USA –-(Ammoland.com)- “There is a widespread misunderstanding on the part of American gun-owners, evidenced in gun blogs and in commentaries on articles dealing with the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT),” researchers Paul Gallant, Sherry Gallant, Alan Chwick, and Joanne D. Eisen report in an AmmoLand paper filed yesterday.
“The crux of this misunderstanding,” they write, “is that, since there are checks and balances in our Constitution, and since the Constitution clearly states that ratification of a treaty can only occur ‘provided two-thirds of the Senators present concur,’ this is almost impossible to come about.”
Not necessarily, the researchers argue, citing “carefully documented proof that ratification of an international treaty can occur —and can be made binding to U.S. citizens— without any Senate action at all!” [Emphasis in original]
Referencing the Journal on Firearms & Public Policy, the Gallants, Chwick, and Eisen recount “three specific mechanisms” where an end-run around the Constitution could result in an ATT impact on U.S. gun laws: under the signature of the president if it becomes “customary under international law” and the U.S. abides by it, and “through nonconsensual customary law.”
Additionally, they cite a 2006 Human Rights Council report, which “is not simply a scholarly paper that will be filed away in a United Nations library. It is an effort to establish a new norm of international human rights law, and this effort to establish the new norm is supported by the United Nations Human Rights Council, as one aspect of the UN’s far-ranging support for restrictive and confiscatory firearms policies.”
Of significance, the Council report declares “No international human right of self-defense is expressly set forth in the primary sources of international law: treaties, customary law, or general principles.”
Fine, some will no doubt say, let them try to impose it here. Bring it on.
Molon Labe!
Understand most anonymously typing such sentiments into blog comments is not that active and zealous when it comes time to do simple things, like sending an email or making a donation. Also, understand there’s no guarantee “moderate” Republican favorite Mitt Romney will enjoy a success that the similarly uninspiring Bob Dole and John McCain could not attain when it was “their turn,” and every indication points to the administration going above the radar on “gun control” once they’ve secured a second term.
And then remember that if the Constitution was the final word in the way our government conducts itself, there would be no federal firearms prohibitions in the first place.
The best time to deflect an approaching asteroid is when it is still far away, and its course can be altered with minimal effort. That minimal effort should include keeping informed of the threat’s nature, its course, and its progress, and supporting, rather than discouraging those doing the reporting and deflecting.
It doesn’t hurt to keep apprised and alerted, and the amount of individual effort that takes can hardly be used as a serious excuse that it detracts from other needed undertakings.
Click here to read “Arms Trade Treaty – The Hell with Congress,” by Paul Gallant, Sherry Gallant, Alan Chwick, and Joanne D. Eisen.
About David Codrea:
David Codrea is a long-time gun rights advocate who defiantly challenges the folly of citizen disarmament. He is a field editor for GUNS Magazine, and a blogger at The War on Guns: Notes from the Resistance. Read more at www.DavidCodrea.com.
