The Gun Maniacs' Fear Abates

From CBS:

"A U.N. treaty to regulate the multibillion-dollar global arms trade will have to wait after member states failed to an reach agreement, and some diplomats and supporters blamed the United States for the unraveling of the monthlong negotiating conference."

The mental image conjured by this statement should be of millions of overgrown man-children finally blowing out the collective breath they have been holding since the temper tantrum of "The UN is coming for our guns" began. But, of course, it won't be. The storyline will change, but in the gun maniacs' mind the result will be the same. The intertubes will still be littered with breathless warnings of imminent doom, as though the same government that could not find New Orleans on a map during Katrina will swoop down and seize 300 million guns at a moment's notice.

"This was stunning cowardice by the Obama administration, which at the last minute did an about-face and scuttled progress toward a global arms treaty, just as it reached the finish line," said Suzanne Nossel, executive director of Amnesty International USA. "It's a staggering abdication of leadership by the world's largest exporter of conventional weapons to pull the plug on the talks just as they were nearing an historic breakthrough."

"A Western diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, also blamed the U.S., saying "they derailed the process," adding that nothing will happen to revive negotiations until after the U.S. presidential election in November."

Or more likely, it won't. Now, I know the gun-maniacs do not understand how our government and laws actually work, or silly terms like "progressive taxation" or even that wall street and giant corporate farms are not actually small businesses. But you have to think they could understand the difference between "export" and "domestic."

"The draft treaty would require all countries to establish national regulations to control the transfer of conventional arms and to regulate arms brokers. It would prohibit states that ratify the treaty from transferring conventional weapons if they would violate arms embargoes or if they would promote acts of genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes.

In considering whether to authorize the export of arms, the draft says a country must evaluate whether the weapon would be used to violate international human rights or humanitarian laws or be used by terrorists, organized crime or for corrupt practices.

Many countries, including the U.S., control arms exports but there has never been an international treaty regulating the estimated $60 billion global arms trade. For more than a decade, activists and some governments have been pushing for international rules to try to keep illicit weapons out of the hands of terrorists, insurgent fighters and organized crime."

You see kids? This treaty that got your panties all in a bunch, concerns US conventional weapons trade with other countries. All that huffing and puffing was in defense of "others" having the same access to deadly weapons that you enjoy.

I did not know the old adage about how a right winger cannot really enjoy a steak unless he knows someone else cannot have one did not apply to their assault rifles. Ignorance of what this treaty actually contained is the only explanation I can think of for why your average American gun maniac would fight so passionately for the rights of non-Americans (that might include muslims and dark skinned people) to have what they have.