U S And Arms Treaty

In Trump’s presidential term, the USA has backed out of many treaties and summits.

UN migrant and refugee pact, Paris Climate agreement, UNESCO- are just some of the many.

Recently USA has backed out of UN Arms Treaty.

On April 26, 2019, Donald Trump said in National Rifle Association's conference that he is going to pull America out from UN Arms Trade Treaty 2013.

Barack Obama, the previous president, had made the USA a signatory of this treaty. But Trump is going to reverse the move. What Trump believes, is that this treaty is not in the benefit of America. It is misguided and it affects the sovereignity of the country. He said that he will not allow foreign buereaucrats to trample with second amendment freedom.

Arms Trade Treaty

On 2 April 2013, the UN General Assembly adopted the Arms Trade Treaty and It came into effect on 24 December 2014. 101 countries have ratified it while 34 countries have signed it. The treaty wants to regulate the flow of weapons in the conflicted areas. It is focused more on guns rather than tanks. And it aims to regulate export and import of guns.

Under this treaty, Weapon type, numbers owned by the citizens of a country should be kept in a record. And it should be shared with the United Nations.

It infringes 2nd amendment right of American citizens, is what Trump proclaimed.

Under the 2nd Amendment, a US citizen can keep an armed weapon, and it easier to own a gun in the country than a voter ID.

If the country had ratified the treaty, there would have been surveys regarding guns and their owners, document verification would have become necessary. And people of America don’t want that.

Even India, China and Russia have not signed this treaty. India is a major importer of weapons, and we do not want to be binded by regulations. Therefore we have refrained from such a treaty. Same as the case with China. Whereas, Russia hasn't signed the treaty because it is a major exporter of weapons.

But then why was it signed in the first place by the USA?

It was signed because of domestic pressure. There have been many school shootings.

Kids are in contact with guns and when unstable, they take the gun to their school and wreak havoc. In 2018 alone, 113 kids died in US school shootings.

So this treaty may have been important to curb that issue. Well, now it is out of the question.