U.S. gun lobby faces arms fight with U.N.

(AP Photo/Ben Curtis)

There's a battle brewing between the National Rifle Association and United Nations members pushing for an unprecedented treaty regulating the arms trade worldwide.

Ex-congressman Bob Barr, a leading NRA voice on the subject, claims international rules at some point will encroach upon domestic laws and policies and could limit gun ownership within nations.

Pro-treaty advocacy groups claim the international controls would target weapons deals that contribute to human rights violations and worsen oppression.

The United States -- by far the world's biggest weapons dealer, with almost $13 billion in arms export agreements in 2005 - cast the lone vote in December against starting the treaty process. It has not filed a requested report to the United Nations with its views on a treaty.

WHAT'S NEXT: U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is expected this month to name an experts' group from two dozen nations to review the submissions of 98 governments and report back to the General Assembly in the fall of 2008 on what kind of arms trade treaty might be feasible. General Assembly adoption of a pact wouldn't be expected before 2010.

For more details read this report by AP special correspondent Charles J. Hanley.

Caption: A Nigerian U.N. soldier stands guard next to a cache of weapons at the house of a former dictator in Paynesville near the Liberian capital Monrovia in this October 2003 file photo.

--Paul Chavez

Comments

[chucko]

WHaT A BUNCH OF Cowardly and misdisrected idiots this UN oppression balony is!! Why is it that you cowards cower away from exposing and putting a halt to THOSE WHO OPPRESS rather than negatively effecting those who are law abiding?
My countries laws and statutes are by all means soverign and totally distinct from your cowardly schemes and pablum. I am an American and if AK 47s are $10.00 in Iraq and I can leagally own one I shall! Your desires have no impact upon my country nor my rights. This UN is a joke - start earning your credibility by paying your fucking parking tickets!! You owe the US Millions of dollars in parking fines. Then stick your gun bullshit up your ass!

[Supra Footwear]

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