Oh boy ...
Secretary of State John Kerry said
the United States will be signing on to a United Nations’ treaty on arms
control, over the objections of many in Congress who say the global document
would clamp down on America’s Second Amendment.
The U.S. “welcomes” the next step in
treaty ratification, Kerry said, in a statement reported by Fox News issued
the same day the U.N. held a formal signing ceremony on New York, on Monday.
“We look forward to signing it as
soon as the process of conforming the official translation is completely
satisfactorily,” he said, Fox News reported. “[The treaty’s] an important
contribution to efforts to stem the illicit trade in conventional weapons,
which fuels conflict, empowers violent extremists and contributes to violations
of human rights.”
One aspect of the treaty mandates
participating nations shape regulations that control and stem the tide of arms’
transfers around the world. Another is to regulate arms brokers – and some see
that provision as a backdoor crackdown on gun dealers. The treaty does not
explicitly target gun markets within nations’ borders, Fox News reported, but
rather only that which takes place on the global scale.
Still, Congress isn’t satisfied that
the terms of the treaty won’t be expanded and used as justification to tamp
U.S. gun rights further. One-hundred and thirty members last week sent a letter
to President Obama and Kerry, urging them to reconsider signing the treaty.
“As your review of the treaty
continues, we strongly encourage your administration to recognize its textual,
inherent and procedural flaws, to uphold our country’s constitutional
protections of civilian firearms ownership and to defend the sovereignty of the
united States, and thus decide not to sign this treaty,” they wrote, Fox News
reported.
For the treaty to take root on
American soil, the Senate would still have to ratify.
See original here: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/jun/4/us-will-sign-un-arms-treaty-secretary-state-john-k/
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