Joseph B. Alonso

Joseph B. Alonso of Marietta, Georgia is the designated recipient of the CCRKBA Gun Rights Defender of the Month Award for February.
 In nominating Mr. Alonso for the Award, J. H. Versnel, Managing Editor of Point Blank, pointed out that the 27-year-old attorney has produced a tremendous amount of published scholarly research in support of the individual Second Amendment civil right to keep and bear arms.  This includes a comprehensive analysis of the dangers posed for Second Amendment rights by various global attempts to institute, codify, mandate and implement various gun control proposals.   Within the overall context of assaults on the traditional American right to keep and bear arms, the international attacks coming from various quarters very well could be some of the most threatening, as well as most insidious.   The gun grabbers, thwarted recently in their attempts to undermine our rights on the domestic front, are turning more and more to the international arena in an attempt to deprive us of our rights.  For ringing this bell of warning of potential threats to our freedom, Joe Alonso certainly is most deserving of this award.
 Alonso, who was born in Tampa, Florida, informed this publication that his research while at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, Louisiana resulted in an article on the ramifications of international gun control on the Second Amendment.
 A version of the article won first place in the NRA Civil Rights Defense Fund Contest in 2001-2002.  The Second Amendment Foundation published another version of the article, titled The Second Amendment and Global Gun Control in its Journal On Firearms & Public Policy for the Fall of 2003.  Another version of the article was slated for publication just last month in the Houston Journal of International Law.
 Alonso tells Point Blank that his “focus has been on small arms developments in international law and specifically at the United Nations.  I believe that the current push for additional international law regarding small arms is destined to affect the Second Amendment.  I also believe that the Second Amendment and international small arms law is likely to be the first area in which a material conflict between United States Constitution and international law will play out.  If history provides any insight, defenders of the United States Constitution should be wary.
 “The activities of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in the international small arms arena are also of high concern because the vast majority of them are rabidly anti-gun.  The primary anti-gun NGO, the International Action Network on Small Arms (IANSA), is pushing an aggressive, non-democratic anti-gun agenda world wide.  They receive massive funding from foundations and foreign nations and have recently become engaged in domestic politics and lobbying.”
 He states also that, “the World Forum on the Future of Sport Shooting Activities (WFSA), an educational and scientific association, founded by over two dozen existing associations and organizations is one of the few, if not the only, NGO representing the interests of the world wide sport shooting community.  They are vastly under funded and face enormous resistance from IANSA, the majority of involved NGOs and from most United Nations member countries.  As you can imagine, the goings-on at the United Nations tend to better the UN, the member countries and the NGOs who have been able to acquire increasing power by assisting the UN and the member countries.  Although NGOs claim to represent ‘civil society,’ noticeably absent is any true voice for individuals who are opposed to the growing influence of the UN or its pre-determined political goals.  The WFSA is ever-present, serving as that voice.”
 In his article, Alonso states categorically that, “it is the United States government’s job to ensure that no foreign political body usurps the authority of the United States government…The United States government may not grant power to a polity to violate the rights of United States citizens.”
 Last summer, Alonso was a member of the WFSA delegation to the  the United Nations’ second meeting to discuss the implementation of the Program of Action on Small Arms.   He now is researching the primary anti-gun NGO, IANSA, monitors IANSA, and supplies information to NGO Watch, an NGO watchdog group founded by the Federalist Society and the American Enterprise Institute.
 While studying at Tulane Law School, he was President of the Federalist Society. Prior to Tulane, he attended college at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, where he majored in Political Science and Philosophy, focusing on American political philosophy.