Thread: Gun control treaty. Will it end ownership?

U.S. reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade
The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.

The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would support the talks as long as the negotiating forum, the so-called Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, "operates under the rules of consensus decision-making."

"Consensus is needed to ensure the widest possible support for the Treaty and to avoid loopholes in the Treaty that can be exploited by those wishing to export arms irresponsibly," Clinton said in a written statement.

While praising the Obama administration's decision to overturn the Bush-era policy and to proceed with negotiations to regulate conventional arms sales, some groups criticized the U.S. insistence that decisions on the treaty be unanimous.

"The shift in position by the world's biggest arms exporter is a major breakthrough in launching formal negotiations at the United Nations in order to prevent irresponsible arms transfers," Amnesty International and Oxfam International said in a joint statement.

However, they said insisting that decisions on the treaty be made by consensus "could fatally weaken a final deal."

"Governments must resist US demands to give any single state the power to veto the treaty as this could hold the process hostage during the course of negotiations. We call on all governments to reject such a veto clause," said Oxfam International's policy adviser Debbie Hillier.

The proposed legally binding treaty would tighten regulation of, and set international standards for, the import, export and transfer of conventional weapons.

Supporters say it would give worldwide coverage to close gaps in existing regional and national arms export control systems that allow weapons to pass onto the illicit market.

Nations would remain in charge of their arms export control arrangements but would be legally obliged to assess each export against criteria agreed under the treaty. Governments would have to authorize transfers in writing and in advance.

The main opponent of the treaty in the past was the U.S. Bush administration, which said national controls were better. Last year, the United States accounted for more than two-thirds of some $55.2 billion in global arms transfer deals.

Arms exporters China, Russia and Israel abstained last year in a U.N. vote on the issue.

The proposed treaty is opposed by conservative U.S. think tanks like the Heritage Foundation, which said last month that it would not restrict the access of "dictators and terrorists" to arms but would be used to reduce the ability of democracies such as Israel to defend their people.

The U.S. lobbying group the National Rifle Association has also opposed the treaty.

A resolution before the U.N. General Assembly is sponsored by seven nations including major arms exporter Britain. It calls for preparatory meetings in 2010 and 2011 for a conference to negotiate a treaty in 2012.

http://www.reuters.com/article/politics ... Q920091015

GOA's CIFTA Treaty Analysis

Obama Proposes Signing Treaty To Ban Reloading
-- Even BB guns could be on the chopping block

Gun Owners of America Fact Sheet

When President Obama went to Mexico in April, he proposed that the United States sign the Inter-American Convention Against Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials.

Despite the fact that it purportedly deals with “illicit manufacturing and trafficking,â€

I want to see Obama go here and pass his gun law...

Illegal Gun Market in Pakistan The most dangerous place in the world...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oGVianQJ ... 1&index=11

The Swiss are not afraid of their own people like the government of America is. They do not treat their people like a terrorist threat and vilify them for wanting to be an armed patriot like we do here. The civilian population is a part of the army and a part of civil defense. This is how it should be...IMHO.

Video:
Guns - Switzerland has something to teach us about the 2nd amendment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=me8f-rlAj2Y

Get the UN out of our country and get Obama out of the White House

We know that Mexico is blaming U.S. gun dealers for the fact that its streets are flowing with blood.

I did not know guns doubled as "machete's" hence the pics with the beheadings.