Cornyn urges Obama to oppose UN Arms Treaty

A group of GOP senators wrote a resolution expressing their concerns that the United Nations's Arms Trade Treaty could endanger Second Amendment rights.

On Friday, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) urged President Obama’s administration to vote against the treaty later this month.

“The United Nations’s Arms Trade Treaty contains unnecessarily harsh treatment of civilian-owned small arms, and I urge President Obama to reverse course and block any further negotiations,” Cornyn said Friday. “Not only would it violate Texans’ Second Amendment rights, including the right to self-defense, it also raises U.S. sovereignty and national security concerns.”

The U.N. is scheduled to finish negotiations on the arms treaty next week and will hold a vote on March 28. The Obama administration has said it would not support a treaty that violates Second Amendment rights, but that doesn’t rule out them voting for the final treaty.

“Law-abiding Texans who are in the market for an imported shotgun, pistol, or rifle ought to be very concerned by any future development of this treaty,” Cornyn said.

The arms treaty aims to regulate the international trade of guns and other weapons. Republicans have expressed concerns that the treaty could keep Americans from buying and selling guns, which they believe is a right granted to Americans under the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

The GOP resolution states that the United Nations’s Arms Trade Treaty poses “significant risks” to national security and constitutional rights. And says that President Obama shouldn’t sign onto the treaty.

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