Should American Gun Owners Fear The U.N.-Approved Arms Trade Treaty?

Here’s some irony for you. I learned the U.N. General Assembly approved the Arms Trade Treaty yesterday while watching TV in Oak Park, Illinois- an infamous gun “control” jurisdiction just like my hometown of Chicago.

Judging by the condition of their roads these days, it looks to me they could really use those Village funds lost in their recent legal battle against gun rights.

Anyway, from Louis Charbonneau on the Reuters website last night:

The 193-nation U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday overwhelmingly approved the first treaty on the global arms trade, which seeks to regulate the $70 billion business in conventional arms and keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.

The United States voted in favor of the treaty. And supporters of the new regulations, including U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, keep insisting law-abiding gun owners in America have nothing to fear. From the Reuters piece:

“Nothing in this treaty could ever infringe on the rights of American citizens under our domestic law or the Constitution, including the Second Amendment,” he added, referring to the U.S. constitutional amendment that guarantees the right to bear arms.

“Nothing in this treaty could ever infringe on the rights of American citizens under our domestic law or the Constitution, including the Second Amendment”

That’s not what the National Rifle Association is saying.

From the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action website Tuesday:

With a passing yet non-binding acknowledgement of individual rights in the preamble, the treaty itself threatens civilian firearm ownership. The NRA has always maintained that any Arms Trade Treaty must respect the Second Amendment right of individual self-defense. This can only be accomplished by expressly excluding civilian firearms ownership from its scope, which this treaty fails to do.

Notably, the ATT includes “small arms and light weapons” among its terms, which cover firearms owned by law-abiding citizens. Further, the treaty’s text urges recordkeeping of end users, directing importing countries to provide information to an exporting country regarding arms transfers, including “end use or end user documentation” for a “minimum of ten years.” Each state is to “take measures, pursuant to its national laws, to regulate brokering taking place under its jurisdiction for conventional arms.” Data kept on the end users of imported firearms would result in a registry of law-abiding firearms owners in this country, which based on the language of this treaty, could be available to foreign governments.

President Obama’s administration has supported the adoption of this treaty, and the administration is expecting to sign it…

Somehow, I’m not surprised to hear that last part.

You can read the NRA-ILA material in its entirety here.

By Christopher E. Hill, Editor
Survival And Prosperity (www.survivalandprosperity.com)

Source:

Charbonneau, Louis. “U.N. overwhelmingly approves global arms trade treaty.” Reuters. 2 Apr. 2013. (http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/04/02/us-arms-treaty-un-idUSBRE9310MN20130402). 2 Apr. 2013.

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