Prospects dim for Mexican firearms treaty

President Obama's call for the Senate to ratify a hemispheric small-firearms treaty dominated his last visit to Mexico, but in the four months since, both the treaty pledge and the drug violence that prompted it have dropped off the radar - a victim of Congress' full schedule and gun politics...Mexico, which blames the U.S. for many of the weapons used by drug cartels that have violently thwarted a crackdown by Mexican authorities. And even though Mr. Obama and his administration have accepted that blame, prospects are dim for passage of the treaty, which calls on countries to license gun manufacturers and try to control illicit trafficking in firearms, ammunition and explosives...But the National Rifle Association now claims CIFTA could hurt hunters and says U.S. Second Amendment interests should not be controlled by an international treaty. Key senators such as Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Nevada Democrat whose gun-rights credentials may be crucial to his winning re-election next year, was cool to Mr. Obama's call for ratification in April, and a spokesman said nothing has changed since. "We must work with Mexico to curtail the violence and drug trafficking on America's southern border, and must protect Americans' Second Amendment rights," Mr. Reid said in April. "I look forward to working with the president to ensure we do both in a responsible way."
Treaties require a two-thirds vote by the Senate to be ratified - probably an impossible goal, given opposition from both sides of the aisle.
Chris W. Cox, the National Rifle Association's chief lobbyist, would not give a tally, but said that "there are a number of both Republicans and Democrats who share our concerns about the potential for abuse should this treaty be ratified."...Obama vowed in April to push the long-languishing CIFTA and shoulder some responsibility, calling small-arms trafficking "a source of so many of the weapons used in this drug war."...NRA says firearms manufactured in the U.S. are already heavily regulated, and said the treaty could have "serious impacts on recreation and hunting activities" and could affect those who hand-load ammunition at home.
"The United States is already doing our part, and we shouldn't have our freedoms dumbed down to [the level of] other countries that haven't done theirs," Mr. Cox said...Among the 33 signatories, all but four - Canada, Jamaica and the Caribbean island nation of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, as well as the U.S. - have ratified it.
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Full Story @:http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/09/prospects-dim-for-firearms-treaty/?feat=home_top5_shared&page=3
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Obama again buys into American-hating stab-in-the-back "allies" politically expedient views, bending knee and bowing head to foreigners, apologizing for the USA "daring" to have freedoms the accusers cannot comprehend & jealously hate. Notice that this "report" does not use the usual loaded words like "assault weapons" & manages to tell the story with minimum biased hyperbole, a rare occurrence indeed...S9