UN Arms Trade Treaty – Contact Your Rep’s!

[huntrights]

Here's an alert email that was sent to SCI members:

http://www.scifirstforhunters.org/advocacy/contactcongressman

Dear SCI members,

Over the last four weeks the United Nations has been engaged in final negotiations on the terms of an Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). This treaty has the purported goal of reducing the illicit trade in arms. However the ATT is massive in scope, possibly covering every conventional weapon, from battleships and missiles to your common deer hunting rifle and ammunition.

The ATT has been in the works for more than a decade, and SCI has continually and consistently monitored its progress to protect hunters from the threats that it could pose. SCI has continually lobbied to exclude hunting firearms and ammunition entirely from the scope of the treaty.

Negotiations have been moving slowly during the months of June and July, however on July 24, 2012 a draft version of the treaty was released and it contains numerous provisions that are extremely dangerous to hunters. Some of the worst provisions of the draft are listed below.

•   The current draft ignores the position of millions of sport shooters worldwide and includes all sporting arms, hunting rifles, and ammunition, instead of excluding this legal trade from the scope of the ATT. Sadly, the current United States administration has stated their support for the inclusion of sporting arms in the scope of the treaty.
 
•   The current draft would require all signatory nations to establish a “national control system” to control the export of firearms and ammunition. This national control system could easily be interpreted as a national gun registration system by an anti-hunting administration.
 
•   The draft fails to exclude the temporary import or export of firearms from its scope. This could add burdensome reporting requirements for even the temporary export of a firearm for a hunting trip.
 
•   Article 11 of the draft treaty requires states to keep ten years of records for all arms exported. A country must keep records of “quantity, value, model/type, authorized arms transfers, arms actually transferred, details of exporting State(s), recipient State(s), and end users.” This requirement also applies to arms that merely transit or transship through a country. This huge bureaucratic undertaking could devastate traveling hunters as it is much more likely that air carriers will stop shipping firearms than comply with this unduly burdensome requirements.
 
•   Article 13 would establish a new U.N. bureaucracy that would oversee national implementation of the treaty. This Orwellian named “Implementation Support Unit” would facilitate and oversee the implementation of the treaty.
 
•   Finally, the draft treaty also contains an insidious clause in Article 23 that would essentially apply the treaty to countries whether or not they even sign the treaty. This clause requires that “States Parties shall apply Articles 3-5 to all transfers of conventional arms within the scope of this Treaty to those not party to this Treaty.” This unacceptable position undermines state sovereignty and must be opposed.

The bitter irony of all this is that the United States already has the most comprehensive set of export controls in the world. Other nations could simply emulate these protocols and address any problem, real or perceived.

We need every SCI member and hunter to contact their senators and the President and urge them to oppose this dangerous treaty. Please click here to contact your legislators now.

http://www.scifirstforhunters.org/advocacy/contactcongressman

[bearpaw]

Join Congressman Paul Broun by going on record AGAINST Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama's GLOBAL gun control scheme.

Click here to sign your survey: http://nagr.org/UN_PB_Video1.aspx?pid=yt01

Rep. Paul Broun on the UN Small Arms Treaty

[Feanix]

Internet chatter is suggesting that a handful of nations, lead by the announcement of the US, are asking for more time to review the proposed treaty. Let us pray that this administration is not in power at that time.

[Feanix]

Confirmed dead for this delegation, but it will be back soon. Keep talking to your government representatives.

 http://www.nraila.org/news-issues/articles/2012/nra-stops-un-arms-trade-treaty.aspx

 http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/UN_UN_ARMS_TRADE_TREATY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-07-27-19-08-29

[huntrights]

It may be postponed for now.  The key is to vote all the people out of office that were pushing for this.

[huntrights]

"Jul 26 2012

Sen. Moran and 50 Senators: Second Amendment Rights are not Negotiable"

http://moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/news-releases?ContentRecord_id=2b02a67f-2179-41fc-be55-3502163c8510

Take note of the Senators who opposed the UN Arm Trade Treaty; these Senators are our friends.  Also note that there are NO Senators from Washington that signed.

"The letter was signed by U.S. Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Max Baucus (D-MT), John Barrasso (R-WY), Mark Begich (D-AK), Roy Blunt (R-MO), John Boozman (R-AR), Richard Burr (R-NC), Bob Casey (D-PA), Dan Coats (R-IN), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Thad Cochran (R-MS), Susan Collins (R-ME), Bob Corker (R-TN), John Cornyn (R-TX), Saxby Chambliss (R-GA), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Jim DeMint (R-SC), Mike Enzi (R-WY), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Dean Heller (R-NV), John Hoeven (R-ND), Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX), James Inhofe (R-OK), Johnny Isakson (R-GA), Mike Johanns (R-NE), Ron Johnson (R-WI), Jon Kyl (R-AZ), Mike Lee (R-UT), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Jerry Moran (R-KS), Lisa Murkowski (R-AK), Ben Nelson (D-NE), Rand Paul (R-KY), Rob Portman (R-OH), Mark Pryor (D-AR), Jim Risch (R-ID), Pat Roberts (R-KS), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Jeff Sessions (R-AL), Richard Shelby (R-AL), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), Jon Tester (D-MT), John Thune (R-SD), Pat Toomey (R-PA), David Vitter (R-LA), Jim Webb (D-VA), and Roger Wicker (R-MS)."


I tried to upload a copy of the actual letter as a PDF, but it didn't work.  There is a link to the PDF version of the letter at the bottom of the article.


You might consider sending Senator Moran a thank you for organizing the group of Senators to oppose the UN ATT.  He did a great service for everyone in this country.  It only takes a minute.

http://moran.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/e-mail-jerry