International gun registry? Biden admin reportedly entertaining signing Arms Trade Treaty that Trump pulled out of

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WASHINGTON, DC – According to a recent report from the Washington Examiner, the Biden administration may be entertaining a signing of the Arms Trade Treaty – which former President Trump revoked the U.S.’s signature from the treaty in 2019.

The concerns regarding this treaty that former President Trump withdrew from years earlier is that it could be used as a de facto international gun registry – among other concerns over the treaty’s vagueness and ability to be amended in manners that can impose upon the Second Amendment.

Back in April of 2019, former President Trump announced his intentions to withdraw the U.S. from the United Nations’ Arms Trade Treaty, saying the following:

“My administration will never ratify the UN arms trade treaty. We’re taking our signature back. The United Nations will soon receive a formal notice that America is rejecting this treaty.”

The former president added that this withdrawal was a means to protect the Second Amendment rights of Americans from “foreign bureaucrats”:

“Under my administration, we will never surrender American sovereignty to anyone. We will never allow foreign bureaucrats to trample on your second amendment freedom. I’m officially announcing today that the United States will be revoking the effect of America’s signature from this badly misguided treaty.”

The U.S. signed the treaty back in 2013, but never formally ratified it. According to the NRA, there has always been looming concerns over the ambiguity of the language within the treaty – as well as the ability to exploit its reach and impact on everyday Americans through amendments:

“NRA’s complaints regarding the treaty have always been based on its potential effect on law-abiding American gun owners.

Those complaints have focused on the treaty’s requirements for end use verification, its sometimes-unintelligible vagueness, its ability to be amended without the consensus of all parties, and its proponents repeated refusals to clarify that it has no effect on the possession of small arms by civilians in the United States.”

A serious contention the NRA cites regarding the treaty is also the “record keeping of end users”, which the treaty reportedly directs importing countries to provide information to exporting countries regarding firearm transfers that includes “end use or end user documentation” for at least 10 years.

The NRA says that this aspect has the propensity to create an international firearm registry:

“Data kept on the end users of imported firearms is a de-facto registry of law-abiding firearms owners, which is a violation of federal law. Even worse, the ATT could be construed to require such a registry to be made available to foreign governments.”

In a recent piece from the Washington Examiner, William Malzahn, who was described as a “a top arms diplomat at the State Department” by the outlet, spoke at the 7th Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty on August 31st, saying the following:

“I have come from Washington D.C. this week to take the floor on the agenda item Treaty Universalization to underscore the continuing commitment of the United States to responsible international trade in conventional arms. 

The United States has long supported strong and effective national controls on the international transfer of conventional arms, and the Arms Trade Treaty is an important tool from promoting those controls internationally.”

The NRA took to Twitter the day after Malzahn took the floor during the conference, reiterating concerns over signing back onto the Arms Trade Treaty:

“ATT has consequences for American gun owners. If the UN gets its way, its deliberately undefined & loose terminology will be used to mandate the provision of personal info related to any American that purchases a firearm manufactured overseas to the origin country’s govt.”

“This is the first step towards creating a global firearms registry. President Biden wants to give foreign bureaucrats control over the rights of law-abiding Americans, and the NRA will fight it every step of the way. Stay tuned.”

Outside of Malzahn’s recent comments in late August, there has been no word from other Biden administration officials regarding the Arms Trade Treaty.

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Here it comes: Gun control groups pressure Biden to create firearm control office to bypass Senate

(Originally published August 29th, 2021)

According to reports, gun control groups and advocates are actively trying to convince President Joe Biden to create a sort of White House-level gun control office after reports suggest that ATF nominee David Chipman may not get confirmed by the Senate.

By creating a White House-level office dedicated to gun control, President Biden would be able to dictate whomever he please to run the endeavor without needing confirmation from the Senate.

Politico recently reported that four gun control advocacy groups sent a letter to President Biden on August 25th, complaining that his administration is falling “significantly short of the promises you yourself made while running for the presidency” when it relates to instituting gun control.

The four groups were comprised of Guns Down, March For Our Lives, Newtown Action Alliance and Survivors Empowered.

The letter referenced how President Biden claimed that he would “bring Democrats and Republicans together in the United States Congress to pass big things, to deal with big issues” such as getting the Senate to pass stricter gun control laws.

However, the groups feel as though President Biden is falling short in that realm, and are also apparently upset that key checks and balances like the filibuster still exist:

“Yet we have not seen you publicly pressure key Senators to support bipartisan House-passed legislation that would strengthen our nation’s background check system and you have not advocated for the repeal of the filibuster, an archaic tool that creates a major impediment to legislative reform.”

The letter went on to cite that over 28,000 Americans have died as a result of “gun violence” in 2021.

That figure claimed in the letter comes from the source known as Gun Violence Archive, which same source also noted that nearly 16,000 of those who died from “gun violence” died by committing suicide.

Point aside, the letter from the groups called for the following from President Biden:

  1. Establish an Office of Gun Violence Prevention in order to streamline the government’s efforts to reduce violence, recognize gun violence as a national security crisis and a public health and prevention priority, and establish a long-term sustained effort to reduce gun deaths.
  2. Unveil a comprehensive strategy and proactive plan for pursuing your legislative agenda on gun reform in a way that creates a viable pathway for securing passage of these critical initiatives while supporters of reform still hold a narrow majority in the Senate, eliminating the filibuster if necessary.
  3. Use the presidential bully pulpit to talk to Americans about the risks and dangers of firearm ownership within the home and in our communities while also highlighting successful community efforts and legislative reforms that have saved lives across the nation.

In layman’s terms, this is what the groups are really asking for – minus the word salad:

  • Create an ATF-lite essentially, one that can exist and be led by someone not requiring Senate confirmation who is likely anti-Second Amendment and can effectively stimulate anti-gun sentiments with the general public
  • End the filibuster while Democrats still have a majority in the Senate, so any anti-gun legislation proposed can be passed
  • Have President Biden address the public and convince people they shouldn’t own guns anyway

It’s certainly a bold ask, as the groups attached to this letter are blatantly requesting that Democrats not only have a monopoly on gun legislation, but to adopt a hardline position of legislating away at gun rights while also urging the public to relinquish said rights through persuasion via the bully pulpit.

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Warning signs: Bloomberg’s gun control team is dropping a down payment on the 2022 midterms

(Originally published August 14th, 2021)

By Larry Keane and our partners at NSSF

Anti-gun billionaire Michael Bloomberg is at it again. He’s throwing around money and demanding things, not even noticing that Americans aren’t listening to gun control mantras. Instead, they’re arming themselves at historic rates.

Bloomberg’s Everytown for Gun Safety Victory Fund is dropping $3 million to recruit “grassroots volunteers” to run for elected offices ranging from school boards to Congress in the 2021-2022 election cycle in a new program called Demand a Seat. That’s in addition to the gun control work of Moms Demand Action and Students Demand Action.

That’s a lot of demanding. It’s also a lot of money. It looks like Bloomberg’s getting an early down payment on buying himself potted plants in public offices instead of grassroots. It’s a strategy that Bloomberg likes. Everything looks green when it’s papered over with piles of cash.

Look at the last election cycle. Bloomberg’s Everytown pledged $60 million in the 2020 Congressional and Presidential races. He raised the stakes when he burned $500 million on his own flirtation with buying the presidential ticket for himself. He also sprinkled in $100 million into Florida as insurance money to make sure President Joe Biden delivers on an anti-gun agenda.

At the same time, he – and gun control Congressional allies – are ignoring that over 8.4 million people bought a gun for the first time in 2020. There were 21 million background checks for a gun sale last year, a record number. In 2021, there have been over 11 million background checks for gun sales, tracking closely with last year’s pace.

More Cheddar, Please

So far, President Biden knows where his bread is buttered. He nominated former Everytown gun control alum David Chipman for director of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) and President Biden’s Department of Justice issued two proposed rules to clamp down on Second Amendment rights.

The first proposed rule would ban home-built firearms by redefining frames and receivers and the other would ban braces on AR-pistols, disenfranchising wounded veterans for whom they were originally designed and make the owners of untold millions of these devices into felons overnight.

At just $3 million, it almost seems like Bloomberg’s getting bargain basement pricing. For that kind of money, Bloomberg expects to buy 200 “gun violence” survivors and activists to run for elected office and get more engaged in politics, volunteers training to “build and run winning campaigns as a gun safety candidate.”

The Demand a Seat website says, “The program will provide educational training on the nuts and bolts of building and running successful campaigns.”

The Demand a Seat program will feature training with Atlanta’s Democratic Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, former New Orleans Democratic Mayor Mitch Landrieu, former Moms Demand volunteer and U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath (D-Ga.) and former Republican Rep. David Jolly of Florida, although The Hill noted Jolly has since left the Republican party.

Tea Leaves

Bloomberg and Everytown might be misreading the tea leaves. Although President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took The White House, Congressional races in 2020 didn’t provide a gun control mandate.

The U.S. House of Representatives is narrowly led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and the U.S. Senate is evenly split. Since the election, gun sales have skyrocketed and now includes more African-Americans, Hispanics and Asian-Americans.

Gun control bills that were rammed through with no debate in the House are stalled in the Senate.

President Biden’s nomination of gun control activist and lobbyist Chipman as ATF director is stalled and the outlook is looking worse as more allegations of racist remarks and failures to disclose speaking with Communist Chinese media are coming to light.

Looking ahead, gun control advocates know their chances in the 2022 midterms are evaporating. Census results mean districts are being redrawn and Congressional seats are moving away from Democratic gun control districts to Republican pro-Second Amendment districts. The party in The White House typically suffers Congressional losses.

On top of that, gun control groups, including Everytown, Brady United and Giffords, are all targeting NSSF because the firearm industry trade association has pointed out the obvious when it comes to Chipman.

He’s a gun control advocate, not a serious contender to run the ATF. It would be putting the fox in charge of the hen house and he would implement gun control through regulations that Congress hasn’t authorized.

He’s testified to that in Congress before. He’s never held executive-level leadership and he’s denigrated gun owners as “Tiger King” and zombie apocalypse preppers. With more reports that serious allegations of racially-charged remarks were made, Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) is demanding the Department of Justice completed investigation and another hearing.

That’s got gun control fuming. It’s also got them geared up. November 2022 is already in their sights and with as much defense as the firearm industry has employed in the first year of the Biden administration, Everytown’s “Demand a Seat” announcement is a reminder there’s nothing Bloomberg won’t buy to achieve his gun control agenda.

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About The Author

Gregory Hoyt is an I.T. Marketing and Sales professional based out in Sierra Vista, Arizona. While being a staunch and outspoken advocate of law enforcement and first responders, Gregory Hoyt also has the experience of having spent nearly 5 years in prison as well. Since then, he's used his unique perspective to offer support and commentary about the criminal justice system. When not working or combating bad ideas, Hoyt also leisurely studies economics, history, and law.

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