Photo by Dominique Aubert/AFP/Getty Images
The United States is not the only country where children are facing an epidemic of gun violence. While in the U.S., we continue to grapple with the tragic reality of children who routinely face gun violence in their communities and children who increasingly are the targets of mass shootings, in other places around the world, we see the heartbreaking consequences of children who also face the daily horrors of armed conflict, many forced to become soldiers.
During Monday’s inaugural address, President Obama said:
“Our journey is not complete until all our children, from the streets of Detroit to the hills of Appalachia to the quiet lanes of Newtown, know that they are cared for, and cherished, and always safe from harm.”
However, the President could have — and should have — broadened his statement to include children from the war-torn neighborhoods of Aleppo, Syria to valleys of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo, because if protecting all children is our shared destination, then we can’t afford to let our concern be confined by U.S. borders.
We must call on the President to lead efforts to establish a strong Arms Trade Treaty, one that will help stop irresponsible and illegal arms transfers around the world that directly contribute to the recruitment of child soldiers.
You have probably heard about Joseph Kony and the Lord’s Resistance Army in Uganda — the group responsible for widespread murder, rape, maiming and amassing throngs of child soldiers. Fewer people know about the recruitment of child soldiers by Bosco Ntaganda, a commander of the FPLC armed group in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Fewer still realize that the armed groups who have taken control of the northern part of Mali, as well as the Malian army, are also using child soldiers.
Why do children in Uganda, the DRC and Mali continue to have a target on their back?
Because a global free-for-all lets weapons flow into the hands of armed groups and governments who, in turn, recruit children and commit other grave abuses. By failing to make the establishment of a global Arms Trade Treaty a priority, President Obama is letting them get away with it.
Protect all children from violence — please call for a strong Arms Trade Treaty.
It’s simple; no child should be forced to stand on either side of a weapon.
But the gun lobby in the U.S. is still trying to make you believe this is about taking guns away from law-abiding Americans. It’s not.
The Arms Trade Treaty would put in place common-sense measures, like background checks on international arms sales, to stop or at least slow the sale of weapons between countries that fuel conflict, atrocities and instability as well as lead to the displacement and deaths of millions of civilians and the continued use of child soldiers.
More than 43,000 activists have helped set the record straight for the NRA’s leadership. Thanks for supporting children everywhere who are trapped by armed conflict. Your voice is so important as we prepare for the UN to hold its conference on the Arms Trade Treaty in March.
Every child deserves that same right no matter where they live. With your help, we can make this Arms Trade Treaty “bullet-proof.”
The NRA has made it clear that it will cease its objections to the Arms Trade Treaty as long as the UN includes explicit and legally binding language in the ATT respecting sovereign gun rights policies. It grows more, not less, alarming that the UN stubbornly persists in refusing to include this guarantee despite stalling protests from the NRA. If the intent of the ATT is what it is purported to be, it should be very simple resolve this impasse.
This whole situation has got out of hand and it's time that something is done about it. For the kids sake.
It is very sad to think of all the children who are forced to face this kind of violence an struggle from a very young age. Childhood is something so far out of reach for them