G RULES & REGULATIONS TW
R&R CV
Derek Bernard is a businessman living on the island of Jersey in the British Isles. While very British in many ways, Jersey is self-governing, with its own parliament. Jersey’s gun laws were originally based on the 1920 laws of the UK. However, as the UK has made more and more of Jersey’s laws, better communications between Jersey’s shooting community and its politicians have mitigated a similar trend there and target shooting remains a major sport on the island. Derek has been enthusiastic
about guns and target shooting for more than 60 years, representing Jersey in pistol shooting since 1979. Also in 1979 he started to research the actual costs and eff ects of gun-control laws, starting from an ‘of course they were valuable and important’ position. After three years of research, reading, writing and discussion, in 1982 he was forced to change his views entirely, as he had been unable to fi nd any evidence of social benefi ts from any such laws in any country. On the contrary, the evidence
from around the world strongly indicated that not only were there no measurable benefi ts to compensate for the considerable costs, but there were many negative and perverse consequences. Fascinated by the contradiction
between the widely held European view that strict gun control was a valuable, virtually essential social and crime-control mechanism, and the diametrically opposed opinion that it actually encouraged crime, disarmed victims, restricted commerce, damaged sport and weakened freedom, he has continued his studies to this day.
Derek Bernard T: +44 1534 769460 E:
db@tsljersey.com
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www.guntradeworld.com
Once branded a terrorist, Xanana Gusmao went on to be East Timor president from 2002 to 2007 and has been Prime Minister since 2007.
Trade treaties and their impact on the gun trade
Is there any reason to assume that the proposed UN Arms Trade
Treaty will not generate the poor results of national gun control on a bigger scale, asks Derek Bernard.
however commonplace, has some truth in it. One’s personal perspective
T
will, of course, infl uence one’s judgements. I am a strong believer in the individual human rights
he phrase “one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fi ghter,”
and principles enshrined in the British Bill of Rights of 1688 and its off spring, the fi rst 10 amendments to the US Constitution. T ese beliefs certainly infl uence my assessments. T e promotion of the Arms
Trade Treaty (ATT) should not blind anyone to the fact that,
as far as I’m aware, every single country in the world already has requirements for import and export licences on arms and related products, usually with very severe penalties for their breach. Let us consider some real-life
examples of the actual eff ects of arms-trade controls.
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