Muscatine

Today is Thursday, May 20, 2010 RSS feed

Will Obama Sign U.N. Gun Control Treaty

Thursday, May 20th, 2010 at 2:09 pm - View Previous Posts

Will Obama Sign U.N. Gun Control Treaty
U.N. Gun Control treaty is worth keeping an eye on but it is not a current threat.

United Nations Monument to Gun Control

Montana Shooting Sports Association

Washington, DC --(Ammoland.com)- I’ve probably received 100 emails from folks asking me if it’s true that Obama will sign a U.N. gun control treaty requiring confiscation of firearms in the U.S.

I can no longer take the time to reply individually to these queries, so let me answer the question one final time for everyone.

Civics 101: No treaty is effective unless ratified by a supermajority of the U.S. Senate. The Senate still has not ratified the CIFTA gun control treaty signed by President Bill Clinton years ago. There is currently NOT sufficient political will in Washington to muster a supermajority of the Senate to ratify the U.N. treaty that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton is reputed to have said the U.S. will approve. Obama’s political capital is going down the drain. He needs to preserve every ounce of remaining political capital to try to turn 30 million illegal immigrants into legal Obama voters.

So, given the current political climate in Washington, the U.N. gun control treaty is not a threat, not to say that the political climate can’t change and that we shouldn’t be watchful.

Civics 102: There are only two ways the U.S. Constitution may be amended – by a constitutional convention or by a constitutional amendment sent by Congress to and ratified by a supermajority of the states. Amendment by treaty is NOT one of these ways. Any treaty in conflict with the Constitution (and the Second Amendment) is without effect in the U.S. The Supreme Court has done some outrageous things in “reinterpreting” the Constitution. See my essay about “Jury-rigging the Commerce Clause” at: http://www.marbut.com/commerce/

However, given the current balance of the Supreme Court, no “reinterpretation” of the Second Amendment is likely, even if Obama nominee Elena Kagan is confirmed. The U.N. treaty is worth keeping an eye on for this reason, but it is not a current threat.

Some groups have been using the scare story of this potential U.N. treaty as a way to spook people into giving them money. If you receive such a pitch, you should base any donation upon what the group has done to protect your right to bear arms, not on some illusive scare story.

MSSA doesn’t use scare stories to raise money. We have, however, gotten 54 pro-gun and pro-hunting bills through the Montana Legislature in the past 25 years or so. If you have spare change lying around and available to donate, MSSA would sure put it to good and effective use.

The best donation would be to MSSA’s Political Committee, “MSSA PC,” and may be mailed to P.O. Box 4924, Missoula 59806. For our PC we cannot accept checks from corporations (although that may change – another lawsuit underway). For any donation of $250 or more, we also need to know and report the donor’s address, occupation and employer.

Our current major battles are our lawsuit to validate the Montana Firearms Freedom Act, trying once again to get the military destruction of fired brass stopped, evaluating and supporting candidates for the Montana Legislature, and preparing to run the extensive and important issues on our Legislative Agenda in the 2011 Montana Legislature.

To be informed about these important legislative issues for 2011, see our Legislative Candidate Questionnaire at: http://www.ProGunLeaders.org/lcq2010

Best wishes,