D-Day For Gun Control
By DICK MORRIS
Published on
TheHill.com
on July 10, 2012
Without much fanfare and with as little publicity as possible,
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will go to New York City to sign the
Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), now in the final stages of negotiation at the
U.N. The treaty marks the beginning of an international crusade to
impose gun controls on the United States and repeal our Second Amendment
rights.
The ATT is nominally geared toward the purpose of stopping international
arms sales to gangs, criminals and violent groups. But, as is so often
the case with U.N. treaties, this is merely a convenient facade behind
which to conceal the ATT's true intent: to force gun control on the
United States.
Secretary Clinton will doubtless succeed in
inserting language into the treaty asserting that it in no way is meant
to restrict our right to bear arms. But even this language will be
meaningless in the face of the overall construct set up by the treaty.
The ATT is to be administered by an International Support Unit (ISU),
which will ensure that "parties [to the treaty] take all necessary
measures to control brokering activities taking place within [their]
territories ... to prevent the diversion of exported arms to the illicit
market or to unintended end users."
The ISU will determine whether nations are in compliance with this
requirement and will move to make sure that they do, indeed, take "all
necessary measures." This requirement will inexorably lead to gun
registration, restrictions on ownership and, eventually, even outright
bans on firearms.
Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton said it best: "After the treaty is
approved and comes into force, you will find out that it has this
implication or that implication and that it requires Congress to adopt
legislation to restrict the ownership of firearms."
Bolton explains that "the administration knows that it cannot obtain
this kind of legislation in purely a domestic context. They will use an
international agreement to get domestically what they couldn't get
otherwise."
The treaty makes no sense otherwise, except as a circuitous vehicle to
achieve gun control in the United States. The vast majority of all small
arms and light arms exports (the ostensible focus of the treaty) are
from sales by the governments of the United States, Russia, China,
Germany and Israel. Individual or corporate arms trafficking is a
distinct minority. But it is to absorb the brunt of the treaty's
regulations.
Insofar as the treaty restricts governmental action, it bars governments
from arming "illicit" groups in other nations. This provision could well
be interpreted to ban U.S. arms sales to Iranian or Syrian dissidents.
It could even be used by China to stop us from selling arms to Taiwan,
since the U.N. does not recognize Taiwan as a nation, but rather an
entity occupying territory that should belong to China.
And let's not forget how well the United States has done in reducing
murders and other crimes despite the absence of comprehensive gun
controls and bans. In 1993, there were 24,350 homicides in the United
States. Last year, there were 13,576 (despite a growth of 60 million in
the population). Only 9,000 of these murders involved a firearm. (Less
than one-third of the highway deaths each year in the country.)
Obama has left gun control off his legislative agenda so far. Now his
strategy becomes apparent: Use international treaties to achieve it.
And bear in mind that under the Supremacy Clause of our Constitution, we
would be obliged to enforce the ATT despite the Second Amendment.
International treaties have the force of constitutional law in the
United States.
If it is ratified during the lame-duck session of the Senate this year,
then nothing can ever change it. Goodbye, Second Amendment.
Right now we need 34 courageous Republican senators to step up and
demand that Hillary not sign the treaty, and indicate their intention to
vote against its ratification if it is submitted. Only such an action
can stop this treachery in its tracks.
Click Here to sign the petition to stop the US from signing the Arms
Trade Treaty!
Subscribe to Dick's Newsletter
|