Say ‘no’ to UN Arms Trade Treaty
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Editor,
While the nation is distracted by the controversy in Congress over gun laws, the Obama administration led 154 nations to approve the Arms Trade Treaty in the U.N. General Assembly on April 2.
Writing in the Wall Street Journal on April 15, former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton and John Yoo, a law professor at UC Berkeley, pointed out that the treaty gives the U.N. control of our domestic small arms and light weapons among other restrictions. This would strip us of our sovereign domestic power and could conceivably leave our innocent population defenseless through the confiscation of guns. Consequently, if 2/3 of the Senate approves the treaty, it may not matter what Congress does.
Article VI of the Constitution states that “all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land.” With Senate approval, issues relevant to arms would be under the dictates of the U.N. It would give the administration the power to confiscate guns without the consent of the House and Senate.
According to Bolton and Yoo, the treaty’s desire to “eradicate the illicit trade in conventional arms to prevent their diversion to the illicit market” fails the test of enforcement. The U.S. already has the world’s most serious export controls in place, while nations such as North Korea, Syria, Iran, Russia and China will continue to traffic in arms with abandon. We cannot put ourselves in this defenseless position.
This is an issue apart from the current debate in Congress to protect our citizens from the recent devastating shootings that have taken place. To retain our national sovereignty and protect the Constitutional rights assured to all Americans to bear arms, contact our Senators Baucus and Tester immediately. Urge them not to ratify the treaty under any condition when it comes before the Senate. Those few minutes will be a small price to pay to protect our freedoms from foreign control.
Contact Senator Max Baucus (max@baucus.senate.gov, or 202-224-2651) and Senator Jon Tester (www.tester.senate.gov or 202-224-2644).
Mimi Milheim
Dayton
