DEMOCRATIC SENATOR OPPOSES UN TREATY

July 28, 2011

Sen. Manchin tells President Obama,
Hillary Clinton ‘leave our guns alone’


By Mannix Porterfield
Register-Herald Reporter The Register-Herald Thu Jul 28, 2011, 12:02 AM EDT

For several months now, 2nd Amendment rights groups have flooded
the e-mail accounts of media outlets with dire warnings that the Obama
administration is bent on disarming American citizens with an international
arms treaty at the United Nations.

Now, the matter is not mere talk on blog sites but an issue on Capitol Hill.

Freshman Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., himself a gun owner and
veteran hunter, added his voice to such fears Wednesday with a
strongly worded letter to President Barack Obama and Secretary
of State Hillary Clinton.

Any arms treaty at the U.N. can in no way “regulate the domestic
manufacture, possession, or sales of firearms or ammunition” in this country,
Manchin declared in a letter signed by several of his colleagues.

“I am a proud gun owner and, like all West Virginians, I strongly believe
in the 2nd Amendment,” Manchin said.

“Our great country is great because of our freedoms, like the 2nd Amendment,
and America should never sign agreements that infringe on our
cherished constitutional rights and freedoms. I strongly urge the
president and the administration not to use this arms trade treaty as
a back-door route to infringe on the freedoms of law-abiding
Americans and our 2nd Amendment rights.”

At the National Rifle Association headquarters, spokesperson Rachel Parsons
said the treaty, proposed two years ago, is up for a vote in 2013 but
emphasized that any treaty must be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate,
and more than half are on record in opposition if it conflicts with
the constitutional rights of Americans.

“It’s only a dead issue if civilian ownership is included in the treaty,”
Ms. Parsons told The Register-Herald.

“If it leaves out the civilian portion, that takes it out of our hands.”

As written, however, she said the U.N. treaty calls for “the highest
possible standards of control.”

“We want to make sure that language is taken out,” she said.
“It also says for the firearms treaty to work, it would also apply to
states within a country. That would make this treaty trump our Constitution.”

Manchin’s press secretary, Marnie Goldberg, said the treaty actually
is in the preparatory stages, and no language has been released.

“So the letter signed by the senator is asking the secretary of state
to keep these concerns in mind as the U.S. is negotiating the deals
of the treaty at the U.N.,” she added.

Manchin is no Johnny-come-lately to the firearms world, having hunted
all his adult life and winning the NRA endorsement in each step
of his political career.

Last year, in his campaign for the U.S. Senate, one of his more
memorable television ads featured him taking aim with a scope-
mounted rifle at a copy of the cap-and-trade bill, tacked to a tree.

Chris Cox, executive director of the NRA, said his group for two decades
has fought any proposed U.N. treaty that would weaken the rights of gun owners.

“This effort sends a clear message to the international bureaucrats
who want to eliminate our fundamental, individual right to keep and bear arms.
Clearly, a U.N. arms trade treaty that includes civilian arms within its scope
is not supported by the American people or a bipartisan majority of the U.S. Senate.”

In the letter, Manchin and other senators told Obama and Clinton that,
in any treaty, nations must retain the right to regulate arms themselves,
and this point is “non-negotiable.”

Moreover, the letter, led by Sen. John Tester, D-Mont., says that small arms,
light weapons, ammo, or related materials that would make such a
treaty too broad cannot be included.

Manchin said any treaty involving the United States cannot create
any type of international gun registry that would “impede the
privacy rights of law-abiding gun owners.”