Philip Alpers says be wary over US gun lobby at Brazil UN firearms conference
by Neil Reid
Evening Post, Wellington, New Zealand
17 December 1997
The pro-gun lobby is spreading "laughable misrepresentations" to derail initiatives to regulate firearms, gun law reformer Philip Alpers has told a United Nations conference.
Mr Alpers opened the conference in Sao Paulo, Brazil, last week with a call for the UN to be wary about statements made by the American National Rifle Association (NRA).
The NRA shares information with the Auckland-based pro-gun lobby group, the Sporting Shooters Association of New Zealand (SSANZ). Mr Alpers said the NRA had mounted "sideshows" in a bid to negate the work of the UN.
Mr Alpers said the NRA campaign had included mailing its three million members a form letter with a prepaid envelope addressed to UN secretary-general Kofi Annan.
Mr Alpers labeled the NRA campaign as "a shameless beat-up of a very normal process" which included "obvious overtones of racism"
The conference - the UN Firearm Regulation Workshop, Americas Region - is one of four meetings to be held around the world to discuss UN initiatives for increased firearms regulations.
SSANZ president John Dyer told The Post he questioned the worth of the UN confer- ences. He said he was concerned by inaccuracies in information on which the forum based calls for firearms regulations.
Mr Dyer said SSANZ received no funding from the NRA. However,some of its policies had been based on information it received from the American organization. He hoped SSANZ would be represented at the remaining UN conferences.
The conference recorded the findings of retired High Court judge Sir Thomas Thorp after a review of firearms control in New Zealand. The review, sparked by two fatal police shootings, recommended banning most military-style semiautomatic weapons, setting up a Firearms Authority independent of police, and disqualifying a person convicted of a "serious offence" from holding a firearms license for five years.
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