By the A.M. Costa Rica staff

President Óscar Arias Sánchez called upon an international summit on armed violence to support his vision of a comprehensive arms trade treaty.

He asked the group, the Summit on Armed Violence and Development, to include a call for the treaty in its final declaration. The event was Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland.

“The notion that arms construction and trade are good for a nation’s economy has no credibility in a world as connected as ours,” said Arias in an English text provided by Casa Presidencial here. “In a world as connected as ours, a gun fired at one of us is a moral and monetary loss to all of us. A job in an arms factory may be one small economic step forward for a worker, but it is two giant leaps back for mankind.”

“When it comes to the link between conventional weapons, armed violence and crippled development, the evidence is so overwhelming that practically no one disputes it,” he said.

The arms treaty would require that countries license arms exports and be responsible for the use the weapons are put at their final destination. The treaty also would require an international list of arms deals.

A draft treaty is the product of a meeting of a group of Nobel Peace Prize laureates convened by Arias.

The Arias Foundation for Peace and Human Progress estimates that small arms kill 300,000 person a year and injure a million.

An arms treaty “would make legal ties out of the moral ties by which we already know we must abide,” said Arias in Geneva. “I cannot stress enough how important these ties are. For it is within the constraints of our international system that the voices of nations are liberated. It is binding treaties that unbind countries from the fear of conflict. And it is only our unrelenting bond to each other, as human beings, that sets us free.”

Among nations that oppose the treaty is the United States, which is a major exporter of small arms. Arias said Wednesday that 30 nations, including Switzerland, have given support for the measure.

Ironically, as Arias was speaking Channel 7 Teletica in San José was airing a story about the 40 people a day who take the Costa Rican test to carry a concealed weapon. Many cited concern for personal security.