The NRA has long opposed the treaty, which regulates the $70 billion business in conventional arms and seeks to keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers.
“seeks to keep weapons out of the hands of human rights abusers”? That just raises the following questions:
-Who is supplying the armaments necessary for Saudi Arabia to continue their brutal war in Yemen?
-Who is supplying the munitions that allow for the Israelis to put the screws to the Palestinians whenever they feel like it?
-Who supplied the Mujahideen with Stinger missile launchers? I’m pretty sure you can’t walk into any old gun store and get them.
-Who supplied not only Stinger missile launchers, but also AR-15-style combat rifles and anti-material rifles to the Provisional Irish Republican Army?
-Why did Saddam Hussein have Bell Cobra attack helicopters? I’m pretty sure that his anti-Israel stance would mean he couldn’t purchase them?
-How do Mexican drug cartels have things like M203 grenade launchers? I’m pretty sure that gun shops in Mexico, Texas, Arizona, New Mexico, and California don’t stock weapons like those for civilian purchase.
As you can probably tell, I consider efforts to control the sale, distribution, and ownership of conventional weapons a sick joke. Selling armaments to unreliable or dangerous people is a multi-partisan issue worldwide, and to be fair to Americans they’re the least worst when it comes to arms control hypocrisy, as at least they have an enshrined right to own firearms.
The most egregiously hypocritical nations in my books on arms control are the British and the Australians. They will go on and on about
“how much more civilised they are because of tight weapons restrictions” while
happily selling basically any sort of armament to any and every regime under the sun. The British and Australians did this with Suharto in Indonesia knowing full well that what they were selling would be used to oppress the Timorese people. The British even prevented a criminal investigation into bribery allegations involving an arms sale to Saudi Arabia because it would ironically “endanger national security.”
Finally, I’ll note that it’s pretty ironic of the NRA to be against arms control abroad when
in the past they supported such controls, often for racist reasons.
