Unratifed Treaty is a threat to gunsowners

[Tim Nunan]

The Organization of American States(OAS) treaty, the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and other related materials, known as CIFTA, poses a real danger to the rights of American Citizens recognized by the Second Amendment. CIFTA has a number of provisions that could be interpreted by a gun-hostile Obama Administration to allow them to impose crippling restrictions on reloaders and gun owners.

As I read CIFTA, the U.S. Government would be pressured to outlaw ammunition reloading without a license. A license could be required for the manufacture of grips, slings, sights, bipods, and recoil pads, which could be classified as "related materials," which may be attached to a gun.

Under CIFTA, I believe the government, under the guise of "ensuring security" of affected items "in transit," could set up highway inspection checkpoints and require permits for any movement of guns, ammunition or components, and grips, slings, sights, bipods and recoil pads. Gun registration would be a real possibility with regard to the convention objective of "ensuring security."

A copy of CIFTA can be found here http://www.fas.org/asmp/campaigns/small ... n_text.htm. There are news reports that the NRA "participated" in the OAS discussions of CIFTA. The NRA denies participation in development of the treaty, but probably had some influence on U.S. negotiators.

[Tim Nunan]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... id=topnews

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The Clinton administration signed the treaty, better known by its Spanish acronym CIFTA, after the Organization of American States adopted it in 1997.

A senior Obama administration official said that "stemming the number of illegal firearms which flow into Latin America and the Caribbean is a high priority for the region and addresses a key hemispheric concern relating to people's personal security and well-being."

In all, 33 countries in the hemisphere have signed the treaty. The United States is one of four nations that have yet to ratify the convention, although Obama administration officials say the U.S. government has sought to abide by its spirit for years. The treaty was sent to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in 1998, but no action has been taken since then.

The treaty requires countries to take steps to reduce the illegal manufacture and trade in guns, ammunition and explosives. It also calls for countries 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 smuggling.