Paul Bedard
U.S. News & World Report
7/26/2011
Twelve Democratic senators have joined 45 Republicans in a fast growing movement to halt progress on an Obama-backed United Nations effort that could bring international gun control into the United States and slap America’s gun owners with severe restrictions.
Montana Democratic Sen. Jon Tester’s office today provided Whispers with their letter, signed by 11 other Democrats, urging the president to press for significant changes in the treaty. Their major concern: that domestic manufacture, possession, and sales of firearms and ammo will be included, thereby giving an international authority the right to regulate arms sales already protected by the Second Amendment. They also said any move for an international gun registry would be a non-starter.
A Republican letter circulated by Kansas Republican Sen. Jerry Moran has 45 signatures.
Ratification requires two-thirds of the Senate. So far 57 senators have said they would vote against the treaty, expected to be wrapped up next year.
In his letter, Moran wrote, “Our country’s sovereignty and the Second Amendment rights of American citizens must not be infringed upon by the United Nations,” Moran wrote in the letter. “Today, the Senate sends a powerful message to the Obama Administration: an Arms Trade Treaty that does not protect ownership of civilian firearms will fail in the Senate. Our firearm freedoms are not negotiable.”…
The article continues at U.S. News and World Report.
H/T The Blogmocracy
