US Must Support Strong Arms Trade Treaty

by Abbe Sudvarg, PEP Board Chair
Published in St. Louis Post Dispatch

Thank you for your March 25th article titled “Supporters: UN Arms Trade Treaty must be tougher.” The conflicts in Syria, Mali, the Congo, Ivory Coast and elsewhere underscore the importance of a strong international treaty that will reduce the sale of conventional weapons to governments that use them to terrorize their own citizens.

A strong international treaty to regulate the $70 billion global conventional arms trade is critical to saving innocent lives all over the globe.  The contention by the NRA that such a treaty would infringe upon the Second Amendment rights of U.S. citizens is without basis.  This treaty addresses the sale and transfer of weapons between nation states; it does not address the issues around the production and sale of domestic firearms to our own people. Gun control laws within our own borders will have to be addressed by Congress, not the U.N.

Thousands upon thousands of innocent lives are lost each year through the tyranny inflicted by conventional weapons. It is time for major arms traders, like the U.S., to put lives ahead of commerce and support a strong Arms Trade Treaty.