May 16, 2008 at 13:57:44

Small steps on small arms

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By Tom Driscoll (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)

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"We don't see any need for treaties or agreements coming out of this." -so said the U.S. Ambassador at the time, John Bolton.

$4 billion dollars a year is spent in the global trade of small arms. Estimates are that about $1 billion of that is comprised of the illegal trade that arms brutal and repressive paramilitaries around the globe, that arms the militias in Somalia and marauders in Darfur, that arms the Taliban, al-Qaeda and insurgency forces throughout Iraq, that arms Robert Mugabe's henchman army as it punishes democracy in Zimbabwe. Still the Bush administration informs the American public and the entire world community that there "no need for treaties or agreements."

This action -or should I say "non-action"?- won John Bolton and the Bush administration some applause from groups like The National Rifle Association -"on principle." There are those who don't want to see "treaties or agreements" that could give rise to restrictive policies that might curb private ownership rights anywhere around the world -there are those who argue that privately born small arms serve to protect human rights. This is how a private citizenry opposes a repressive regime after all.

That's the theory anyway.

The fact that just the opposite is the case in Robert Mugabe's Zimabawe, just the opposite in the deserts of Darfur, and in the shooting galleries of Baghdad -that might confound the theory with a sorry dose of reality, with the very plain connection between blood on the streets and the smoking barrel of a gun.

The two halves of the cup, one full, one empty. For those with their blind ideological theories and those who would see guns for a despot as mere commerce, there is the answer of those like the dock workers of Durban and those who have worked tirelessly for years to curb the flow of guns into troubled regions.

There's a quote that comes to mind. It was Dwight Eisenhower who said it.

"I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it."

I guess that is the hopeful half of this story. In South Africa the government got out of the way and ultimately ended up following the lead of its people. There just might be a chance of doing that here just as well.

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Tom driscoll is an opinion columnist, poet, performiing songwriter (let's just say he writes).

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