Around 100 Colombian guerrillas have disarmed as part of an agreement with the country's leftist government, marking a significant step in ongoing peace efforts. The move is aimed at reducing violence and integrating former fighters into civilian life.


Colombia Peace Push: Nearly 100 Guerrilla Dissidents Disarm Under Peace Talks With Government 

The PLO has launched a disarmament campaign in Lebanon’s refugee camps, facing resistance from Hamas and Islamic Jihad factions. Over 220,000 refugees are affected as authorities aim to restore control and reduce armed conflicts within the camps.


Lebanon: PLO begins disarmament push amid Hamas and Islamic Jihad resistance

North Korea has taken over as head of a UN body aimed at striking disarmament deals amid scorn from critics. It gained the presidency of the Conference on Disarmament because it rotates alphabetically among its 65 members.

North Korea now heads UN-backed arms control forum

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday (October 2) that the world is living “in the shadow of nuclear catastrophe,” fuelled by growing distrust and tensions between the nuclear powers.

Addressing the delegates during the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons he said that, it was the only way “to completely eliminate nuclear risk.”

<div class="ui-state-default" contenteditable="false">
<div class="twitter-block" draggable="false">
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
At today's <a href="https://twitter.com/UN?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@UN</a> General Assembly commemoration of Int'l Day for the Total Elimination of <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/NuclearWeapons?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#NuclearWeapons</a>, Secretary-General <a href="https://twitter.com/antonioguterres?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@antonioguterres</a> urged returning to a common path towards nuclear <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/disarmament?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#disarmament</a> &amp; strengthened, inclusive <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/multilateralism?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#multilateralism</a>. See 👉 <a href="https://t.co/xa6bBpPTkG">https://t.co/xa6bBpPTkG</a> <a href="https://t.co/4mK4S19nuV">pic.twitter.com/4mK4S19nuV</a>
— ODA (@UN_Disarmament) <a href="https://twitter.com/UN_Disarmament/status/1312036157027422209?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 2, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Progress towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons has “stalled and is at risk of backsliding”, the UN chief warned. 
 
“For the sake of all of our security, the world must return to a common path towards nuclear disarmament”, he underscored, adding that it is “imperative” for Russia and the United States to extend, “without delay”, the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) for the maximum duration of five years.

Guterres said he also looks forward to the entry into force of the first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons, which was adopted in July 2017 by 122 countries. Once it has 50 ratifications, the treaty will enter force in 90 days, and with Malaysia’s ratification on Sept. 30 it now has 46.

At Friday’s high-level meeting, 103 of the 193 UN member nations were scheduled to speak for two minutes each. But many spoke longer so only 79 delivered addresses, and the UN said it would post the rest.

(With input from agencies)

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday (October 2) that the world is living “in the shadow of nuclear catastrophe,” fuelled by growing distrust and tensions between the nuclear powers.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned Friday (October 2) that the world is living “in the shadow of nuclear catastrophe,” fuelled by growing distrust and tensions between the nuclear powers. Addressing the delegates during the International Day for the Total Elimination of Nuclear Weapons he said that, it was the only way “to completely eliminate nuclear risk.” At today's @UN General Assembly commemoration of Int'l Day for the Total Elimination of #NuclearWeapons, Secretary-General @antonioguterres urged returning to a common path towards nuclear #disarmament & strengthened, inclusive #multilateralism. See 👉 https://t.co/xa6bBpPTkG pic.twitter.com/4mK4S19nuV — ODA (@UN_Disarmament) October 2, 2020 × Progress towards the total elimination of nuclear weapons has “stalled and is at risk of backsliding”, the UN chief warned. “For the sake of all of our security, the world must return to a common path towards nuclear disarmament”, he underscored, adding that it is “imperative” for Russia and the United States to extend, “without delay”, the new Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START) for the maximum duration of five years. Guterres said he also looks forward to the entry into force of the first-ever treaty to ban nuclear weapons, which was adopted in July 2017 by 122 countries. Once it has 50 ratifications, the treaty will enter force in 90 days, and with Malaysia’s ratification on Sept. 30 it now has 46. At Friday’s high-level meeting, 103 of the 193 UN member nations were scheduled to speak for two minutes each. But many spoke longer so only 79 delivered addresses, and the UN said it would post the rest. (With input from agencies)

World living in 'shadow of nuclear catastrophe', says UN chief; calls for disarmament

The shooting in Virginia that wounded House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, as well as the shooting in a San Francisco UPS facility that left four dead on the very same day, have generated &ndash; yet again &ndash; the standard set of responses in the wake of a mass shooting in the United States.

The details of any such tragedy often emerge slowly, but a few points can be made. While deaths from mass shootings are a relatively small part of the overall homicidal violence in America, they are particularly wrenching. The problem is worse in the U.S. than in most other industrialised nations. And it is getting worse.

The political overlay of the Virginia shooting also carries a particular social harm. Any thought that guns can play a helpful role in reducing tyranny in a democratic country like the United States should quickly be dispelled. Hopefully, that message will penetrate everyone from the NRA leadership and Sen. Rand Paul to anyone on the opposite end of the political spectrum who doesn&rsquo;t like the current developments of Republican rule.

I&rsquo;ve been researching gun violence &ndash; and what can be done to prevent it &ndash; in the U.S. for 25 years. The fact is that if the NRA claim that guns helped reduce crime were true, the U.S. would have the lowest homicide rate among industrialised nations instead of the highest one &ndash; and by a wide margin.

The U.S. is by far the world leader in the number of guns in civilian hands. The stricter gun laws of other &ldquo;advanced countries&rdquo; have restrained homicidal violence, suicides and gun accidents &ndash; even when, in some cases, laws were introduced over massive protests from their armed citizens.

The state of gun control in the US

Eighteen states in the U.S. and a number of cities including Chicago, New York and San Francisco have tried to reduce the unlawful use of guns as well as gun accidents by adopting laws to keep guns safely stored when they are not in use. Safe storage is a common form of gun regulation in nations with stricter gun regulations.

The NRA has been battling such laws for years. But that effort was dealt a blow in June 2015 when the U.S. Supreme Court &ndash; over a strident dissent by Justices Thomas and Scalia &ndash; refused to consider the San Francisco law that required guns not in use be stored safely. This was a positive step because hundreds of thousands of guns are stolen every year, and good public policy must try to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and children.

The dissenters were alarmed by the thought that a gun stored in a safe would not be immediately available for use, but they seemed unaware of how unusual it is that a gun is helpful when someone is under attack.

Statistics show only the tiniest fraction of victims of violent crime are able to use a gun in their defense. Over the period from 2007 to 2011, roughly six million nonfatal violent crimes occurred each year. Yet data from the National Crime Victimisation Survey show that 99.2 percent of victims in these incidents did not protect themselves with a gun &ndash; this in a country with roughly 300 million guns in civilian hands.

In fact, a classic study of 198 cases of unwanted entry into occupied single-family dwellings in Atlanta found that the invader was twice as likely to obtain the victim&rsquo;s gun than to have the victim use a firearm in self-defense.

The author of the study, Arthur Kellerman, concluded in words that those opposing safe storage of guns should heed:

<blockquote>
On average, the gun that represents the greatest threat is the one that is kept loaded and readily available in a bedside drawer.
</blockquote>

A loaded, unsecured gun in the home is like an insurance policy that fails to deliver at least 95 percent of the time, but has the constant potential &ndash; particularly in the case of handguns which are more easily manipulated by children and more attractive for use in crime &ndash; to harm someone in the home or be stolen and harm someone else.

More guns won&rsquo;t stop gun violence

For years, the NRA mantra has been that allowing citizens to carry concealed handguns would reduce crime as they fought off or scared of the criminals.

Some early studies even purported to show that so-called right-to-carry (RTC) laws did just that, but a 2004 report from the National Research Council refuted that claim, saying it was not supported by &ldquo;the scientific evidence,&rdquo; while remaining uncertain about what the true impact of RTC laws was.

Ten years of additional data have allowed researchers to get a better fix on this question, which is important since the NRA is pushing for a Supreme Court decision that would allow RTC as a matter of constitutional law.

The new research on this issue from my team at Stanford University has given the most compelling evidence to date that RTC laws are associated with significant increases in violent crime. Looking at Uniform Crime Reports data from 1979 to 2014, we find that, on average, the 33 states that adopted RTC laws over this period experienced violent crime rates that are roughly 14 percent higher after 10 years than if they had not adopted these laws.

In the meantime, can anything make American politicians listen to the preferences of the 90 percent on the wisdom of adopting universal background checks for gun purchases?

Gun control around the world

As an academic exercise, one might speculate whether the law could play a constructive role in reducing the number or deadliness of mass shootings.

Most other advanced nations apparently think so, since they make it far harder for someone like your typical American mass killer to get his hands on particularly lethal weapons. Universal background checks are common features of gun regulation in other developed countries, including:

Germany: To buy a gun, anyone under the age of 25 has to pass a psychiatric evaluation. Presumably, 21-year-old Charleston shooter Dylann Roof would have failed. 
Finland: Handgun license applicants are allowed to purchase firearms only if they can prove they are active members of regulated shooting clubs. Before they can get a gun, applicants must pass an aptitude test, submit to a police interview and show they have a proper gun storage unit. 
Italy: To secure a gun permit, one must establish a genuine reason to possess a firearm and pass a background check considering both criminal and mental health records. 
France: Firearms applicants must have no criminal record and pass a background check that considers the reason for the gun purchase and evaluates the criminal, mental and health records of the applicant. 
The United Kingdom and Japan: Handguns are illegal for private citizens. 
While mass shootings, as well as gun homicides and suicides, are not unknown in these countries, the overall rates are substantially higher in the United States than in these nations.

While NRA supporters frequently challenge me on these statistics, saying that this is only because American blacks are so violent, pointing to the type of wildly incorrect claims about the percentages of whites killed by blacks that Dylann Roof spouted and Donald Trump tweeted, it is important to note that white murder rates in the U.S. are well over twice as high as the murder rates in any of these other countries.

Australia hasn&rsquo;t had a mass shooting since 1996

The story of Australia, which had 13 mass shootings in the 18-year period from 1979 to 1996 but none in the succeeding 21 years, is worth examining.

The turning point was the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, in which a gunman killed 35 individuals using semiautomatic weapons.

In the wake of the massacre, the conservative federal government succeeded in implementing tough new gun control laws throughout the country. A large array of weapons were banned &ndash; including the Glock semiautomatic handgun used in the Charleston shootings. The government also imposed a mandatory gun buy-back that substantially reduced gun possession in Australia.

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A pile of about 4,500 prohibited firearms in Sydney that have been handed in under the Australian government&rsquo;s buy-back scheme July 28, 1997. (Reuters)
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The effect was that both gun suicides and homicides fell. In addition, the 1996 legislation disallowed self-defense as a legitimate reason to purchase a firearm.

When I mention this to disbelieving NRA supporters, they insist that crime must now be rampant in Australia. In fact, the Australian murder rate has fallen to one per 100,000 while the U.S. rate, thankfully lower than in the early 1990s, is still roughly 5 per 100,000 &ndash; nearly five times as high. Moreover, robberies in Australia occur at only about half the rate of the U.S.: 58 in Australia versus 113.1 per 100,000 in the U.S. in 2012.

How did Australia do it? Politically, it took a brave prime minister to face the rage of Australian gun interests.

Prime Minister John Howard wore a bullet-proof vest when he announced the proposed gun restrictions in June 1996. The deputy prime minister was hung in effigy. But Australia did not have a domestic gun industry to oppose the new measures so the will of the people was allowed to emerge. And today, support for the safer, gun-restricted Australia is so strong that going back would not be tolerated by the public.

That Australia hasn&rsquo;t had a mass shooting since 1996 is likely more than merely the result of the considerable reduction in guns &ndash; it&rsquo;s certainly not the case that guns have disappeared altogether.

I suspect that the country has also experienced a cultural shift between the shock of the Port Arthur massacre and the removal of guns from everyday life, as they are no longer available for self-defense and they are simply less present throughout the country. Troubled individuals, in other words, are not constantly being reminded that guns are a means to address their alleged grievances to the extent that they were in the past, or continue to be in the U.S.

Lax gun control in one nation can create problems in another

Of course, strict gun regulations cannot ensure that the danger of mass shootings or killings has been eliminated.

Norway has strong gun control and committed humane values. But that didn&rsquo;t prevent Anders Breivik from opening fire on a youth camp on the island of Utoya in 2011. His clean criminal record and hunting license had allowed him to secure semiautomatic rifles, but Norway restricted his ability to get high-capacity clips for them. In his manifesto, Breivik wrote about his attempts to legally buy weapons, stating, &ldquo;I envy our European American brothers as the gun laws in Europe sucks ass in comparison.&rdquo;

In fact, in the same manifesto, Breivik wrote that it was from a U.S. supplier that he purchased &ndash; and had mailed &ndash; 10 30-round ammunition magazines for the rifle he used in his attack.

In other words, even if a particular nation or state chooses to make it harder for some would-be killers to get their weapons, these efforts can be undercut by the jurisdictions that hold out. In the U.S., of course, state gun control measures are often thwarted by the lax attitude to gun acquisition in other states.

Editor&rsquo;s note: This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-us-gun-control-compares-to-the-rest-of-the-world-43590" rel="nofollow" target="blank">an article</a> first published on June 24, 2015.

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" rel="nofollow" target="blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-us-gun-control-compares-to-the-rest-of-the-world-79490" rel="nofollow" target="blank">original article</a>.

In the US, gun control measures are often thwarted by the lax attitude to gun acquisition in pro-gun states

The shooting in Virginia that wounded House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, as well as the shooting in a San Francisco UPS facility that left four dead on the very same day, have generated – yet again – the standard set of responses in the wake of a mass shooting in the United States. The details of any such tragedy often emerge slowly, but a few points can be made. While deaths from mass shootings are a relatively small part of the overall homicidal violence in America, they are particularly wrenching. The problem is worse in the U.S. than in most other industrialised nations. And it is getting worse. The political overlay of the Virginia shooting also carries a particular social harm. Any thought that guns can play a helpful role in reducing tyranny in a democratic country like the United States should quickly be dispelled. Hopefully, that message will penetrate everyone from the NRA leadership and Sen. Rand Paul to anyone on the opposite end of the political spectrum who doesn’t like the current developments of Republican rule. I’ve been researching gun violence – and what can be done to prevent it – in the U.S. for 25 years. The fact is that if the NRA claim that guns helped reduce crime were true, the U.S. would have the lowest homicide rate among industrialised nations instead of the highest one – and by a wide margin. The U.S. is by far the world leader in the number of guns in civilian hands. The stricter gun laws of other “advanced countries” have restrained homicidal violence, suicides and gun accidents – even when, in some cases, laws were introduced over massive protests from their armed citizens. The state of gun control in the US Eighteen states in the U.S. and a number of cities including Chicago, New York and San Francisco have tried to reduce the unlawful use of guns as well as gun accidents by adopting laws to keep guns safely stored when they are not in use. Safe storage is a common form of gun regulation in nations with stricter gun regulations. The NRA has been battling such laws for years. But that effort was dealt a blow in June 2015 when the U.S. Supreme Court – over a strident dissent by Justices Thomas and Scalia – refused to consider the San Francisco law that required guns not in use be stored safely. This was a positive step because hundreds of thousands of guns are stolen every year, and good public policy must try to keep guns out of the hands of criminals and children. The dissenters were alarmed by the thought that a gun stored in a safe would not be immediately available for use, but they seemed unaware of how unusual it is that a gun is helpful when someone is under attack. Statistics show only the tiniest fraction of victims of violent crime are able to use a gun in their defense. Over the period from 2007 to 2011, roughly six million nonfatal violent crimes occurred each year. Yet data from the National Crime Victimisation Survey show that 99.2 percent of victims in these incidents did not protect themselves with a gun – this in a country with roughly 300 million guns in civilian hands. In fact, a classic study of 198 cases of unwanted entry into occupied single-family dwellings in Atlanta found that the invader was twice as likely to obtain the victim’s gun than to have the victim use a firearm in self-defense. The author of the study, Arthur Kellerman, concluded in words that those opposing safe storage of guns should heed: On average, the gun that represents the greatest threat is the one that is kept loaded and readily available in a bedside drawer. A loaded, unsecured gun in the home is like an insurance policy that fails to deliver at least 95 percent of the time, but has the constant potential – particularly in the case of handguns which are more easily manipulated by children and more attractive for use in crime – to harm someone in the home or be stolen and harm someone else. More guns won’t stop gun violence For years, the NRA mantra has been that allowing citizens to carry concealed handguns would reduce crime as they fought off or scared of the criminals. Some early studies even purported to show that so-called right-to-carry (RTC) laws did just that, but a 2004 report from the National Research Council refuted that claim, saying it was not supported by “the scientific evidence,” while remaining uncertain about what the true impact of RTC laws was. Ten years of additional data have allowed researchers to get a better fix on this question, which is important since the NRA is pushing for a Supreme Court decision that would allow RTC as a matter of constitutional law. The new research on this issue from my team at Stanford University has given the most compelling evidence to date that RTC laws are associated with significant increases in violent crime. Looking at Uniform Crime Reports data from 1979 to 2014, we find that, on average, the 33 states that adopted RTC laws over this period experienced violent crime rates that are roughly 14 percent higher after 10 years than if they had not adopted these laws. In the meantime, can anything make American politicians listen to the preferences of the 90 percent on the wisdom of adopting universal background checks for gun purchases? Gun control around the world As an academic exercise, one might speculate whether the law could play a constructive role in reducing the number or deadliness of mass shootings. Most other advanced nations apparently think so, since they make it far harder for someone like your typical American mass killer to get his hands on particularly lethal weapons. Universal background checks are common features of gun regulation in other developed countries, including: Germany: To buy a gun, anyone under the age of 25 has to pass a psychiatric evaluation. Presumably, 21-year-old Charleston shooter Dylann Roof would have failed. Finland: Handgun license applicants are allowed to purchase firearms only if they can prove they are active members of regulated shooting clubs. Before they can get a gun, applicants must pass an aptitude test, submit to a police interview and show they have a proper gun storage unit. Italy: To secure a gun permit, one must establish a genuine reason to possess a firearm and pass a background check considering both criminal and mental health records. France: Firearms applicants must have no criminal record and pass a background check that considers the reason for the gun purchase and evaluates the criminal, mental and health records of the applicant. The United Kingdom and Japan: Handguns are illegal for private citizens. While mass shootings, as well as gun homicides and suicides, are not unknown in these countries, the overall rates are substantially higher in the United States than in these nations. While NRA supporters frequently challenge me on these statistics, saying that this is only because American blacks are so violent, pointing to the type of wildly incorrect claims about the percentages of whites killed by blacks that Dylann Roof spouted and Donald Trump tweeted, it is important to note that white murder rates in the U.S. are well over twice as high as the murder rates in any of these other countries. Australia hasn’t had a mass shooting since 1996 The story of Australia, which had 13 mass shootings in the 18-year period from 1979 to 1996 but none in the succeeding 21 years, is worth examining. The turning point was the 1996 Port Arthur massacre in Tasmania, in which a gunman killed 35 individuals using semiautomatic weapons. In the wake of the massacre, the conservative federal government succeeded in implementing tough new gun control laws throughout the country. A large array of weapons were banned – including the Glock semiautomatic handgun used in the Charleston shootings. The government also imposed a mandatory gun buy-back that substantially reduced gun possession in Australia. A pile of about 4,500 prohibited firearms in Sydney that have been handed in under the Australian government’s buy-back scheme July 28, 1997. (Reuters) × The effect was that both gun suicides and homicides fell. In addition, the 1996 legislation disallowed self-defense as a legitimate reason to purchase a firearm. When I mention this to disbelieving NRA supporters, they insist that crime must now be rampant in Australia. In fact, the Australian murder rate has fallen to one per 100,000 while the U.S. rate, thankfully lower than in the early 1990s, is still roughly 5 per 100,000 – nearly five times as high. Moreover, robberies in Australia occur at only about half the rate of the U.S.: 58 in Australia versus 113.1 per 100,000 in the U.S. in 2012. How did Australia do it? Politically, it took a brave prime minister to face the rage of Australian gun interests. Prime Minister John Howard wore a bullet-proof vest when he announced the proposed gun restrictions in June 1996. The deputy prime minister was hung in effigy. But Australia did not have a domestic gun industry to oppose the new measures so the will of the people was allowed to emerge. And today, support for the safer, gun-restricted Australia is so strong that going back would not be tolerated by the public. That Australia hasn’t had a mass shooting since 1996 is likely more than merely the result of the considerable reduction in guns – it’s certainly not the case that guns have disappeared altogether. I suspect that the country has also experienced a cultural shift between the shock of the Port Arthur massacre and the removal of guns from everyday life, as they are no longer available for self-defense and they are simply less present throughout the country. Troubled individuals, in other words, are not constantly being reminded that guns are a means to address their alleged grievances to the extent that they were in the past, or continue to be in the U.S. Lax gun control in one nation can create problems in another Of course, strict gun regulations cannot ensure that the danger of mass shootings or killings has been eliminated. Norway has strong gun control and committed humane values. But that didn’t prevent Anders Breivik from opening fire on a youth camp on the island of Utoya in 2011. His clean criminal record and hunting license had allowed him to secure semiautomatic rifles, but Norway restricted his ability to get high-capacity clips for them. In his manifesto, Breivik wrote about his attempts to legally buy weapons, stating, “I envy our European American brothers as the gun laws in Europe sucks ass in comparison.” In fact, in the same manifesto, Breivik wrote that it was from a U.S. supplier that he purchased – and had mailed – 10 30-round ammunition magazines for the rifle he used in his attack. In other words, even if a particular nation or state chooses to make it harder for some would-be killers to get their weapons, these efforts can be undercut by the jurisdictions that hold out. In the U.S., of course, state gun control measures are often thwarted by the lax attitude to gun acquisition in other states. Editor’s note: This is an updated version of an article first published on June 24, 2015. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

How US gun control compares to the rest of the world

Today&rsquo;s mass shooting at a small Baptist church in the small Texas town of Sutherland Springs highlights the role of pro-gun advocates in blocking the progress of effective gun control.

Such advocacy often reflects the persuasive power of &ldquo;issue management&rdquo; &ndash; a communication process that enables organisations to isolate public issues and steer them in a direction that suits their interests. In the case of the terrible mass-shooting in Las Vegas, the NRA turned a potential PR disaster into a near-triumph.

This approach has been used since the early 1980s when issues management was developed as a strategy to help US businesses compete on an equal footing in setting the social agenda. It was soon adopted around the world by governments, non-profits, community groups and activist organisations.

Controlling the headlines

Usually, it&rsquo;s pretty transparent who is managing the issue and trying to persuade the public, the government or some other decision maker.

For example, we know broadly who is trying to convince us to vote for or against same-sex marriage, or to support or oppose the Adani coal mine, or to join the campaign to ban duck-shooting in Victoria.

But sometimes it is much less clear. A case in point is the television campaign purportedly launched by Australian convenience-store owners to oppose plain packaging of cigarettes, which turned out to be funded by Big Tobacco.

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<div class="media-description">
A section of the advertisement that appeared in the Australian media that was actually partly funded by the tobacco industry. (Others)
</div>
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In fact, some of the most effective issue management is only partly visible to the public, and in some cases is never seen at all in the mainstream media. 
Conversely, there are rare occasions when a major controversy is fought out almost entirely in the headlines and the issue management is laid bare for all to see.

NRA agenda setting

Whatever you think of the National Rifle Association you have to give them credit for some highly effective issue management. In the wake of the shooting rampage in Las Vegas, they could have dusted off their usual response after every previous mass shooting.

But instead, the plotters at NRA came up with an audacious new approach &ndash; they called for a review of the so-called bump stocks, which are devices retrofitted to turn a legal semi-automatic weapon into an illegal automatic killing machine.

Bump stocks allow the gun to fire faster than you can manually pull the trigger, which is how the Las Vegas shooter could fire so many shots in such a short time.

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<div class="media-description">
A bump fire stock that attaches to a semi-automatic rifle to increase the firing rate. (Reuters)
</div>
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In issue management terms, the NRA&rsquo;s strategy was a classic case of &ldquo;look over here&rdquo; while maintaining its devotion to its core objectives.

By seeming to give away something that is peripheral to the gun rights issue, the NRA implemented a perfect example of the tried and true &ldquo;issue diversion tactic&rdquo;. In doing so, it positioned itself as part of the solution, rather than as a key part of the problem.

The long and short of it

While some issue management campaigns are very long-term - like the decades-long tussle over cigarette sales - there are also occasions when the issue management strategy seems to be a short-term initiative explicitly designed to influence the media headlines (such as the NRA campaign).

Commentators and reporters in the US and elsewhere rushed to express amazement that the NRA was actually &ldquo;supporting gun control&rdquo;. Headlines around the world hyped a minor concession on bump stocks into an apparently substantive change of direction. 
For example, ABC America headlined it: &ldquo;Las Vegas shooting leads to first signs of movement in gun control stalemate&rdquo; and The Orange County Register trumpeted: &ldquo;Gun control war dramatically changes with GOP, NRA agreeing to regulations.&rdquo;

Meanwhile, in Australia, the ABC reported: &ldquo;NRA supports crackdown on rapid-fire device used in Las Vegas&rdquo; and Sputnik News carried the headline &ldquo;NRA calls for additional gun control following Las Vegas massacre.&rdquo;

Overall the NRA&rsquo;s strategy produced a real media win, placing itself at the centre of claimed reform. At the same time, the group also achieved political success.

Republican politicians were predictably quick to embrace a call for &ldquo;sensible regulation&rdquo; which they could endorse without alienating their gun-rights-endorsing voters.

Even anti-gun Democrats had little choice but to support the proposal, thus delivering a faux image of bipartisanship, with the NRA appearing as an honest broker.

The NRA&rsquo;s plan was an ingenious win-win for them &ndash; though not for actual gun control.

The art of issue management

Issue management is a serious discipline taught in universities and practised in boardrooms around the world.

It can be used by a corporation to persuade the government and the public to accept the construction of a new toll road, or by the government to encourage childhood vaccination. Or it might be used by a non-profit to increase funding to combat aboriginal inequality or to drive domestic violence onto the national agenda.

Yet issue management has always had its critics, who claim it is often just a mask for manipulation and everything that is bad about public relations.

There is a large body of literature and evidence to refute this assertion, but some controversial cases undoubtedly give strength to the critics who claim it is all about &ldquo;dirty tricks,&rdquo; like the example of Big Tobacco&rsquo;s &ldquo;hidden&rdquo; campaign against plain packaging of cigarettes.

Whatever you think of the NRA, their response to the Las Vegas tragedy was a lesson in well-executed issue management - and we can expect them to use a similar strategy in response to today&rsquo;s tragedy. It&rsquo;s just a shame that such strategic audacity wasn&rsquo;t applied in support of a more worthy cause.

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" rel="nofollow" target="blank">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-the-nra-can-teach-us-about-the-art-of-public-persuasion-85610" rel="nofollow" target="blank">original article</a>.

The Texas attack makes it clear again that the National Rifle Association of the US can't evade the issue of actual gun control

Today’s mass shooting at a small Baptist church in the small Texas town of Sutherland Springs highlights the role of pro-gun advocates in blocking the progress of effective gun control. Such advocacy often reflects the persuasive power of “issue management” – a communication process that enables organisations to isolate public issues and steer them in a direction that suits their interests. In the case of the terrible mass-shooting in Las Vegas, the NRA turned a potential PR disaster into a near-triumph. This approach has been used since the early 1980s when issues management was developed as a strategy to help US businesses compete on an equal footing in setting the social agenda. It was soon adopted around the world by governments, non-profits, community groups and activist organisations. Controlling the headlines Usually, it’s pretty transparent who is managing the issue and trying to persuade the public, the government or some other decision maker. For example, we know broadly who is trying to convince us to vote for or against same-sex marriage, or to support or oppose the Adani coal mine, or to join the campaign to ban duck-shooting in Victoria. But sometimes it is much less clear. A case in point is the television campaign purportedly launched by Australian convenience-store owners to oppose plain packaging of cigarettes, which turned out to be funded by Big Tobacco. A section of the advertisement that appeared in the Australian media that was actually partly funded by the tobacco industry. (Others) × In fact, some of the most effective issue management is only partly visible to the public, and in some cases is never seen at all in the mainstream media. Conversely, there are rare occasions when a major controversy is fought out almost entirely in the headlines and the issue management is laid bare for all to see. NRA agenda setting Whatever you think of the National Rifle Association you have to give them credit for some highly effective issue management. In the wake of the shooting rampage in Las Vegas, they could have dusted off their usual response after every previous mass shooting. But instead, the plotters at NRA came up with an audacious new approach – they called for a review of the so-called bump stocks, which are devices retrofitted to turn a legal semi-automatic weapon into an illegal automatic killing machine. Bump stocks allow the gun to fire faster than you can manually pull the trigger, which is how the Las Vegas shooter could fire so many shots in such a short time. A bump fire stock that attaches to a semi-automatic rifle to increase the firing rate. (Reuters) × In issue management terms, the NRA’s strategy was a classic case of “look over here” while maintaining its devotion to its core objectives. By seeming to give away something that is peripheral to the gun rights issue, the NRA implemented a perfect example of the tried and true “issue diversion tactic”. In doing so, it positioned itself as part of the solution, rather than as a key part of the problem. The long and short of it While some issue management campaigns are very long-term - like the decades-long tussle over cigarette sales - there are also occasions when the issue management strategy seems to be a short-term initiative explicitly designed to influence the media headlines (such as the NRA campaign). Commentators and reporters in the US and elsewhere rushed to express amazement that the NRA was actually “supporting gun control”. Headlines around the world hyped a minor concession on bump stocks into an apparently substantive change of direction. For example, ABC America headlined it: “Las Vegas shooting leads to first signs of movement in gun control stalemate” and The Orange County Register trumpeted: “Gun control war dramatically changes with GOP, NRA agreeing to regulations.” Meanwhile, in Australia, the ABC reported: “NRA supports crackdown on rapid-fire device used in Las Vegas” and Sputnik News carried the headline “NRA calls for additional gun control following Las Vegas massacre.” Overall the NRA’s strategy produced a real media win, placing itself at the centre of claimed reform. At the same time, the group also achieved political success. Republican politicians were predictably quick to embrace a call for “sensible regulation” which they could endorse without alienating their gun-rights-endorsing voters. Even anti-gun Democrats had little choice but to support the proposal, thus delivering a faux image of bipartisanship, with the NRA appearing as an honest broker. The NRA’s plan was an ingenious win-win for them – though not for actual gun control. The art of issue management Issue management is a serious discipline taught in universities and practised in boardrooms around the world. It can be used by a corporation to persuade the government and the public to accept the construction of a new toll road, or by the government to encourage childhood vaccination. Or it might be used by a non-profit to increase funding to combat aboriginal inequality or to drive domestic violence onto the national agenda. Yet issue management has always had its critics, who claim it is often just a mask for manipulation and everything that is bad about public relations. There is a large body of literature and evidence to refute this assertion, but some controversial cases undoubtedly give strength to the critics who claim it is all about “dirty tricks,” like the example of Big Tobacco’s “hidden” campaign against plain packaging of cigarettes. Whatever you think of the NRA, their response to the Las Vegas tragedy was a lesson in well-executed issue management - and we can expect them to use a similar strategy in response to today’s tragedy. It’s just a shame that such strategic audacity wasn’t applied in support of a more worthy cause. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article.

Texas attack: How many more lives before the US says no to gun

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