By Brandon Moseley
Alabama Political Reporter
Alabama Congressmen Mo Brooks (R) from Huntsville, Mike Rogers (R) from Anniston, Spencer Bachus (R) from Vestavia, and Robert Aderholt (R) from Haleyville joined Mike Kelly (R) from Pennsylvania and 125 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives in a letter sent to both President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging the administration not to sign a version of the United Nations (UN) Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) that would infringe on the rights of American civilian gun owners.
The pro-gun rights Congressmen wrote: “The U.S. must not accept an ATT that infringes on our constitutional rights, particularly the fundamental, individual right to keep and to bear arms that is protected by the Second Amendment, as well as the right of personal self-defense on which the Second amendment is based. Accordingly, the ATT should not cover small arms, light weapons, or related material, such as firearms ammunition. Further, the ATT should expressly recognize the individual right of personal self-defense, as well as the legitimacy of hunting, sports shooting, and other lawful activities pertaining to the private ownership of firearms and related materials.”
Congressman Mike Kelly (who authored the letter) said that the, “ATT is likely to pose significant threats to our national security, foreign policy, and economic interests as well as our constitutional rights.” “Unfortunately, this treaty poses major risks to rights protected by the Second Amendment, rights as dear to me as they are to the folks I represent back in Northwest Pennsylvania. I am also concerned that the treaty will seriously harm our nation’s national security and foreign policy interests by limiting our ability to arm our allies, by burdening our defense industrial base, by facilitating the arming of terrorists, and by placing free democracies and totalitarian regimes on the same footing.”
The Executive Director of the National Rifle Association’s Institute for Legislative Action, Chris Cox told NRA members: “Representatives from many of the world’s socialist, tyrannical and dictatorial regimes will gather at United Nations headquarters in New York for a month-long meeting, in which they’ll put the finishing touches on an international Arms Trade Treaty that could seriously restrict your freedom to own, purchase and carry a firearm.”
Director Cox continued, “Specifically, the U.N. wants to implement international gun registration requirements, bans on commonly owned firearms, tracking and registration of ammunition purchases, and create a new U.N. gun control bureaucracy.”
NRA-ILA Director Cox said, “You might think that something so obviously menacing to one of our enumerated fundamental rights would receive a strong rebuke from our top government leaders. But you’d be wrong. This is President Barack Obama’s vision for America, and we’re expected to just go along with it.”
Fox News Contributor and former Clinton Administration advisor Dick Morris said in an email, “The real purpose of this is that it will set up an international agency that will be in charge of controlling the flow of arms throughout the world. And while it will theoretically have jurisdiction over arms flows across national borders… You know like the Interstate Commerce Clause… we see how that can be expanded. And it really will have the authority to tell member nations to adopt policies within their own countries to facilitate regulations of flows across borders. And those could include, will include, registration and may well include bans on arms and guns. “
Mr. Morris said, “If this treaty is ratified by the Senate, it assumes parity with the 2nd Amendment. It is as if there is a new 27th or 28th Amendment to the Constitution. Because the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution says treaties are the law of the land and cannot be overridden by acts of Congress or acts of the state legislatures.”
The UN has begun writing the final draft of this landmark treaty which is designed to make it much more difficult for non-governmental organizations (like rebel armies) to obtain weapons on the international market. The treaty is expected to be finalized by July 27th.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said, it was a “disgrace” that there is no treaty covering conventional arms (including small arms) and said that the world is “over armed.” Secretary General Moon called for strict national legislation to control arms.
