The Biden administration is seeking to join and ratify the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty, which would severely infringe upon the Second Amendment.
In March 2013, the Arms Trade Treaty’s (ATT) text and tyrannical provisions were released, and the UN General Assembly adopted it the following month — with the U.S. voting in favor. Then-Secretary of State John Kerry signed the treaty on behalf of the U.S. on September 25, 2013.
The ATT’s written objectives are to create international regulations over “the international trade [of] conventional arms” and to “[p]revent and eradicate the illicit trade in conventional arms and prevent their diversion.” If ratified, the ATT would decimate the Second Amendment’s protections. Among its other provisions, it:
• Is “guided by the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations” (Preamble).
• Denies individuals the fundamental right to buy, sell, trade, or transfer firearms, including handguns (Article 2).
• Extends its regulation to cover “ammunition/munitions fired, launched or delivered by the conventional arms covered under Article 2,” as well as all “parts and components” of those arms (Articles 3 and 4).
• Requires complying countries to establish a “shall establish and maintain a national control system, including a national control list” (i.e. a gun registry) that allows the government to know “the quantity, value, model/type, authorized international transfers of conventional arms, … and end users” of the firearms. Each record should be kept for at least 10 years (Articles 5 and 12).
• Tells governments to “take appropriate measures” to enforce the treaty (Articles 11 and 14), something that could include civilian disarmament. Countries also are allowed to request international assistance, including for “stockpile management, disarmament, [and] demobilization and reintegration programmes” (Article 16).
The ATT went into effect on December 24, 2014. However, as the U.S. Senate had not ratified the treaty, it had no legal bearing in the United States. Nonetheless, the Obama administration advocated for its ratification and called it “a tool that we can use, energetically and effectively.” The Left’s goal of using the ATT to disarm the American people was temporarily deflated when President Donald Trump withdrew the U.S. from the treaty.
However, the Biden administration wants to rejoin the Arms Trade Treaty. It sent the State Department’s deputy director for conventional arms threat reduction, William Malzahn, to the 7th Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty. According to a transcript obtained by the National Rifle Association, Malzahn stated:
I have come from Washington, D.C., this week to take the floor on the agenda item Treaty Universalization to underscore the continuing commitment of the United States to responsible international trade in conventional arms.
The United States has long supported strong and effective national controls on the international transfer of conventional arms, and the Arms Trade Treaty is an important tool [for] promoting those controls internationally. The new CAT Policy will better frame the intent and priorities of the Biden/Harris administration and formalize the approach of the administration as adopted on arms transfer decisions that have been in effect since President Biden entered the White House in January.
Furthermore, the world-government-promoting Council on Foreign Relations listed the treaty as one that Biden could potentially rejoin.
Joe Biden and his administration have already made their gun control aims clear. Among other anti-Second Amendment actions, Biden signed executive orders to ban pistol braces and so-called “ghost guns,” called for banning AR-15 rifles, and nominated anti-Second Amendment activist David Chipman to lead the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF).
If the United States is to remain a free country where citizens are able to protect themselves, it is imperative that the ATT be rejected. The U.S. Senate would be wise to reject its ratification and to fight all attempts to sneakily implement the treaty and infringe upon Americans’ God-given rights.
To urge your U.S. senators to reject the unconstitutional UN Arms Trade Treaty, visit The John Birch Society’s legislative alert here.
