Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott Urges Obama to Reject UN Arms Trade Treaty

Today, the U.N. General Assembly overwhelmingly approved the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty by a vote of 154 to 3 with 23 abstentions.  The treaty would regulate multibillion-dollar international arms trade with thegoal of keeping illicit weapons out of thehands of terrorists, insurgent fighters and organized crime.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is concerned that the treaty threatens the constitutional liberties of U.S. citizens beyond the Second Amendment.

He’s taken the lead in what promises to be a collective robust response from state Atty Generals to the Obama administration for what he characterized in a conference call this afternoon with bloggers, as a “deep threat” to our constitutional liberties. 

Abbott sent a letter to the president, outlining  his objections:

  • Fails to recognize the fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms or the right to defend one’s family, person, and property;
  • Empowers a new UN Bureaucracy focused on firearms restrictions that will be run by international bureaucrats who are not accountable to the people of the United States;
  • Employs vague and sweeping language that could be used for any number of future restrictions on Second Amendment Rights;
  • Places no defined limits on the UN’s power to interfere with Second Amendment rights.

Abbott continued, saying “Our Nation’s Bill of Rights is a rare andprecious thing. It does not exist anywhere else in the world. And the UNcannot be trusted with it.”

Abbott ended his letter to President Obama, saying “If the Arms TradeTreaty is not stopped at the federal level, I – and my fellow stateattorneys general – will take up the fight to preserve the Constitution.Ratification of this treaty would compel immediate legal action toenforce the Constitution’s guarantee that the right of the people tokeep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

Full text of the letter, here.

In the conference call, this afternoon, Abbott warned that the Obama administration will be embarking on a big push to get the unconstitutional treaty ratified in the US Senate, noting that Sec. of State Kerry has already said it can be implemented in the US.

He also noted that Obama wouldn’t have stuck his neck out by signing on to this treaty in the UN, unless he thought there was a decent chance that it could beratified in the Senate, in which case, Abbott promised he would be compelled to take swift legalaction to shut it down because  “treaties don’t supersede the US constitution.”

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