UN ATT Fails On U.S. Opposition “After False NRA Rights Threat”

One week after the Aurora, Colo., mass murder brought gun-control back to the forefront of political discourse, the Obama administration found itself faced with its first test on the issue — and blinked.

An arms control treaty to regulate the $60 billion global business of illicit small arms trading that had worked its way through United Nations negotiating channels for several years came up at the final day of a U.N. global conference in New York on Friday. The U.S. joined Russia in objecting to a final version, with some diplomats and human rights advocates blaming the U.S. for the defeat.

As the Colorado slaughter put guns back on the agenda this week, Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kansas) and 50 fellow senators sent a letter to President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Thursday, saying that they would vote against ratifying the treaty if it “restricts the rights of law-abiding American gun owners.”

Moran, in a press release, quoted a National Rifle Association leader, who said members would “never surrender our right to keep and bear arms to the United Nations.” Treaty opponent John Bolton, ex-President George W. Bush’s ambassador to the U.N., wrote that gun-control advocates “hope to use restrictions on international gun sales to control gun sales at home.”-[source]