Now, the UN Wants Bullet Control

UN Gun Control Program Runs Amok Again, Daily Signal, May 13, 2022. "More than two decades ago, the United Nations created a program to curb the trafficking of small arms. It’s done nothing but fire blanks. So now, the U.N. wants to control bullets."

Guns and Silliness at the U.N. in 2021

At the 2021 U.N. Programme of Action on Small Arms Meeting, the U.S. Should Get Real, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #3613, May 4, 2021. "The last meeting of the U.N.’s Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA), held in 2018, violated the PoA’s principle of working by unanimous consent. The PoA has few, if any, achievements. U.S. participation in it merely lends it a credibility it does not deserve: The only reason for the U.S. to participate is to prevent the PoA from making bad decisions. Now that the PoA has abandoned the principle of unanimity that allowed the U.S. to prevent bad outcomes, the U.S should not participate in the 2021 meeting of the PoA unless the PoA is reoriented to focus on specific, realistic, and relevant goals."

Quit the PoA

The United States Should Withdraw from the U.N.’s Programme of Action on Small Arms, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #5040, February 20, 2020. "The last meeting of the U.N.’s Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA), held in 2018, broke a U.S. red line and violated the PoA’s own rule of working by unanimous consent. The PoA has few if any substantive achievements. The only reason for the U.S. to participate was to prevent the PoA from making bad decisions and seeking to bind the U.S. with progressive norms. Now that the PoA has abandoned the principle of unanimity that allowed the U.S. to prevent bad outcomes, there is no reason for the U.S. to continue to participate. The U.S. should therefore take no part in the June 2020 meeting of the PoA."

The U.S. As Muscle-Bound Giant

Why The U.S. Struggles to Come to Grips with the U.N.’s Gun Control Program, Forbes, July 12, 2018. "The most fundamental U.S. difficulty is that, in most U.N. venues, the U.S. is permanently on the defensive: the best we can do is to limit our losses. I would love to take the offensive, to come up with proposals that we can back and to force others to react to them, instead of us being forced to always react to the idiotic proposals of others."

The PoA's Little Inanities

The Little Inanities of the U.N.’s Gun Control Program, Forbes, July 12, 2018. "During the last two weeks of June, I was in New York, watching the Third Review Conference of the U.N.’s Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects, usually abbreviated as the Programme of Action, or just the PoA. For the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, I’ve explained how the U.S. was cheated by a last minute rule change. But spending a fortnight at the PoA also occasions a few broader thoughts on the dysfunctions of the PoA, and the way the U.S. deals with dysfunctional international institutions. In this column, I’ll look at some of those dysfunctions. In the next, I’ll focus on how the U.S. tries — and sometimes fails — to come to grips with them.

Keeping the Party Going at the PoA

To Promote Gun Control, the UN Changes the Rules, Daily Signal, July 10, 2018. "In the last two weeks of June, the United Nations held another review conference on its efforts to counter what it considers illicit dealing in small arms. The U.S. played the game well. But unfortunately, you can’t beat a cheater. In theory, this U.N. program might be a modestly useful way to promote cooperation against the illicit international trade in small arms. In practice, as even the world body has agreed, it does nothing very useful, mostly because most nations at the U.N. are too incompetent, or too ill-willed, to follow through on their commitments."

My PoA Top Ten

The Ten Dumbest Things I Heard About Guns at the United Nations, Forbes, June 28, 2018. "In theory, the purpose of the PoA — which is a political instrument, not a treaty — is to encourage cooperation on the illicit international trade in small arms. If the PoA stuck to this, it might be modestly useful. It can only be modestly useful because far too many nations at the U.N. don’t right now have the ability, or the desire, to do the basic things they have repeatedly committed to do."

What A Waste of Time

I’m Sitting Through One of the UN’s Most Useless Conferences. Here’s What’s Happening, Daily Signal, June 23, 2018. "or this week and the next, the United Nations is hosting a conference of its Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects—fortunately abbreviated as the PoA. Like the U.N. Human Rights Council, the PoA is a classic U.N. institution: It’s a good idea in theory, but a terrible failure in practice."

The U.S. Goal Is to Ensure the PoA Continues To Do Nothing

U.S. Goals at the 2018 Review Conference of the U.N.’s Programme of Action on Small Arms, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #3313, May 14, 2018. "The U.N.’s Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA) is a political mechanism, which works by unanimous consensus for encouraging voluntary cooperation against the illicit small-arms trade. It is a substantive failure, but that is unlikely to stop the PoA’s forthcoming Third Review Conference from seeking to expand the PoA in unproductive ways—including by advocating an unworkable plan for the registry of individual rounds of ammunition and supporting new technical requirements for civilian firearms. If the U.S. continues to participate in the PoA, it should send a strong delegation to the Conference to effectively oppose these ideas. Likewise, the U.S. should staunchly reject all efforts to transform the PoA into a treaty and not be taken in by Trojan Horse strategies designed to impose constraining international norms on the U.S."

Another Impending UN Misfire

Beware: The United Nations Is Taking Aim at Ammo, Fox News, January 30, 2018. "The United Nations will have a busy year in 2018 on the firearms front. That’s not good news for anyone in the U.S. who buys firearms. When it comes to the U.N. and guns, the best form of action is always inaction."

The Other Half Smuggled the Gun

At the U.N., Lather, Rinse, and Repeat for Gun Control, National Review Online, June 14, 2016, "The more time you spend at the U.N., the more its activities fall into a pattern. There are big promises, followed by failure and complete unwillingness to look that failure in the face. The affair invariably concludes with the piling up of yet more promises. Like a naughty child, the U.N. responds to evidence of past underperformance with pledges of future overachievement."

What the U.S. Should Do At the Useless PoA

U.S. Goals at the 2016 Meeting of the U.N.’s Small-Arms Process, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4571, June 1, 2016, "In 2001, the United Nations created the Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA). The PoA is not a treaty; rather, it is a political mechanism for encouraging voluntary cooperation. On June 6–10, the Sixth Biennial Meeting of States (BMS6) under the PoA will be held in New York City. BMS6 purportedly will focus on issues raised at the Second Meeting of Governmental Experts (MGE2) under the PoA, which was held on June 1–5, 2015, and summarized in the “Chair’s Summary” released on June 17, 2015. The PoA is a useless process that has achieved nothing of value and appears unlikely ever to do so. The only reason for the U.S. to participate in it is to prevent bad outcomes. If BMS6 does indeed focus on the issues raised at MGE2, the U.S. will have to work hard to keep the bad ideas raised in 2015 from becoming part of the U.N.’s PoA agenda in 2016."

Another UN PoA Failure

The Failings and Structural Irrelevance of the U.N.’s Small-Arms Process, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4435, July 20, 2015. "On June 1–5, 2015, the Second Meeting of Governmental Experts (MGE2) under the PoA was held in New York City. The purpose of MGE2 was to allow nationally nominated experts to address technical issues raised at the Fifth Biennial Meeting of States (BMS5), which was held June 16–20, 2014, and to prepare for the Sixth Biennial Meeting of States (BMS6), to be held in 2016. The “Chair’s Summary” of MGE2, released on June 17, 2015, demonstrates again that the PoA is accomplishing nothing and that it continues to be a forum for demands for increased U.S. aid and the promotion of government controls on private individuals. Moreover, as a U.N. mechanism, the PoA makes it harder to address the genuine challenges stemming from the illicit arms trade."

The Ponderous PoA

The U.N. Confuses Gun Ownership with Arms Trafficking, National Review Online, June 9, 2015. "I spent last week at the U.N., watching so-called national experts talk about guns. Turns out most of them weren’t experts. Then again, the ponderousness of the meeting’s title — the Second Meeting of Governmental Experts for the U.N.’s Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects — gave fair warning that the gathering was unlikely to achieve anything of use."

At the UN, the US Fires Back

At a U.N. Meeting on Guns, the U.S. Stands Up Under Fire, National Review, June 5, 2015. "This week, Turtle Bay is hosting the second Meeting of Governmental Experts for the U.N.’s Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat, and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects – mercifully abbreviated to MGE2 and PoA, respectively. The PoA is a strange entity. It’s a political agreement, not a treaty, so it’s never come before the Senate and it has no binding legal force. But that doesn’t make it harmless. It’s one of the many international institutions engaged in creating so-called “norms” that will constrain the U.S., though not the U.N.’s many dictatorships. But despite its painful name and dubious intentions, it’s more amusing than most such institutions."

What's Good, and Bad, in the Draft PoA Chairman's Summary

Challenges, and Successes, for United States at UN Small Arms Meeting, Daily Signal, June 5, 2015. "Today, the second meeting of government experts for the U.N. “Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons” wraps up in New York. In theory, the PoA, as it is known, is about controlling international arms smuggling. In practice, a lot of nations want to make it about gun control. So far, the U.S. has fought a good fight. But the rough draft of the chairman’s report, which I’ve just seen, makes it clear there’s more to do."

More Evidence of PoA Failure

Declines in National Reporting Reveal Failure of U.N.’s Programme of Action on Small Arms, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #4412, May 28, 2015. "The decline of PoA reporting implies that while many U.N. nations were eager to win political kudos by participating initially in the PoA or by signing the ATT, they are unwilling, or unable, to live up to their commitments under it. This points to a fundamental problem with institutions like the ATT: What is lacking in this world is not commitments and rules, but nations with competent and honest governments. If nations cannot do the simple job of making even an inaccurate or dishonest PoA report, there is no reason to believe they can or will do the much harder jobs mandated by the ATT."

Concluding Reflections on the U.N. PoA

Concluding Reflections on a Pointless U.N. Gathering on Guns, National Review Online, June 25, 2014. "As I noted Monday on the Corner, the biennial meeting of the U.N.’s Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PoA) that concluded on Friday went about as well from the U.S. perspective as it could have done. But that doesn’t mean it’s harmless: The broader context of the PoA is completely wedded to the promotion of gun control, and to the promotion in the U.S. of supposedly binding transnational norms that would reinterpret and hence change the Constitution."

Summing Up the U.N. PoA

At the Close of the U.N.’s Programme of Action, Wins – and A Few Losses – for the U.S., National Review Online, June 23, 2014. "The U.N. Programme of Action on Small Arms and Light Weapons (PoA), which I’ve been covered for the Corner over the past week, wrapped up on Friday afternoon with a consensus outcome — i.e., one that’s unanimously tolerated, if not unanimously liked. In the field of firearms, nothing that the U.N. does can be genuinely good for the U.S., but as these things go, the PoA wasn’t too bad."

NGO Statements from Myself and Canadian NFA to the U.N. PoA

At NGO Day at the U.N. Programme of Action, Forthright Talk from Canada, National Review Online, June 19, 2014. "Today’s meeting of the U.N.’s Programme of Action on Small Arms (PoA) focused on statements by non-governmental organizations. As far as the conservative organizations go, the direct impact of these is minimal: most everyone else in the room is on the other team."