Ask Your Senator To Support John Bolton
Written by
Gun Owners of America Published: 01 April 2005
Ask Your Senators to Support Pro-gun Nominee
— Senate vote coming soon
You may have heard the firestorm over John Bolton. He’s a State Department official who has now been nominated to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations.
He’s a surprising choice, really. Bolton is unashamedly pro-gun. He has gone to bat for gun owners and the Second Amendment, and has not hesitated to look foreign tyrants in the eye while giving them the classic “from my cold, dead fingers” speech.
In 2001, Bolton defended American gun owners by stating our country would oppose any UN effort to regulate non-military firearms or any effort that would “abrogate the constitutional right to bear arms.”
Because of his stand, Bolton is credited with destroying any hope other nations had of achieving a consensus on gun control. The media around the world was outraged:
* “US blocks small arms controls,” reported the BBC in July of 2001.
* “Washington Challenges UN Attack on Small Arms Trade,” stated Reuters.
* “U.S. will not back a U.N. arms-control plan,” said the Cox News Service.
The culprit? In every article, John Bolton was the man who was fingered. His blistering speech before the UN gun grabbers angered many around the globe.
It’s no wonder that one of the strongest opponents of the UN — former Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina — has spoken so highly of John Bolton. “Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon,” Helms said, “if it should be my lot to be on hand for what is forecast to be the final battle between good and evil in this world.”
Not surprisingly, Bolton’s nomination is being STRONGLY opposed by the far left in this country. Dozens of liberal diplomats and organizations have opposed Bolton.
A coalition of more than 60 ex-diplomats signed a letter addressed to Senators in opposition to Bolton, and groups like Citizens for Global Solutions — a UN front organization — say that Bolton is the “wrong man for the job” because of “his history of derision for the United Nations.”
No doubt, most of us would consider that a positive criterion! But not the Brady Center… they are critical of Bolton and have accused him of “kowtowing” to pro-gun groups.
The more one looks into the players who are opposing the Bolton nomination, the more one sees that he has all the right enemies.
What is, perhaps, surprising is that his nomination has met some resistance from the right. Some conservative opponents argue that Bolton has made seemingly “pro-UN” comments and that he’s hobnobbed with internationalist types.
But when one looks at the statements he has made over his career — plus his actions in defense of our nation and the resulting enemies that he has engendered — one does not get the picture that Bolton is one of the UN’s biggest cheerleaders:
* “The (U.N.) Secretariat building in New York has 38 stories. If it lost 10 stories, it wouldn’t make a bit of difference,” Bolton told a global government audience in 1994.
* Bolton spearheaded U.S. opposition to the International Criminal Court, declaring that the day he signed the letter withdrawing the U.S. signature on the treaty was “the happiest moment of my government service.”
* And then there’re his enemies. The very liberal Senator Paul Wellstone of Minnesota, who died in a plane crash in 2002, was a staunch opponent of Bolton, saying that, “He has not supported the critically important role of the United Nations.” Moreover, Wellstone faulted Bolton for asserting “there is no such thing as the United Nations [but rather] an international community that occasionally can be led by the only real power left in the world and that is the United States.”
* And don’t forget the group of ex-diplomats that are strongly opposing Bolton. They fault Bolton on many counts, including his “insistence that the UN is valuable only when it directly serves the United States.”
Wouldn’t it be great if every State Department official had this view of the United Nations!
Realistically, gun owners should not think that, in supporting Bolton, he will go to New York to reform the UN. Unfortunately, he’s not going to do that as UN ambassador. But he will defend our gun rights. And as long as this country remains in the UN, there are very few qualified officials in our government today who will support our gun rights as strenuously as Bolton.
He’s been proven under fire, and his record speaks volumes regarding his commitment to the Constitution.
Ultimately, Gun Owners of America supports getting the United States out of the anti-gun UN. Rep. Ron Paul has introduced a bill to do exactly that, and GOA has supported this legislation (H.R. 1146) many times in the past.
While GOA has issued alerts in support of H.R. 1146 in years past, the sad truth is that there has never been more than 80 Representatives who have been willing to join Paul in getting us out of the UN. There is still a lot more work to do in building support for this legislation.
Until we are successful in removing the United States from the global organization, we can only hope that our ambassador there treasures the interests of the United States over the global community — and values our Constitution and Bill of Rights, as well.
John Bolton is that man.