NFA Presentation - UN ATT Conference, Tokyo August 20 - 24, 2018

UN ATT Conference, Tokyo August 20-24, 2018

Mr. Chairman, I am Sheldon Clare, president of Canada’s National Firearms Association. The NFA is the largest advocacy organization representing the rights of firearms owners and users in Canada. I would like to make four brief points in regarding the ATT and civil ownership of firearms.

First, the ATT should have excluded civilian firearms. The research from Canada has proven that efforts to control civilians and their firearms is expensive, bureaucratic, and has little to do with reducing criminal misuse of firearms. Dr. Gary Mauser’s research and Dr. Caillin Langmann’s audit of government data, have demonstrated that none of Canada’s firearms control efforts from the 1970s forward have had any effect upon reducing violent crime or suicide rates. The Canadian data is clear that crime rates have been dropping, even while firearms ownership rates have increased.

Second, the activities of hunting, target shooting, collecting, self-defence, and the manufacture and sale of firearms, ammunition, and accessories support economies around the world. Canada and the United States are important examples of this major benefit, with hunting and civil firearms related activities continuing to generate billions of dollars of economic gain annually.

Third, Canadians, including aboriginal people, use firearms and ammunition responsibly in support of hunting, target shooting, cultural history, and defence.
Ammunition from military surplus sources is an inexpensive way for former military stocks to be consumed in a safe and responsible manner by civilian enthusiasts far from conflict zones. Efforts to add additional marking to ammunition will merely increase cost, impede responsible use, and do nothing to stem illegal activities. UN efforts need to remain focused on State actors, terror groups, and areas of conflict, not over regulating civilian firearm communities within stable States. When the UN Secretary General said in his statement to the Security Council in 2015 that, “Guns can be licensed, marked and confiscated…”, he confirmed the fears of many people about the UN’s anti-freedom agenda towards civilian firearm ownership. Such statements are alarming to Canada’s recreational firearms community, especially in the context of misguided calls for domestic firearm bans.

Fourth, firearm owner and user groups have serious concerns about frequent misdirected UN attempts to attach civilian firearms ownership to problems of international mass violence. There is also a tremendous difference between the violent activities of state actors and terrorists, and the peaceful nature of people who use firearms and ammunition for protection, and as tools in their everyday lives.

Thank you for your consideration.