The United Nations Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) regulates the international trade in conventional weapons. According to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, the treaty will not do any of the following: interfere with domestic arms commerce or the right to bear arms in Member States; ban the export of any type of weapon; harm States’ legitimate right to self-defense; or undermine national arms regulation standards already in place.
But the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the Gun Owners of America warn that the treaty is an attempt to circumvent the Second Amendment and similar guarantees in state constitutions in order to impose domestic gun regulations. In other words, just like the UN Small Arms Treaty, the Arms Trade Treaty is really a gun-control agreement.
On April 2, 2013, after years of preparation, the ATT was approved by a vote of 154 to 3.
Today, the doors open for U.N. member nations to ratify the ATT. President Lucifer is expected to sign it today, assuming he hasn’t already done so by the time I publish this post.
Despite his signing the treaty, the U.S. Constitution gives the authority over foreign treaties to the United States Senate. This means the ATT is not enforceable unless and until the Senate ratifies it with a two-thirds majority vote.
The ATT would provide the United States Executive, i.e., the President, sweeping powers to regulate which guns can and cannot enter or exit our country. Further, this treaty is likely a stepping-stone to a mandatory international gun-registry. In July 2012, the NRA’s Institute for Legislative Action sounded this warning:
“Anti-gun treaty proponents continue to mislead the public, claiming the treaty would have no impact on American gun owners. That’s a bald-faced lie. For example, the most recent draft treaty includes export/import controls that would require officials in an importing country to collect information on the ‘end user’ of a firearm, keep the information for 20 years, and provide the information to the country from which the gun was exported. In other words, if you bought a Beretta shotgun, you would be an ‘end user’ and the U.S. government would have to keep a record of you and notify the Italian government about your purchase. That is gun registration. If the U.S. refuses to implement this data collection on law-abiding American gun owners, other nations might be required to ban the export of firearms to the U.S.”
The NRA’s warning is well-placed. Here’s what Article 5 (“General Implementation”) of the Arms Trade Treaty says:
2. Each State Party shall establish and maintain a national control system, including a national control list, in order to implement the provisions of this Treaty.
3. Each State Party is encouraged to apply the provisions of this Treaty to the broadest range of conventional arms. [...]
4. Each State Party, pursuant to its national laws, shall provide its national control list to the Secretariat, which shall make it available to other States Parties. States Parties are encouraged to make their control lists publicly available.
5. Each State Party shall take measures necessary to implement the provisions of this Treaty and shall designate competent national authorities in order to have an effective and transparent national control system regulating the transfer of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) and of items covered in Article 3 and Article 4.
6. Each State Party shall designate one or more national points of contact to exchange information on matters related to the implementation of this Treaty. A State Party shall notify the Secretariat, established under Article 18, of its national point(s) of contact and keep the information updated.
Read Article 5 (4) again. It’s not just our federal government that would get a copy of the “national [gun] control list.” International bureaucrats at the United Nations and foreign governments would have access to the list as well!
A gun registration system (though it’s not called such) is contained in the treaty’s Article 12 (“Record Keeping”):
1. Each State Party shall maintain national records, pursuant to its national laws and regulations, of its issuance of export authorizations or its actual exports of the conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1).
2. Each State Party is encouraged to maintain records of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1) that are transferred to its territory as the final destination or that are authorized to transit or trans-ship territory under its jurisdiction.
3. Each State Party is encouraged to include in those records: the quantity, value, model/type, authorized international transfers of conventional arms covered under Article 2 (1), conventional arms actually transferred, details of exporting State(s), importing State(s), transit and trans-shipment State(s), and end users, as appropriate.
4. Records shall be kept for a minimum of ten years.
Then there’s the ATT’s Article 14 (“Enforcement”), which seems to authorize the United States Executive, i.e., President, to create whatever domestic gun-control laws that are needed: “Each State Party shall take appropriate measures to enforce national laws and regulations that implement the provisions of this Treaty.”
Even worse, Article 16 of the ATT allows for U.N. personnel to help U.S. law enforcement implement treaty obligations: ” In implementing this Treaty, each State Party … may request, offer or receive assistance through, inter alia, the United Nations, international, regional, subregional or national organizations, non-governmental organizations, or on a bilateral basis.”
Article 16 also opens the door to U.S. taxpayers footing the bill for other countries’ treaty implementation: ” A voluntary trust fund shall be established by States Parties to assist requesting States Parties requiring international assistance to implement this Treaty. Each State Party is encouraged to contribute resources to the fund.”
Read the UN Arms Trade Treaty in pdf format, here.
Senator Mike Lee (R-Utah), one of 34 Senators who voted on a resolution in April opposing the Arms Trade Treaty, vows that he will block the treaty “as long as [he is] breathing in the U.S. Senate.”
In a statement, Sen. Lee said: “I have great concerns that this treaty can be used to violate the second amendment rights of American citizens, and do not believe we should sign any treaty that infringes on the sovereignty of our country.”
South Africa is an object lesson in why gun registration should be opposed. Put simply, your government can only confiscate your guns if they know you have guns. And they know that only if you tell them — via a mandatory gun registration system.
Arnold Ahlert writes in FrontPage Mag, March 11, 2o13:
Like so many societies where demonstrating who’s in control becomes a necessity, disarming the population becomes a priority. In 2010, the ANC-led regime changed the Firearms Registration Act, demanding that all legal guns be re-registered by July 31, 2011. In the process of re-registration, more than half the applicants were turned down, and 90 percent were turned down again on appeal. Thus, white farm families were forced to relinquish their last line of defense against the tens of thousands of criminal gangs roaming the countryside–armed with AK47s. and as Genocide Watch noted on its website last July one more step was taken as well. “The government has disbanded the commando units of white farmers that once protected their farms, and has passed laws to confiscate the farmers’ weapons,” it reported. “Disarmament of a targeted group is one of the surest early warning signs of future genocidal killings.”
H/t FOTM’s Sunny.
~Eowyn
