Senate Bill 139
 

A little over a month and a half ago, your Constitutional Rights were almost voted away, I was unaware of this until recently.


http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LI...n=1&vote=00091

"The treaty will require countries that ratify it to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms and components and to regulate arms brokers, it will not control the domestic use of weapons in any country.

It prohibits the transfer of conventional weapons if they violate arms embargoes or if they promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes, and if they could be used in attacks on civilians or civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals."

The Constitution and Bill of Rights takes precedence over any International Treaty.


http://www.snopes.com/politics/guns/untreaty.asp

People thought for ages that our Constitution kept us safe from our own government too. People are starting to wonder now and thinking how are we going to get back to feeling safe within our own country. Anyone who still thinks our Constitution is still a sacred document should wake up and watch the news.....IMO. It was a "roll call' vote and it sent a clear message to anyone thinking otherwise about our Rights.

So does this mean no more imports of WWII rifles etc. ? Or is that over anyway?

If you're thinking of the M1s and the M1 carbines returning here from Korea, I think that has been already halted a few years ago.

I think that the UN treaty would have a great impact on us if the country enters into it. It will also impact our collecting even if the US doesn't ratify it in congress.

The last qualification about " if they could be used in attacks on civilians or civilian buildings such as schools and hospitals" pretty much applies to any firearm of any type. As such, the treaty would be used to completely stop the import or export of firearms or firearm parts for countries that enter into the agreement.

If we enter into this treaty, the constitution and bill of rights will not help us in the areas that we agree to. Agreement specifies international behavior of our government, not our individual rights. Agreement to the treaty may be proven unconstitutional because our government agrees to things that impact individual rights.

The core goal of the UN treaty is to inhibit international trade in arms of all types. This is rooted in a hatred of guns. It will be interpreted conservatively until countries enter into the agreement, then it will be interpreted as widely as possible.

I do see the international trade of in firearms drying up because of this treaty whether we enter into it or not. This is why many of the European firearms manufacturers have built their own factories in North America, and have stopped using agents and distributors.

The entire treaty is here:

http://www.un.org/disarmament/ATT/do...Mar_2013-E.pdf

Here's the PR blurb:

http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2013/dc3434.doc.htm

With the Arms Trade Treaty, “the world has decided to finally put an end to the free-for-all nature of international weapons transfers,”

Here's the objective:

"Establish the highest possible common international standards for regulating or [font=serif]improving the regulation of the international trade in conventional arms;"

Read "highest possible" as "most restrictive" and you have the idea.

And yes, it applies to conventional pistols: "(h) Small arms and light weapons".

So, with implementation of this travesty, it will not be possible to exchange historic collectable firearms or their parts between countries.

Here is the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs website:

http://www.un.org/disarmament/ATT/

While a good idea originally, I think that the UN has become very corrupt over the decades. Take away arms and the only arms will be held by the criminals. Does anyone really think the next Pol Pot will pay any attention to this?

Marc

Marc
Thanks for that insightful analysis.
Correct me if wrong,but even if the US doesn't ratify this treaty, would this not impact us as collectors? Seemingly all military surplus guns or ammo will be banned from sale or transfer. For example, Russian capture guns or surplus US military guns and ammo still in foreign counties?
Bob