Wars have cost Africa an estimated $284 billion since 1990
The U.N. General Assembly has begun hearing proposals for a new treaty regulating the arms trade, a process that only the United States , by far the world's leading arms dealer, voted last year to oppose.
Yet:
The most commonly used weapon in African conflicts is the Kalashnikov assault rifle, 95 percent of which come from outside the continent, according to the report.
Not made in the USA.
And the usual jab at the NRA:
Gun-control opponents, led by the National Rifle Association , worry that a treaty would infringe on private gun ownership.Oxfam and other advocates have called for a framework that restricts only sales of arms that are likely to be used in conflicts or to violate international law.
BS. IANSA, one of the "advocates" ,has been pivotal in gun bans in the UK and Australia and who's president has called for the banning of everything except single shot .22's and shotguns.
African nations broadly favor stiffer controls on small arms sales.
Of course they do, then the various governments can continue the slaughter of undesirables.
1 comment:
That was certainly an interesting way for the author to spin the article. He switches from talking about small and light arms to "the United States, by far the world's leading arms dealer," in the same paragraph.
We probably do, in dollar figures, sell more ordnance to other countries. It takes a lot of Kalishnakovs to make up for the cost of an F-14 Tomcat, but there's no economic reason for the US to oppose free trade of small arms. It's for entirely political reasons that they oppose this, which is just fine by me.
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