Country: Afghanistan
Committee: DISEC
Topic: Preventing the illicit arms trade
Delegate: Thad Konieczny
School: Williamston High School
The illegal trade of armaments in the black market is one of the most pressing issues of our day, especially in the Middle East. Guns and other such weapons being illegally smuggled across borders result in many dangerous people and organizations receiving weapons that they should not have, including major terrorist organizations. The money made from these illegals dealings are also used for other illicit activities, such as the drug trade. Because of the differing gun laws between countries, this is also difficult to regulate on an international level. Another difficult part of this issue is what happens to third world countries whose economies also rely on this kind of trade to make money.
An unfortunate fact about Afghanistan that must be addressed here is that we rely very heavily on illicit arms trade in order to make money. We are not proud of it, but after years of warfare, it is what we must do to survive. We do want to do something about it, but when you are in the position we’re in, that’s difficult to do. We understand the concerns that other countries have about it, but trust us when we say that the money we make goes to other people, not for outside purposes.
In our opinion, these sort of illegal trades will happen no matter what we do. So Afghanistan proposes that we completely unregulate the arms market. In other words, we make small arms universally legal. This has a number of benefits. For one thing, this will remove the incentive to participate in illegal activities. For another thing, the flow of guns will be easier to track when they are legal. Finally, this won’t remove an important source of income for developing countries, when they need all the money they can get. We would like to clarify that this would not legalize large arms for general use. This would only apply to small arms, as this is the main topic at hand. While we understand the objections that some countries will have about such a radical change, we believe that this is the best solution for everyone. We expect support from other countries in the Middle East.
- Thaddeus Konieczny
