The Arms Trade Treaty

Although it was almost ignored by the American media, yesterday the UN passed the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT).

After 20 years of negotiations, 154 nations voted for the treaty that restricts the sale of arms and ammunition to nations racked by conflict. Three nations, North Korea, Iran and Syria, voted against it and 23 abstained including China and Russia.

The treaty has been opposed locally by the NRA and conservatives in general with a ridiculous barrage of misinformation and, to be honest, flat out lies.

There is nothing, and never has been, ANYTHING in the treaty about confiscating guns. The treaty only applies to the export of weapons and would have absolutely no affect on US domestic  gun laws.

As a matter of fact, the treaty is less stringent that the federal Arms Export Control Act (AECA). In other words it won't even impact US arms manufacturers.

My daddy used to say that you can judge a man by the company he keeps. In addition to the NRA, the biggest critics of the treaty were Iran, Syria and North Korea who expressed a fear that exporting countries would use the treaty as a weapon to restrict their access to weapons.

Yeah, that sound to me like another reason to support the thing.

In a last ditch effort to derail things the NRA proposed that what it called "civilian weapons" be excluded from the treaty. I suppose the NRA thinks it matters if you get shot by a 9 mm military sidearm or a 9 mm "civilian" Glock.

Who thought excluding "civilian weapons" might be a good idea? China, Iran, Egypt, Venezuela and Iran. Refer back to previous paragraph to see what my daddy said about the company one keeps.

Now we'll move on to the senate where we'll hear more NRA, Republican and conservative crap about the treaty repealing the Second Amendment and confiscating guns. Which of course it doesn't do but no one seriously expects the NRA, Republican Party or conservatives to deal with facts.