UN Gun Grab Fails
The month-long
United Nations conference to draw up a global Arms Transfer Treaty
(ATT) failed
to achieve consensus after the United States, Russia, and China
requested more time to consider a draft treaty, according
to the United Nations. The draft
treaty, which would have required national gun registration,
required unanimity among the nations assembled in order to advance.
“I am
disappointed that the Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT)
concluded its four-week-long session without agreement on a treaty
text that would have set common standards to regulate the international
trade in conventional arms,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon
said.
Ban termed the lack of agreement a “setback.” Ban said
that the UN’s commitment to signing “a robust ATT is steadfast”
and that the global body would continue to work toward what he termed
“a noble goal.”
Proponents
of the global gun control measure argued that the ATT draft treaty
would not have impacted private firearms ownership in the United
States under the Second Amendment, as the treaty was nominally directed
to international transfer of firearms. Of course, assurances that
gun ownership will not be impacted by the UN treaty fell on deaf
ears to the National
Rifle Association and other supporters of the Second Amendment.
While draft
versions of the ATT did not explicitly call for the ban on privately
held firearms, they did call for national gun registration and vague
“control” measures that could be implied to include gun
collection. From an administration that recently
argued in court that not purchasing health insurance constituted
interstate “commerce” that Congress can regulate under
the Constitution, gun owners were not about to give the federal
government a loophole that allowed for confiscation of firearms
– even an improbable loophole.
July
31, 2012
Thomas R.
Eddlem [send
him mail] is a freelance writer and educator
who focuses upon the kids surrounding the smart kid’s test paper.
He writes for LewRockwell.com, The
New American, and AntiWar.com.
Copyright
© 2012 The New American