Pubdate: Sun, 19 Apr 2009 Source: Province, The (CN BC) Copyright: 2009 Canwest Publishing Inc. Contact: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/letters.html Website: http://www.canada.com/theprovince/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/476 Author: Lena Sin U.S. STANCE ON GUN SMUGGLING COULD AFFECT B.C. Wants Senate To Ratify Arms Treaty U.S. President Barack Obama's push to crack down on weapons smuggling is an encouraging move that could help B.C.'s war on drugs, according to a B.C. political science professor. But others aren't so sure and say Obama's announcement is nothing more than "smoke and mirrors." Last week, Obama backed Mexico's war on its violent drug cartels, calling for a crackdown on weapons trafficking and admitting shared responsibility. Obama said in Mexico Thursday he would ask the U.S. Senate to ratify a long-stalled regional arms-trafficking treaty following Mexican requests to stem the flow of U.S. guns to its drug cartels. The 1997 arms treaty requires countries to take a number of steps to reduce the illegal manufacture and trade in guns, ammunition and explosives. The treaty also calls for countries to adopt strict licensing requirements, mark firearms to make them easier to trace and establish information-sharing processes between national law-enforcement agencies investigating arms smuggling. Canada and 32 other nations have already signed the 12-year-old treaty. The U.S. is one of four countries yet to ratify the convention, formally known as the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and other Related Items. "I'm very encouraged by this development because it signals a U.S. administration that's willing to stand up to the gun lobby," said Michael Byers, a University of B.C. political science professor. "The resistance to any restrictions [on gun control] has impeded the kind of co-operation we need. We've had a focus on stopping drugs from moving across the border but we haven't addressed in any substantial way the counter-flow of guns. And obviously, people do not kill people with marijuana. They kill them with guns." But Gary Mauser, a Simon Fraser University professor emeritus who has studied the issue of gun control, says even if the U.S. Senate ratifies the treaty, "it won't change anything on the ground." "There's a large number of rules and regulations regarding firearms," says Mauser. "But criminals have no interest in following those rules and there are people who will violate those laws to sell them to [criminals] because it's big business." Mauser says change will only be made if the U.S. and Canada commit significant resources to anti-smuggling investigations. B.C.'s alarming increase in shootings in public places -- most often by gang members involved in the drug trade -- has become a pressing safety concern in recent years. And the gun violence can be partly attributed to the greater access to illegal guns that are either sourced locally or smuggled in from the U.S., according to the report titled The Illegal Movement of Firearms in B.C. The report, commissioned by the provincial government and released in February, also said B.C. police don't have enough resources to conduct major investigations on gun trafficking. In response, the B.C. government announced in February it will establish a new weapons enforcement unit to investigate crimes involving illegal guns. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom