David Sherfinski
The Washington Times
4/2/2013
The United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday signed off on a sweeping, first-of-its-kind treaty to regulate the international arms trade, brushing aside worries from U.S. gun rights advocates that the pact could lead to a national firearms registry and disrupt the American gun market.
The long-debated U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) requires countries to regulate and control the export of weaponry such as battle tanks, combat vehicles and aircraft and attack helicopters, as well as parts and ammunition for such weapons. It also provides that signatories will not violate arms embargoes, international treaties regarding illicit trafficking, or sell weaponry to countries for genocide, crimes against humanity or other war crimes…
…Critics of the treaty were heartened by the U.S. Senate’s resistance to ratifying the document, assuming President Obama sent it to the chamber for ratification. In its budget debate late last month, the Senate approved a non-binding amendment opposing the treaty offered by Sen. James M. Inhofe, Oklahoma Republican, with eight Democrats joining all 45 Republicans backing the amendment.
Sen. Jerry Moran, Kansas Republican, said Tuesday that passing a treaty Iran, Syria and North Korea will just ignore will only serve to constrain law-abiding counties like the U.S…
Read the complete article at The Washington Times.
Related: New Connecticut gun law to ban another 100 weapons
Connecticut’s Gun Control: A Rush To Pass Laws That Couldn’t Have Prevented Tragedy
…The grab bag (PDF) of background checks, gun, ammunition and magazine restrictions, limitations on eligibility to own firearms and a new registry of “weapon offenders” inconveniences people who had nothing to do with the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre, and certainly would have had no impact on Adam Lanza’s ability to commit that crime. But don’t think anybody will get to point that out in a public hearing; the legislation is being sent directly to a vote through an emergency procedure that allows for no stops on the way…
Texas AG to Obama: I’ll sue if U.N. Arms Treaty is ratified
Also, at Think Progress, GOP Senator Sponsors Measure Calling For U.S. Withdrawal From The U.N.
Senate Republicans are using the debate around the Fiscal Year 2014 budget to push as many of their far-right ideas as possible, including now a move to have the United States completely withdraw from the United Nations.
An amendment was filed by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) for just such a purpose, purporting to delete all spending related to the United Nations from the FY14 budget. Specifically, the amendment calls for a reduction of $7,691,822,000 in spending 2014 and 2023. That slash goes beyond even the most draconian of cuts proposed by House Republicans since they reclaimed a majority in 2010.
According to the Better World Campaign, the U.S. payment to the United Nations includes two main parts. The first includes the United States’ contribution to the U.N.’s regular budget and the other bodies under the U.N. umbrella, the second payment into the U.N.’s international peacekeeping efforts. Contributions from across the entirety of the Federal government into the various parts of the U.N. system equals the total that Sen. Paul is seeking to cut, according to 2011 calculations from the Office of Management and Budget…
Update: UN Goes For America’s Guns – New Law Could Lead to National Registry
Update 2: Let me show you why banning high capacity magazines won’t solve a thing
…They want to believe that if Adam Lanza had to reload more frequently fewer would have died:
“The horrible, brutal truth is that 154 bullets were fired in four minutes, killing our children, our daughters, our wives. The shooter carried 10, 30-round large-capacity magazines,” Hockley said. “We have learned that in the time it took him to reload in one of the classrooms, 11 children were able to escape. We ask ourselves every day – every minute – if those magazines had held 10 rounds, forcing the shooter to reload at least six more times, would our children be alive today?”
Unfortunately, these beliefs are without basis. And here is the proof…
Update 3: Obama’s continued use of the claim that 40 percent of gun sales lack background checks
There are two key problems with the president’s use of this statistic: The numbers are about two decades old, yet he acts as if they are fresh, and he refers to “purchases” or “sales” when in fact the original report concerned “gun acquisitions” and “transactions.” Those are much broader categories of data…
