The real threat

While we should be encouraging states to secure and decommission as many WMDs as possible, the Star points out that smaller weapons have historically posed the much greater threat:

Small arms are portable, easy to use, and so lethal that, every two years, they annihilate 1 million people — the equivalent of a city the size of Ottawa. With the aid of small arms, thousands of women are raped, children are forced into murderous militias, and weak states crumble...

Ryerson professor Wendy Cukier, president of the Canadian Coalition for Gun Control, says living next to the world's biggest stockpile has boosted violence among America's neighbours. "In Canada, half of the handguns used in crimes are from the U.S. In Mexico, it's 80 per cent. The fact that the U.S. has inadequate controls fuels the illicit trade in arms worldwide."

Since Canada passed gun laws in the 1990s, Cukier points out, 90 per cent of gun owners are licensed and firearms deaths have dropped by about 40 per cent. But, she says, although deaths from rifles and shotguns have dwindled, "there has been no comparable reduction in handgun violence."

The usual answer to attempts to control small arms is that there are simply too many to try to control. Of course, the operation of that view in the U.S. (along with the NRA) has a lot to do with the reason why there are so many weapons on the market in the first place.

And now the weapons looted from Iraq are driving supply up and prices down:

Some of the weapons, Napoleoni says, were handed over to Saddam's Baath Party supporters, others to militants fighting U.S. and British forces. They have also been smuggled out of Iraq and sold to other Mideastern countries.

"It's caused a big collapse in prices, and made weapons even more available. They include (shoulder-fired) missiles like Stingers, which used to cost around $200,000 and can now be bought for $5,000."

Kudos to the states that are trying to deal with the problem through a small-arms control agreement. But as long as any state (especially one as influential as the U.S.) gives effect to views on gun control as lax as those south of the border, the rest of the world is a more dangerous place for it.