Day after election, US backs UN gun control treaty talks
Gun rights supporters are quickly raising questions after action by a United Nations committee Wednesday to renew talks over a proposed international Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) with the support of a newly-re-elected Obama administration.
The committee is calling for a new round of talks March 18-28. It passed with 157 votes in favor, none against and 18 abstentions.
U.N. diplomats said the vote had been expected before Tuesday’s U.S. presidential election but was delayed due to Hurricane Sandy, which caused a three-day closure of the United Nations last week.
An official at the U.S. mission said Washington’s objectives have not changed.
“We seek a treaty that contributes to international security by fighting illicit arms trafficking and proliferation, protects the sovereign right of states to conduct legitimate arms trade, and meets the concerns that we have been articulating throughout,” the official said.
“We will not accept any treaty that infringes on the constitutional rights of our citizens to bear arms,” he said.
The main reason the arms trade talks are taking place at all is that the United States – the world’s biggest arms trader accounting for more than 40 percent of global conventional arms transfers – reversed U.S. policy on the issue after Obama was first elected and decided in 2009 to support a treaty.
Gun rights activists have insisted that Obama has been holding back on an anti-gun agenda until his second term, because he does not have to worry about re-election. However, the House of Representatives remains under Republican control, so any gun legislation faces an uphill fight, if not a dead-on-arrival designation.
Today’s decision to rekindle ATT talks puts the United States in bed with China, France, Germany, the United Kingdom and more than 150 other countries. Eighteen nations abstained from voting on the measure, but there was no opposition.