January-May 1997
Small Arms Proliferation:
Global Arms Bazaar or Global Gun Control?
Despite the continuing dangers of nuclear conflict, the most immediate threat to personal security today may not be nuclear missiles but global gun-running. Assault rifles, machine guns, landmines and the like -- so called "small arms" -- wreak death and destruction on a broad scale. The United States is a leading player in this deadly commerce. Each year we import thousands of Brazilian handguns and Chinese assault rifles while exporting thousands of handguns and rifles to Mexico, Colombia, and other global hot spots, where they are often bought by drug traffickers. U.S. arms and ammunition are killing civilians and threatening American peacekeepers, businesspeople, and tourists working or traveling abroad.
Many experts believe that the only effective remedy for this epidemic of global gun-running is global gun control to reduce the free flow of assault rifles, handguns, and other combat weapons into the hands of drug traffickers, death squads, and would-be terrorists.
In this campaign, the Mainstream Media Project enlisted people working on the international arms trade as well as those working on domestic gun control -- two movements that, until then, were largely separate. Launched in late January, the campaign ran intensively through March, with occasional bookings through early June. In all, MMP generated 70 interviews, 18 of them syndicated nationally or internationally.
Using sources suggested by MMP staff, The New York Times published an excellent article documenting the National Rifle Association's establishment of a global gun lobby and its efforts to derail initiatives by the United Nations and other international bodies to enforce the first rudimentary restraints on the global gun trade. This article was widely reprinted in U.S. and foreign papers, resulting in queries from as far away as Moscow and Warsaw regarding gun-running in those regions and additional articles by the Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, and European press agencies.
Guest Speakers
Kathi Austin, Consultant, Human Rights Watch Arms Project
Michael Beard, Director, Coalition to Stop Gun Violence
Natalie Goldring, Deputy Director, British American Security Information Council (BASIC)
Steve Goose, Program Director, Human Rights Watch Arms Project
Handgun Control, Inc.
Bill Hartung, Director, Project on the Control of the International Arms Trade, World Policy Institute
Joost Hilterman, Director, Human Rights Watch Arms Project
Michael Klare, Director, Program on Peace and World Security, Studies Hampshire College
Edward Laurance, Professor, Monterey Institute for International Studies
Lora Lumpe, Director, Arms Sales Monitoring Project, Federation of American Scientists
Tracy McCaffery, Physicians for Social Responsibility
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-NY), Congresswoman
Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), Congresswoman
Saul Mendlovitz, Co-Director, World Order Models Project
Caleb Rossiter, Director, Demilitarization for Democracy
Frank Smyth, Independent Journalist; Human Rights Watch Consultant
Josh Sugarmann, Executive Director, Violence Policy Center
Coletta Youngers, Senior Associate, Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA)
