Graves Voices Deep Concern over U.N. Arms Trade Treaty

Urges Obama Administration to forego signing treaty

WASHINGTON, D.C. –U.S. Congressman Sam Graves (MO-06) has signed a letter with 129 other House colleagues urging President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry to skip signing the United States onto the United Nations' (UN) Arms Trade Treaty. Secretary Kerry has indicated that the Administration will sign the United States onto the treaty "as soon as the process of conforming the official translations is completed satisfactorily."

The House members cited the treaty's "textual, inherent, and procedural flaws," and they urged the president and Secretary Kerry to "uphold our country's constitutional protections of civilian firearms ownership, and to defend the sovereignty of the United States" by rejecting the treaty.

"The Second Amendment to our United States Constitution says very plainly that ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.' This flawed treaty fails to guarantee this inherent right for the American people," said Congressman Graves. "The laws of this country should be made in Congress, not at the United Nations."

In their letter, the bipartisan group of lawmakers spells out several reasons why they oppose the treaty, including weak recognition of lawful ownership and use of, and trade in, firearms, which is anathema to the Second Amendment, as well as vague and ambiguous language in certain areas.

The letter also calls out the Obama Administration for failing to uphold its stated requirement that the treaty be adopted "under the rule of consensus decision-making," as then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made clear in October 2009. Instead of insisting upon consensus, "when the March 2013 negotiating conference failed to reach a consensus agreement, [the Obama] administration supported the move to adopt the treaty through the U.N. General Assembly, where opponents and abstainers included many of the world's most important and irresponsible arms importers and exporters, including Iran, North Korea, the People's Republic of China, Russia, and Egypt," the letter notes.

Even if the president signs the treaty, it would still need to be ratified by the United States Senate under its powers of ‘advice and consent.' A nonbinding resolution authored by Oklahoma Republican Senator James Inhofe to prevent the U.S. from signing the treaty received 53 votes in the Senate earlier this year; 46 Senators voted against the measure. Ratification of the treaty would require a two-thirds affirmative vote.

A copy of the letter may be accessed by clicking the link below.

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