News Release
Second Amendment Foundation
12500 NE 10th Place
Bellevue, WA 98005
(425) 454-7012 • FAX (425) 451-3959 • www.saf.org

For Immediate Release:
Contact: Alan Gottlieb (425) 454-7012

BELLEVUE, WA - American firearms owners concerned about their Constitutional rights and national sovereignty are owed an apology from the United Nations, and specifically Undersecretary-General Jayantha Dhanapala, who has declared them as "security risks."

As American gun owners flood the U.N. with letters and e-mails protesting the July 9-20 conference on the small arms trade, Dhanapala said those protests have been turned over to U.N. security experts. A July 5 Associated Press report stated that the U.N. is investigating protests "from American gun enthusiasts" to see whether they constitute "a security threat."

"This is an absolute outrage," declared Alan Gottlieb, founder of the Second Amendment Foundation (SAF). "How dare the U.N. consider legitimately concerned American gun owners as 'security threats'? Citizens in this country have a right, guaranteed in our Constitution, to keep and bear arms. They are going to guard that right zealously, because it is what has kept America from becoming just another Third World dictatorship, and there are already enough of those on the map, as the U.N. certainly should know."

About 100 complaints from American gun owners have been received by the U.N. since this conference was announced. Dhanapala acknowledged that there were no threats of physical harm contained in any of the complaints, but he complained that the protests "were strongly worded." Dhanapala was quoted as saying, "What concerned me was that there was a widespread campaign. It's essentially a U.S.-based phenomenon."

Gottlieb retorted, "Of course it's a 'U.S.-based phenomenon.' It's our Constitutional right, and nobody else's, that is threatened by the U.N.'s suspicious interest in small arms possession. Where does Dhanapala think the U.N. is located, anyway? American colonists fought and died for our precious liberty not far from where Dhanapala has his cozy office. For him to claim that this conference is not a threat to the gun rights of American citizens is at best disingenuous.

"Dhanapala should be reminded," Gottlieb concluded, "that American citizens also enjoy a First Amendment right to free speech. When we exercise that right, to defend our Second Amendment, we do so with the same fervor that guided free Americans with guns to save the world 50 years ago from the oppression of fascist imperialism. Dhanapala and his U.N. colleagues may have forgotten that, but American gun owners haven't. For them to have their concerns answered with an insult demands an apology, and nothing less."

The Second Amendment Foundation is the nation's oldest and largest tax-exempt education, research and legal action group focusing on the Constitutional right and heritage to privately own and possess firearms. SAF previously has funded successful firearms-related suits against the cities of Los Angeles, New Haven, CT, and San Francisco on behalf of American gun owners. Current projects include a damage action lawsuit against the cities suing gun makers, an amicus brief in support of the Emerson case holding that the Second Amendment is an individual right, a lawsuit against the Clinton gun and magazine ban and a lawsuit in Cincinnati supporting the right of self-defense carry of firearms.