April 25th 09, 08:32 AM
Obama Positioning For Backdoor Gun Control By Treaty
By Chuck Baldwin
>> "On his recent trip to Central America, President Barack Obama did more than cozy up to Marxist dictators; he also signed onto an international treaty that could, in effect, be used as backdoor gun control. It appears that Obama wants to use international treaties to do what congressional legislation is not able to do: further restrict the right of the American people to keep and bear arms.
Obama is using the oft-disproved contention that "90% of the guns
recovered in Mexico come from the United States" as the stated basis
of his support for the international treaty he is promoting. The
treaty is formally known as the Inter-American Convention Against the
Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition,
Explosives and Other Related Materials (CIFTA) treaty. The Bill
Clinton administration signed the treaty back in 1997, but the U.S.
Senate has never ratified the treaty. Obama intends to change that.
To date, 33 nations in the western hemisphere have signed the treaty.
The U.S. is one of four nations that have yet to ratify it. According
to one senior Obama administration official, passing the treaty is a
"high priority" for the President.
If ratified, the treaty would require the United States to adopt
"strict licensing requirements, mark firearms when they are made and
imported to make them easier to trace, and establish a process for
sharing information between national law enforcement agencies
investigating [gun] smuggling."
Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee
promises to "work for its [the CIFTA treaty's] approval by the
Senate."
Should the Senate ratify CIFTA, Americans who reload ammunition would
be required to get a license from the government, and factory guns and
ammunition would be priced almost out of existence due to governmental
requirements to "mark" each one manufactured. Even the simple act of
adding an after-market piece of equipment to a firearm, such as a
scope or bipod, or reassembling a gun after cleaning it could fall
into the category of "illicit manufacturing" of firearms and require
government license and oversight.
In addition, CIFTA would authorize the U.S. federal government (and
open the door to international entities) to supervise and regulate
virtually the entire American firearms industry.
Making matters worse is the fact that, as a treaty, this Act does not
have to be passed by both houses of Congress, nor is it subject to
judicial oversight. All Obama needs to do in order to enact this
unconstitutional and egregious form of gun control is convince a
Democratic-controlled Senate to pass it.
Obviously, the United Nations, from its very inception, has been one
of the world's most ardent gun control proponents. As anyone who has
ever driven by the U.N. building in New York City knows, a huge statue
of an American-made revolver with its barrel twisted in the shape of a
pretzel greets every visitor. The CIFTA treaty is one of the U.N.'s
pet projects in order to achieve this long-held ambition.
Of course, Obama is a longtime liberal radical when it comes to the
Second Amendment. As a senator, he voted against the Second Amendment
at every opportunity. He has never seen a piece of gun control
legislation that he did not support. And as I have said before in this
column, gun control is high on the list of priorities for the newly
elected President Barack Obama.
For Obama to intimate that 90% of the firearms used by Mexican drug
cartels come from the United States reveals either a truly dishonest
and deceptive mind or a totally misinformed and naïve one. Many
studies have thoroughly debunked the 90% myth, including one by
William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott in a recent Fox News report.
According to these researchers, the real number is closer to 17%.
According to La Jeunesse and Lott, Mexican drug cartels, which control
billions of dollars, obtain the overwhelming majority of their guns
from the Black Market, Russian crime syndicates, South America, China,
Guatemala, and even from the Mexican army.
In fact, Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar: AK-47s from China;
fragmentation grenades from South Korea; shoulder-fired rocket
launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc dealers; assault
weapons from China; and explosives from Korea--just to name a few
sources.
In addition, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo, more
than 150,000 Mexican soldiers have deserted in just the last six
years. The vast majority of them took their weapons with them,
including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.
And please do not forget that corruption within the Mexican government
is rampant. Many news sources have covered stories of how drug cartels
bribe Mexican officials. An article in the New York Times last year
reported, "One of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels made huge cash
payments to officials in the Mexican attorney general's office in
exchange for confidential information on anti-drug operations . . .
the cartel might have had an informant inside the American embassy."
The Mexican drug cartels control a multi-billion dollar enterprise
that has more than enough resources to obtain planeloads of weapons
from all over the world. For Obama to assert that 90% of the Mexican
drug cartels' firearms come from the United States is a bald-faced
lie!
Again, either Obama is stupid and naïve or he is deliberately lying to
the American people in order to "sell" the CIFTA treaty to the U.S.
Senate. I think we all know that Mr. Obama is anything but stupid and
naïve.
Read more about the CIFTA treaty here.
In addition to the CIFTA treaty, liberal Chicago Democrat Congressman
Bobby Rush has introduced H.R. 45 in the House of Representatives.
This bill is anything but subtle. It is an in-your-face gun control
bill that would make "Mr. Gun Control," the late Senator Howard
Metzenbaum, shout Hallelujah.
H.R. 45 would require a federal license for all handguns and
semiautomatics, including the ones you already possess. It would
require handgun and semi-auto owners to be thumbprinted at a police
station and sign a certificate that the gun will not be kept in a
place where it could be used for the defense of the gun owner's
family.
Read more about H.R. 45 at Gunowners.org.
In all likelihood, H.R. 45 is probably a long shot at passing both
houses of Congress, although gun owners should never take any proposed
gun control bill for granted. The CIFTA treaty, however, is much more
dangerous due to its subtlety and subterfuge, the less cumbersome
process of passage, and the fact that it makes U.S. gun owners subject
to international gun control laws.
All in all, freedom in America is on the Obama White House chopping
block.
And this much is certain: if the American people do not retain the
right to keep and bear arms, every other freedom we hold dear will
quickly disappear as well. Moreover, if we do retain the right to keep
and bear arms, it will only be because enough of us—and our state and
federal legislators—resist the tyrannical gun control machinations of
Barack Obama.
And that means defeating the CIFTA treaty and H.R. 45." <<
http://www.vdare.com/baldwin/090424_gun_control.htm
By Chuck Baldwin
>> "On his recent trip to Central America, President Barack Obama did more than cozy up to Marxist dictators; he also signed onto an international treaty that could, in effect, be used as backdoor gun control. It appears that Obama wants to use international treaties to do what congressional legislation is not able to do: further restrict the right of the American people to keep and bear arms.
Obama is using the oft-disproved contention that "90% of the guns
recovered in Mexico come from the United States" as the stated basis
of his support for the international treaty he is promoting. The
treaty is formally known as the Inter-American Convention Against the
Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition,
Explosives and Other Related Materials (CIFTA) treaty. The Bill
Clinton administration signed the treaty back in 1997, but the U.S.
Senate has never ratified the treaty. Obama intends to change that.
To date, 33 nations in the western hemisphere have signed the treaty.
The U.S. is one of four nations that have yet to ratify it. According
to one senior Obama administration official, passing the treaty is a
"high priority" for the President.
If ratified, the treaty would require the United States to adopt
"strict licensing requirements, mark firearms when they are made and
imported to make them easier to trace, and establish a process for
sharing information between national law enforcement agencies
investigating [gun] smuggling."
Senator John Kerry, chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee
promises to "work for its [the CIFTA treaty's] approval by the
Senate."
Should the Senate ratify CIFTA, Americans who reload ammunition would
be required to get a license from the government, and factory guns and
ammunition would be priced almost out of existence due to governmental
requirements to "mark" each one manufactured. Even the simple act of
adding an after-market piece of equipment to a firearm, such as a
scope or bipod, or reassembling a gun after cleaning it could fall
into the category of "illicit manufacturing" of firearms and require
government license and oversight.
In addition, CIFTA would authorize the U.S. federal government (and
open the door to international entities) to supervise and regulate
virtually the entire American firearms industry.
Making matters worse is the fact that, as a treaty, this Act does not
have to be passed by both houses of Congress, nor is it subject to
judicial oversight. All Obama needs to do in order to enact this
unconstitutional and egregious form of gun control is convince a
Democratic-controlled Senate to pass it.
Obviously, the United Nations, from its very inception, has been one
of the world's most ardent gun control proponents. As anyone who has
ever driven by the U.N. building in New York City knows, a huge statue
of an American-made revolver with its barrel twisted in the shape of a
pretzel greets every visitor. The CIFTA treaty is one of the U.N.'s
pet projects in order to achieve this long-held ambition.
Of course, Obama is a longtime liberal radical when it comes to the
Second Amendment. As a senator, he voted against the Second Amendment
at every opportunity. He has never seen a piece of gun control
legislation that he did not support. And as I have said before in this
column, gun control is high on the list of priorities for the newly
elected President Barack Obama.
For Obama to intimate that 90% of the firearms used by Mexican drug
cartels come from the United States reveals either a truly dishonest
and deceptive mind or a totally misinformed and naïve one. Many
studies have thoroughly debunked the 90% myth, including one by
William La Jeunesse and Maxim Lott in a recent Fox News report.
According to these researchers, the real number is closer to 17%.
According to La Jeunesse and Lott, Mexican drug cartels, which control
billions of dollars, obtain the overwhelming majority of their guns
from the Black Market, Russian crime syndicates, South America, China,
Guatemala, and even from the Mexican army.
In fact, Mexico is a virtual arms bazaar: AK-47s from China;
fragmentation grenades from South Korea; shoulder-fired rocket
launchers from Spain, Israel and former Soviet bloc dealers; assault
weapons from China; and explosives from Korea--just to name a few
sources.
In addition, according to Mexican Congressman Robert Badillo, more
than 150,000 Mexican soldiers have deserted in just the last six
years. The vast majority of them took their weapons with them,
including the standard issue M-16 assault rifle made in Belgium.
And please do not forget that corruption within the Mexican government
is rampant. Many news sources have covered stories of how drug cartels
bribe Mexican officials. An article in the New York Times last year
reported, "One of Mexico's most notorious drug cartels made huge cash
payments to officials in the Mexican attorney general's office in
exchange for confidential information on anti-drug operations . . .
the cartel might have had an informant inside the American embassy."
The Mexican drug cartels control a multi-billion dollar enterprise
that has more than enough resources to obtain planeloads of weapons
from all over the world. For Obama to assert that 90% of the Mexican
drug cartels' firearms come from the United States is a bald-faced
lie!
Again, either Obama is stupid and naïve or he is deliberately lying to
the American people in order to "sell" the CIFTA treaty to the U.S.
Senate. I think we all know that Mr. Obama is anything but stupid and
naïve.
Read more about the CIFTA treaty here.
In addition to the CIFTA treaty, liberal Chicago Democrat Congressman
Bobby Rush has introduced H.R. 45 in the House of Representatives.
This bill is anything but subtle. It is an in-your-face gun control
bill that would make "Mr. Gun Control," the late Senator Howard
Metzenbaum, shout Hallelujah.
H.R. 45 would require a federal license for all handguns and
semiautomatics, including the ones you already possess. It would
require handgun and semi-auto owners to be thumbprinted at a police
station and sign a certificate that the gun will not be kept in a
place where it could be used for the defense of the gun owner's
family.
Read more about H.R. 45 at Gunowners.org.
In all likelihood, H.R. 45 is probably a long shot at passing both
houses of Congress, although gun owners should never take any proposed
gun control bill for granted. The CIFTA treaty, however, is much more
dangerous due to its subtlety and subterfuge, the less cumbersome
process of passage, and the fact that it makes U.S. gun owners subject
to international gun control laws.
All in all, freedom in America is on the Obama White House chopping
block.
And this much is certain: if the American people do not retain the
right to keep and bear arms, every other freedom we hold dear will
quickly disappear as well. Moreover, if we do retain the right to keep
and bear arms, it will only be because enough of us—and our state and
federal legislators—resist the tyrannical gun control machinations of
Barack Obama.
And that means defeating the CIFTA treaty and H.R. 45." <<
http://www.vdare.com/baldwin/090424_gun_control.htm