Contrary to your assertions in the editorial “The U.N. gun grabber” (May 28), there is no initiative under way at the United Nations to develop a “Small Arms Treaty.”
Governments will, however, start negotiations this summer on a future Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), an effort led by our closest allies to ensure that conventional weapons aren’t sold or transferred into the hands of war criminals and other abusers. Negotiations will seek to standardize the international arms market by establishing legally binding rules that all countries must follow when transferring conventional weapons across international borders.
Because the ATT would address only international weapons sales and transfers, it neither seeks to nor can affect domestic gun rights provided under the U.S. Constitution. In fact, the U.N. resolution that started the ATT process clearly takes the issue of civilian ownership of firearms out of the discussion by acknowledging the right of all countries to regulate “national ownership, including through national constitutional protections on private ownership, exclusively within their territory.”
The reality is that if all countries don’t play by the same rules when it comes to selling weapons abroad, weapons will continue to fall into the hands of states and non-state actors who use them to commit serious abuses. The United States already has extensive export-control laws in place. If successfully negotiated, an ATT would complement and enhance these controls by requiring all states to keep weapons out of the wrong hands.
SCOTT STEDJAN
Senior policy adviser for humanitarian response
Oxfam America
Washington
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