The Member Nations of the World Assembly:
Appalled by the horrific and devastating violence committed with firearms, whether inside or outside our personal nations;
Recognizing that the citizens of every Member Nation deserve protection against purely internal firearm violence just as they deserve protection against purely internal slavery, food insecurity, torture, substandard wages, insufficient healthcare, and the many other topics which have been and continue to be fair game for debate in this Assembly;
Turning to GAR #399, titled "Responsibility in Transferring Arms," Part 5 - and seeing that it broadly restricts this Assembly from pursuing resolutions to address national firearm policy and the firearm violence that may follow, with three very limited exceptions that will be dealt with below;
Recognizing that the first exception merely allowed GAR #399 to avoid conflicting with laws that were already in existence when it came up for vote - the first exception does not allow for any amount of future General Assembly action under any circumstances;
Recognizing that the third exception only allows future resolutions that would make it easier to acquire firearms;
Recognizing that the second exception only allows for future regulations on the use and sale of firearms in the following very narrow circumstances: "future regulations which seek to prevent firearms from being sold to or used by individuals that pose a danger of performing imminent lawless action;"
Convinced that the second exception - the only exception GAR #399 allows for any future action on heightened regulation - is wholly inadequate for the following reasons:
- It does not allow for resolutions addressing the manufacture of firearms - which with modern and future technology could make firearms safer for everyone;
- It does not allow for resolutions enabling the victims of firearm violence, or their families, to seek redress in court from the gunman, the person or company that furnished the gun, the manufacturer, and any others who negligently or willfully enabled the gun violence;
- It only allows addressing dangers that are "imminent" (a word that means "ready to take place" or "happening soon") - disallowing resolutions establishing preventative measures against dangers that are likely to materialize someday, but are not yet imminent;
Resolved that the second exception is simply too narrow to allow meaningful progress addressing firearm violence: it does not allow for the wide range of new ideas that the future might bring and it stifles the debate needed to sharpen and develop those ideas (by ruling them out from the start);
Convinced that any good GAR #399 accomplishes is outweighed by the way it stifles debate and prevents action on legitimate measures this Assembly could take to address firearms violence;
Convinced that any good GAR #399 did can be recreated without blocking legitimate discourse;
Resolved to restore this Assembly's natural and appropriate right to fully debate this important social issue;
Now, therefore, the General Assembly hereby REPEALS GAR #399, the resolution titled "Responsibility in Transferring Arms"