"Under the umbrella of the United Nations, there are now more than 500 of these organizations working day and night trying to ban civilian ownership or firearms," he explained.

Under the banner of IANSA - the International Action Network on Small Arms - Soros operative Rebecca Peters is working to capitalize on the success of her gun ban campaign in Australia, where firearms possession is now illegal and crime is going through the roof.

On Tuesday LaPierre is set to debate Peters on InDemand pay-per-view TV, where the two will lock horns over the upcoming U.N. global gun ban conference in the summer of 2006.

Peters is such an anti-gun zealot that she even argues that police should be disarmed. "When police begin to carry guns, that motivates criminals to carry guns," she complained recently, according to LaPierre.

In America, however, Peters' efforts have been frustrated so far thanks in part to President Bush's U.N. appointees, Under Secretary of State John Bolton, former Congressman Bob Barr and former U.S. Ambassador to Switzerland Faith Whittlesey.

According to the NRA chief, last year the conservative trio "went to the U.N., looked them right in the eye and said, 'We will not sign off on any international treaties that touch the Second Amendment in the United States.'"

Rep. Barr, who was also on hand at the SAFE conference, recalled Under Secretary Bolton's address to the U.N.

"He gave a very straightforward and very impassioned lesson to those U.N. bureaucrats who were there," said Barr. "And he basically told them our Second Amendment is not for sale to the United Nations."

"They were shocked to hear that," Barr added.

Things will be different if Bush loses in November, warned LaPierre, especially given John Kerry's long record of opposition to Second Amendment rights.

"Can you imagine, if President Kerry appoints the U.S. delegation to that conference, what we're going to end up with?" he said.

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