti-gun organizations. It is funded by anti-gun billionaire George Soros and led by Rebecca Peters, the architect of the Australian gun ban, a country where crime is now skyrocketing." While IANSA is the undisputed villain in the global gun-ban movement, there are heroes as well. The· most courageous and tireless is John Bolton, United States Ambassador to the United Nations. When the program began five years ago, Bolton was undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, and remained steadfast in his defense of the Second Amendment. At this summer's conference, his successor and current undersecretary of state, Robert Joseph, told the conference: "The U.S. Constitution guarantees the rights of our citizens to keep and bear arms, and there will be no infringement of those rights. The United States will not agree to any provisions restricting civilian possession, use or legal trade of firearms inconsistent with our laws and practices." Although heavily outnumbered, the U.s. stood resolute in not giving one inch of ground to the dictatorships and terrorist states that want all firearms to be the exclusive province of government. The conference concluded after two weeks, to quote T.S. Eliot's poem, The Hollow Men, "not with a bang but a whimper." There was no agreement as to a final document and, due to the United States' strong objections, for the moment there is no agreement for follow-up conferences. In short, it was a victory for the Second Amendment and American freedom. But IANSA and the U.N. global gun-ban movement are far from dead. They are like the evil wizard Lord Voldemort in J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books. The villain is never completely vanquished but instead slinks into the netherworld to build his strength and wait until the time is more advantageous for a resurgence. Like Lord Voldemort, the U.N. global gun-ban movement is lying in wait hoping that a new U.s. administration might be friendlier to the international "norms" suggesting that civilian possession of private arms is outdated and uncivilized. This is one of the reasons why the stakes are so high in the upcoming elections and why we must keep the U.N. gun-ban movement in mind as we go to the polls this fall. |
This summer, while soaring gasoline prices kept most Americans home watching news coverage of the crisis in the Middle East, our Right to Keep and Bear Arms was being debated at the United Nations headquarters.