Saturday, June 5, 2010

NJTPC Research Bulletin No 1

Beware of Misinformation Regarding the UN "Small Arms Ban"
- produced by the NJ Tea Party Coalition Research Committee

Lately, emails have been circulating regarding the Obama administration's support of international treaties regarding arms bans, such as the so-called UN "small arms ban". In particular, one email cited an alleged Reuters announcement to the effect that the State Department, under Hilary Clinton, had reversed longstanding policy and said last week that it woul d back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales. The concern is that this announcement in effect represents the Obama administration's "first major step in a plan to ban all firearms in the United States". Another rumor claims that Hilary Clinton has already signed such a treaty.

Now, every American who has thought about the matter understands that the Obama administration indeed manifests the hard liberal/left view that the right to bear arms should be restricted to the state and to a self-appointed elite; not surprisingly, self-appointed elites such as Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, Chavez, and Daley all had or have the same view. If given a chance, the left would indeed eviscerate the Second Amendment. It is no coincidence that sales of firearms and ammunition skyrocketed after Obama's election, and probably would have had Hilary Clinton become president.

That being said, there is no evidence that any international arms ban is at all imminent. The NRA, which does a good job of tracking legislative or political threats to the Second Amendment has this to say about the email rumors:


Contrary to a widely circulated e-mail, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has not signed any UN small arms treaty. She could not have done so, in fact, because no such treaty has yet been negotiated.

As we noted in the item below from last November , the UN Arms Trade Treaty will be drafted between now and 2012, and even if signed would not take effect in the U.S. until it was ratified by the Senate.

Please rest assured that, as we said in November, NRA will be actively involved in this process and will oppose any treaty that would attempt to impose limits on our Second Amendment rights. In the meantime, we urge gun owners to follow this issue in NRA's magazines and NRA-ILA's Grassroots Alerts. We also urge gun owners not to circulate misinformation on this issue.

Web link for more is here: http://www..nraila.org/Legislation/Read.aspx?ID=5843

We must note that he NRA makes ample use of the Obama and Clinton position on firearms in their fund-raising efforts, with the unfortunate result that hysteria can easily be stirred up. it is also true that gun owners are very aware of the issue, and remain rightfully concerned.

While there is every reason to remain vigilant on this subject, there is no immediate apparent reason to let it distract us from more urgent matters.