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			    GENERAL-RKBA Digest 355
Topics covered in this issue include:
1) INFO: Opening Closed Doors - Statement by ILA Director Metaksa by NRA 
         Alerts 
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Topic No. 1
Date: Mon, 27 Apr 1998 18:19:19 -0400 (EDT)
From: NRA Alerts 
To: general-rkba-real.nra
Subject: INFO: Opening Closed Doors - Statement by ILA Director Metaksa
Message-ID: 
                       OPENING CLOSED DOORS
                          Statement by 
                      Mrs. Tanya K. Metaksa
                        Executive Director
   National Rifle Association Institute for Legislative Action
                             to the 
        Commission on Crime Prevention & Criminal Justice
                         Seventh Session
                         Vienna, Austria
                          April 27, 1998
                          Agenda Item 5:
 Criminal Justice Reform and Strengthening of Legal Institutions
              Measures to Regulate Firearms        
                         ________________
     Madame Chairperson, first let me congratulate you on the
excellent job you have done in presiding over today's plenary
session of the Commission. 
     By way of introduction let me note that the National Rifle
Association Institute for Legislative Action is the oldest,
largest, most active organization in the world concerned with
shooting sports and the rights of firearms owners.  The NRA has
over three million members worldwide and our organization
actively lobbies in all fifty of the United States and in the
U.S. Congress. The NRA has been an official Economical and Social
Counsel non-governmental organization since 1996.  In this
capacity, we have assumed a leadership role in monitoring all
international firearms regulations efforts. We attended all four
of the regional workshops on firearms regulations as well as the
sixth Session of the Commission on Crime Prevention.
         
     Today I should like to address three topics.  First, the
report of the Secretary General on "Measures to Regulate
Firearms."  Second, the resolutions regarding firearms which are
being considered by this body.  And finally, Madame Chairperson,
perhaps the most important, the need for democratic reform of the
method by which the UN conducts its business when considering
issues which, by definition, constitute key elements of the
domestic affairs of member states.
         
Report of the Secretary General
         
     Having reviewed the report of the Secretary General on
"Measures to Regulate firearms" [E/CN. 15/1998/4], we find it an
incredible document.  It is more aptly described as an un-
credible document.   I refer to the section sub-titled, 
"Conclusion of the Workshop." That is found in paragraphs 11
through 23 of the report.
     This is un-credible for two reasons: the substance of the
conclusions and the process by which those conclusions were
drawn.  Let me list just a few of the so-called, "conclusions"
more precisely, affronts to law-abiding possessors of firearms,
good people not just of the United States of America but good
people of nations around the world.  
         
*  That hunters should be required to store their firearms in
sporting clubs.
         
*  That the firearms used in hunting be sharply restricted and
permitted for use only to protect wildlife.
         
*  That only smooth-bore firearms be permitted for protection of
property or life.
*  That firearm owners establish a need before being allowed to
possess firearms.
         
*  That firearms collectors be allowed to possess only those
firearms which are non-functional.  
         
*  That there be an upper-age-limit on the possession of
firearms.
         
*  That firearms owners obtain insurance before being allowed to
hunt.
*  That firearms possession be discouraged and that, if they
must, individuals would be permitted to own one firearm at most.
         
     Madame Chair, we have in our hands a report issued by a
group of people who have bent over backwards to avoid open
processes -- processes designed to arrive at measured
conclusions.  Instead, we have witnessed closed processes which
yield no measured conclusions at all, but radical proposals which
strike at the core of freedoms we hold dear and a heritage which
was passed on to us by our fathers and forefathers.  These
radical affronts may or may not have been actually discussed at
the workshop.  Indeed, this is the first time we and our
government have heard of many of them.
     We monitored all four workshops, and we reviewed all
published materials, but no verbatim records are kept of
workshops.  Most sessions were completely closed, even to the
very people who have the most to lose.  People like us.  Citizens
with rights.  Citizens with something to say.  Citizens with no
way of verifying how radical proposals found their way into an
official U.N. document.
     Madame, I will return to this point later, but for the
record, permit me to make this observation: the U.N.'s tarnished
reputation shall never brighten when its agencies cloak
themselves in secrecy, when it insists on closing doors rather
than opening doors when it  masquerades radical proposals as
blithe conclusions in officially bound documents. 
Resolutions under Consideration
         
     Let me hasten to add, Madame Chairperson, that we are
extremely gratified that no resolution has been introduced for a
"declaration of principles on firearm regulation."  There has not
been sufficient discussion of any such declaration.  A resolution
at this time would have premature at best.    
         
     If this body chooses to proceed ahead with further efforts
to tighten firearm regulation, we would request that all future
meetings be open meetings.  
-=Continued in next post=-
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