Posted on 07/11/2012 2:40:13 PM PDT by neverdem
Mr. President, thank you for this brief opportunity to address this conference. I am Wayne LaPierre and for 21 years now, I have served as Executive Vice President of the National Rifle Association of America.
The NRA is the largest and most active firearms rights organization in the world, with four million members who represent 100 million law-abiding Americans who own firearms.
On behalf of those 100 million American gun owners, I am here to announce NRA’s strong opposition to anti-freedom policies that disregard American citizens’ right to self-defense.
No foreign influence has jurisdiction over the freedoms our Founding Fathers guaranteed to us.
We will not stand idly by while international organizations, whether state-based or stateless, attempt to undermine the fundamental liberties that our men and women in uniform have fought so bravely to preserve – and on which our entire American system of government is based.
For six years, the NRA has closely monitored this effort for an Arms Trade Treaty.
We have watched with increasing concern and, one year ago, I delivered to the Preparatory Committee our objections to including civilian arms in the ATT. I said then … and I will repeat now … that the only way to address NRA’s objections is to simply and completely remove civilian firearms from the scope of the treaty.
That is the only solution. On that there will be no compromise. American gun owners will never surrender our Second Amendment freedom. Period.
Our Founding Fathers wrote the Second Amendment so Americans would never have to live in tyranny.
For any foreign entity to attempt to encroach on that great freedom is offensive to every American who has ever breathed our free air, or who has ever used a firearm to fend off an evil attacker – whether a criminal breaking into their home, or in defense of their family against a tyrant halfway around the world.
Our Second Amendment is freedom’s most valuable, most cherished, most irreplaceable idea. History proves it. When you ignore the right of good people to own firearms to protect their freedom, you become the enablers of future tyrants whose regimes will destroy millions and millions of defenseless lives.
Without apology, the NRA wants no part of any treaty that infringes on the precious right of lawful Americans to keep and bear arms.
Let there be no confusion. Any treaty that includes civilian firearms ownership in its scope will be met with the NRA’s greatest force of opposition.
Mr. President, there are those who believe that merely excluding civilian firearms from the ATT preamble will be sufficient.
Let me state – in the clearest possible terms – that it is not. A preamble to a treaty has no force of law. We know that, and a strong bipartisan majority of the United States Senate and House of Representatives know it as well.
Any Arms Trade Treaty must be adopted by two-thirds of the U.S. Senate, which has 100 members. Already, 58 Senators have objected to any treaty that includes civilian arms, and a majority of the U.S. House of Representatives also opposes such a treaty.
The NRA represents hundreds of millions of Americans who will never surrender our fundamental firearms freedom to international standards, agreements, or consensus.
America will always stand as a symbol of freedom and the overwhelming force of a free, armed citizenry to protect and preserve it.
On behalf of all NRA members and American gun owners, we are here to announce that we will not tolerate any attack – from any entity or organization whatsoever – on our Constitution or our fundamental, individual Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
Thank you.
What are the odds that this tready actually get ratified?
I don’t know what all is involved,
Excellent. Thanks for the post neverdem.
“What are the odds that this tready actually get ratified?”
It’s pretty high stakes for the antis, so there will be lots of pressure, threats, money, tricks involved to make it happen.
I suspect the treaty will be as effective as the ones banning traffic in heroin and cannabis, but it will do wonders for dictators. It will be hard for good guys to arm up and easy for government-based oppressors (which just might be the goal considering that Iran is leading the effort).
“Let there be no confusion. Any treaty that includes civilian firearms ownership in its scope will be met with the NRA’s greatest force of opposition.”
I sincerely hope the word “greatest” refers to full metal jacket?
Well..., what were the odds we’d sign off on international bodies that would make decisions on our behalf, only the U. S. Congress was authorized to make? GATT, NAFTA, the WTO, and the ICC come to mind.
Unfortunately we have a long tradition of nullifying parts of our Constitution, so I’m not making any rosy predictions concerning this treaty.
Is our president protecting the states from invasion. Is posse comitatus invalidated by the direction that an army division will be assigned to operate on United States soil?
Is our federal government permitted to create a federal police force?
If they want to, our leaders will find a way to bend us over and their way with us.
Is our federal government permitted to create a federal police force?
The politicians got around both these points decades ago when they started allowing police departments to arm themselves with military hardware.
With no-knock raids, you’re quite accurate there.
I will say, that they make no pretense about Posse Comitatus any longer. They are brazen about it.
The earliest bumper sticker I ever saw was “Get US out of UN.
Given that people can make AK-47 clones in the Pakistani Tribal Areas under Third World conditions, what level of stupidity does it take to assume that any “small arms” embargo can work against a country?
We better take this fight seriously.
Romney could score alot of points with conservatives/gun owners/sane individuals if he got the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US.
Romney could do A LOT of things that would make him an instant HERO.
Why do I fear he will not...?
“Romney could score alot of points with conservatives/gun owners/sane individuals if he got the US out of the UN and the UN out of the US.”
He could score huge if he adressed this treaty and all of the ramifications right now. I lived under Mitt’s reign and he’s squishy at best on 2nd amendment issues. He should be throwing this right in the Emporer Jones’ face and make everybody show their cards.
Thank you Wayne, now they can turn their hearing aids back on.
he’s squishy at best on 2nd amendment issues
This, ammoung MANY other things, why folk’s question Romney’s conversion? to conservatism. Shouldn’t he be convincing us he’s got our back?
Ugh.
“Shouldn’t he be convincing us he’s got our back?”
Damn straight. But somebody’s got to put it on him. You and I talking about it on an FR post isn’t going to do it. Somebody somewhere with enough juice has got to lay it in his lap so that he can’t escape it.
Then, of course, there’s the alternative...
G*d save us.
Civilians aren’t bound by military rules. I am thinking controlled expansion soft point .....
Almost makes a guy want to aim a claymore at the front door, assuming he had such a beast.
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