by Iain Overton
24.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/oct/15/uk-arms-northern-ireland-loyalist-massacre. The Guardian reported that ‘there are serious concerns about the way the Loughinisland killings were investigated, with a subsequent inquiry by the police ombudsman establishing that police failed to take some suspects’ fingerprints or DNA samples. Police have admitted that one key piece of evidence – the getaway car – was destroyed. There is no evidence that any officer sought or gave permission for this to be done.’
25.
Ibid.
26.
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/catholic-shot-dead-in-ambush-attack-on-workmen-in-minibus-seen-as-loyalist-warning-to-workers-at-shorts-aero-space-factory-1510516.html. http://republican-news.org/current/news/2011/07/new_revelation_points_to_lough.html
27.
http://www.belfastdaily.co.uk/2012/10/16/loughinisland-pub-massacre-secret-gun-shipment-funded-by-british-army/
28.
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2012/oct/15/northern-ireland-loyalist-shootings-loughinisland
29.
Sean Boyne, Gunrunners: The Covert Arms Trail to Ireland (Dublin: O’Brien, 2006), p. 368.
30.
Thomas McErlean, John Murray and IRA volunteer Caoimhín Mac Brádaigh.
31.
http://republican-news.org/archive/2003/March20/20mont.html
32.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/10249892/Jailed-Boston-mobsters-gang-smuggled-weapons-to-the-IRA-in-coffins.html
33.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/26/world/middleeast/in-shift-saudis-are-said-to-arm-rebels-in-syria.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes&_r=1&
34.
The allegations were made by José ‘Pepe’ Grinda Gonzalez, Spain’s national court prosecutor. Gonzalez was responsible for the investigation into Zakhar Kalashov, reportedly the most senior mafia figure to be jailed outside Russia. http://www.theguardian.com/world/us-embassy-cables-documents/247712?guni=Article:inpercent20bodypercent20link
35.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/01/27/us-usa-syria-rebels-idUSBREA0Q1S320140127
36.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1262079
37.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/11004928/Afghanistan-has-cost-more-to-rebuild-than-Europe-after-Second-World-War.html
38.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/americas/united-states/140509/the-us-military-describes-its-mistakes-afghanistan
39.
http://rt.com/news/176004-afghanistan-missing-weapons-sigar/
40.
http://www.sigar.mil/pdf/Audits/SIGAR-14-84-AR.pdf
41.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/afghanistan/5355937/Taliban-using-ammunition-from-Afghan-army.html
42.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/05/AR2007080501299.html; http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07711.pdf. The Department of Defense and the MNF-I (Multinational Force-Iraq) could not fully account for Iraq security forces’ receipt of US-provided equipment. This was put down to not having a centralised record of all equipment, insufficient number of staff, not collecting documents that confirmed when the equipment was received and the sheer quantities of equipment delivered.
43.
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/A-Yearbook/2007/en/full/Small-Arms-Survey-2007-Chapter-03-EN.pdf
44.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2749197/ISIS-arming-US-military-hardware-wage-jihad-Middle-East-seizing-weapons-Syrian-rebels-Iraqi-soldiers.html
45.
http://conflictarm.com/images/dispatch_iraq_syria.pdf
46.
http://justiceinmexico.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/130206-dvm-2013-final.pdf
47.
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/46425305/ns/world_news-americas/t/mexico-president-felipe-calderons-message-us-no-more-weapons/#.VB15cUvobx4
48.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20825061
49.
In 2010–12 the various estimated figures of smuggled guns ranged between 106,700 and 426,729. This constitutes a 187 per cent increase from the numbers trafficked between 1997 and 1999: http://catcher.sandiego.edu/items/peacestudies/way_of_the_gun.pdf; see also http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20825061
50.
http://ncronline.org/news/global/us-gun-policy-no-longer-domestic-weapons-are-smuggled-mexico
51.
Data from the University of San Diego Trans-Border Institute. Its figures range between 39.4 and 52.7 per cent: http://catcher.sandiego.edu/items/peacestudies/way_of_the_gun.pdf
52.
Data from the University of San Diego Trans-Border Institute. The US Justice Department’s Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives reported in 2012 that of the more than 99,000 guns that Mexican authorities seized and submitted to the ATF for tracing between 2007 and 2011, 68,000 came from the US. There has, though, been some debate over these figures. On the one hand, the US Government Accountability Office estimated 90 per cent or more guns used in Mexico were from the US. On the other hand some say only 17 per cent of weapons found at Mexican crime scenes originate from the US – that, of 29,000 firearms recovered at crime scenes in Mexico, 23,886 could not be traced to the US. This second argument is misleading. Many of the 29,000 firearms were not even sent for tracing, and so we have no idea if they were, or were not, from the US. Also, obliterated serial numbers, incomplete sales record-keeping and private purchases make it hard to find the origin of a gun. To this end, the ATF figures seem logical and acceptable. See also: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-20825061
53.
http://www.csmonitor.com/World/Americas/Latin-America-Monitor/2011/0708/Mexican-cartel-leader-claims-gang-buys-all-its-guns-in-US
54.
http://ncronline.org/news/global/us-gun-policy-no-longer-domestic-weapons-are-smuggled-mexico
55.
http://www.un.org/events/smallarms2006/pdf/factsheet_1.pdf
56.
http://iis-db.stanford.edu/evnts/6716/Oeindrila_Dube,_Cross_Border_Spillover.pdf
57.
In the four years following the lapse of America’s assault weapons ban in 2004, 60,000 illegal firearms seized in Mexico were traced back to the US.
58.
https://www.atf.gov/sites/default/files/assets/statistics/TraceData/TraceData_Intl/2013/central_america_-_cy_2013.pdf
59.
Ian Thomson, The Dead Yard (London: Faber and Faber, 2009), p. 316.
60.
What has muddied the waters about the impact of straw purchasing on the Mexican and Central American markets was the botched sting operation ‘Fast and Furious’ by the ATF. There the US authorities lost track of 1,400 ‘planted’ firearms that they were hoping would lead them to drug leaders, but the guns ended up arming Mexican gangs such as the Sinaloa cartel.
61.
http://www.vpc.org/florida/FLNeedlemanComplaint080410.pdf
62.
http://articles.sun-sentinel.com/2008-08-08/news/0808070489_1_gun-shop-gun-range-felons
63.
Investigation by the pro-gun control group Mayors Against Illegal Guns.
64.
Gun rights activists say that figure is grossly overstated and based on outdated data.
65.
http://www.atf.gov/sites/default/files/assets/Firearms/chap1.pdf. A separate pro-gun study concluded gun shows had little effect on deaths in the weeks following the shows. It found tighter California gun show regulations did not, for instance, reduce firearm-related deaths there. But studies have shown that gun crimes rarely involve weapons bought shortly before a crime’s occurrence. And looking at crimes solely within 25 miles of a gun show ignores findings about the geography of illegal gun markets; roughly two-thirds of gun crimes are from firearms purchased out
of state or far away from the scene of the deed.
66.
http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/opinion/2001-12-13-nceditf.htm
67.
http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/13/us/nation-challenged-gun-control-gun-foes-use-terror-issue-push-for-stricter-laws.html
68.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/closing-the-terror-gap-and-the-gun-show-loophole/2011/06/06/AGTKubKH_story.html. Perhaps the most notable non-international case, though, was the Columbine High School massacre. The two perpetrators bought two shotguns and a Hi-Point semi-automatic from a private seller for cash at the Tanner Gun Show in Adams County, Colorado. No questions were asked, and no paperwork was filled out. A fourth gun was also purchased directly by the boys from a private seller, who in turn had got it from an unlicensed seller at the Tanner Gun Show.
69.
http://www.buzzfeed.com/juangastelum/militia-leader-calls-on-members-to-go-armed-to-the-border#6d6htr
70.
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/09/central-america-child-migrants-us-border-crisis
71.
http://www.newrepublic.com/article/118759/nra-and-gun-trafficking-are-adding-fuel-border-migrant-crisis
Chapter 14: The Lobbyists
1.
As Human Rights Watch was to state: ‘It was regularly resupplied by air from South Africa, to the extent that it was better equipped than the Mozambique army.’ See: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/Mozamb927.pdf
2.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-13890416
3.
http://vimeo.com/51739769
4.
http://pedroreyes.net/palasporpistolas.php
5.
http://www.jewelryforacause.net/our-collections/caliber-collection; http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2013/01/25/cory-booker-s-murder-accessory-turning-buyback-guns-into-jewelry.html
6.
http://www.fonderie47.com/products/inversion-principle
7.
http://allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00030721.html
8.
http://www.the-monitor.org/index.php/publications/display?url=lm/2013/sub/Major_Findings.html
9.
It was the largest amount ever given. Of this, $32 million was for victim assistance and $15 million spent on advocacy in 2012.
10.
The treaty covered all forms of major weapons – battle tanks, artillery, combat aircraft, warships and missiles – as well as guns.
11.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/29/us-arms-treaty-un-idUSBRE92R10E20130329
12.
Of the fifteen top arms gun exporters, the following have signed but not yet ratified the Arms Trade Treaty: Brazil, Turkey and the United States. India, China, North Korea, Pakistan, the Russian Federation and Canada have not even signed up to it. So Austria, Belgium, Germany, Italy, Switzerland and the United Kingdom are the only major gun-producing countries who are signatories and have ratified it; http://disarmament.un.org/treaties/t/att; http://www.un.org/disarmament/ATT/
13.
Its full name is the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects.
14.
All of the other eleven top producers: Brazil, Canada, Germany, India, Italy, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States did file a report; http://www.poa-iss.org/Poa/NationalReportList.aspx
15.
http://www.reachingcriticalwill.org/images/documents/Disarmament-fora/salw/poa-assessment.pdf
16.
This tries to do concrete things about stopping the illicit spread of guns. Things like stamping out illegal manufacture; making sure that governments have databases about gun serial numbers; making sure that gun companies have proper security to stop people stealing arms off the manufacturing line; making sure that destroyed guns really are destroyed; and sharing information with other international agencies about gun smugglers.
17.
Those who have signed it and have yet to ratify it include Austria, Canada, China, Germany, India and the United Kingdom. Those who never even signed it include North Korea, Pakistan, the Russian Federation, Switzerland and the United States: http://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/treaties/CTOC/countrylist-firearmsprotocol.html; http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/weapons-and-markets/producers/industrial-production.html
18.
There is also the Wassenaar Arrangement. Signed by forty-one countries, it seeks to make the transfer of guns and other weapons more transparent. It does this by trying to establish a baseline as to when a state should decline a small-arms export licence. This was an attempt to stop things like guns fuelling terrorism, ongoing conflict and human rights abuses. It has been reasonably effective in increasing transparency around arms transfers, but there have been endless debates and arguments. How much information should be shared? How do you classify a state as being ‘of concern’? Is this shipment of guns really going to be ‘destabilising transfer’? And, of course, there is the fact that Belarus, China and Israel – significant gun producers – haven’t signed up at all. These hard realities are repeated with the UN Conventional Arms Register. This seeks to prevent large-scale build-ups of arms. It’s mainly about big weapons like tanks and missile launchers, but there is a section on guns, inviting states to provide information on things like gun exports, destinations, stockpiles and manufactured numbers. But its voluntary nature means that in 2012 only seventy-two countries reported.
19.
http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/hicrc/firearms-research/guns-and-death
20.
David B. Kopel, ‘Gun Ownership and Human Rights’, Dialogue 9, 2, Winter/Spring 2003, p. 7, http://www.davekopel.com/2A/Foreign/Brown-Journal-Kopel.pdf; whether a well equipped and armed state – with airpower and tanks – could be prevented from human rights violations by small arms alone is debatable.
21.
http://www.cfi-icaf.ca/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=578:canada-tries-to-exempt-hunting-rifles-from-un-arms-trade-treaty-negotiations-&catid=79:the-toronto-sun&Itemid=113; though when I contacted Survival International, a charity dedicated to the rights of indigenous peoples, they said: ‘It really hasn’t come up as an important issue’ (personal correspondence with Stephen Corry at Survival International).
22.
http://www.wfsa.net/about.html
23.
http://www.nraontherecord.org/john-bolton/
24.
http://www.smallarmssurvey.org/fileadmin/docs/L-External-publications/2002/2002-Krause-MultilateralDiplomacyNormBuilding.pdf
25.
http://gunowners.org/a07152011.htm
26.
http://www.amnestyusa.org/news/press-releases/nra-must-drop-its-campaign-of-lies-against-un-global-arms-trade-treaty
27.
http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/07/20/un-arms-treaty-aims-at-terror-but-puts-second-amendment-in-crosshairs/#ixzz21dn2xSrx
28.
http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/untreaty.asp
29.
http://www.ammoland.com/2013/08/obama-will-sign-un-gun-treaty-while-congress-is-on-vacation/
30.
http://www.americanbar.org/content/dam/aba/administrative/individual_rights/aba_chr_white_paper_att_final.authcheckdam.pdf
31.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/09/25/us-un-assembly-kerry-treaty-idUSBRE98O0WV20130925
32.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-nra-square-off-over-small-arms-treaty/2013/03/16/ae495dae-8d76-11e2-b63f-f53fb9f2fcb4_story.html
33.
http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/senate/290001-senate-votes-to-stop-us-from-joining-un-arms-treaty
34.
http://fas.org/sgp/crs/weapons/R42678.pdf
35.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nra-involved-in-gun-registry-debate-1.923766
/>
36.
http://www.americasquarterly.org/content/nras-hemispheric-reach
37.
http://www.insightcrime.org/news-analysis/brazil-police-say-sea-is-new-arms-trafficking-frontier
38.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/17/magazine/17wwln_essay.html
39.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4368598.stm?words=Breivik
40.
In one speech he spoke to the hundreds of thousands of ‘good Americans’ who, he claimed, will see his speech online. Six months on only 7,517 had watched it on the NRA official YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BCFB0N_jzMk
41.
http://www.gallup.com/poll/159578/nra-favorable-image.aspx
42.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/21/american-gun-out-control-porter
43.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jm2IBUZxZ0&index=7&list=PLyaSPxNidLLvIef8u5rR-6siU2Bs8csn0
44.
http://dailycaller.com/2014/03/06/cpac-wayne-lapierres-speech/2/
