{"id":42869,"date":"2019-05-10T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2019-05-10T13:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/uncategorized\/2019\/05\/10\/leaving-the-arms-trade-treaty-would-be-another-shot-in-americas-foot\/"},"modified":"2026-08-07T23:34:41","modified_gmt":"2026-08-07T23:34:41","slug":"leaving-the-arms-trade-treaty-would-be-another-shot-in-americas-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/defensenews\/commentary\/2019\/05\/10\/leaving-the-arms-trade-treaty-would-be-another-shot-in-americas-foot\/","title":{"rendered":"Leaving the Arms Trade Treaty would be another shot in America\u2019s foot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

President Donald Trump\u2018s announcement in late April that the U.S. will withdraw its signature from the Arms Trade Treaty is the latest move by an administration innately hostile to nearly every form of international cooperation<\/a>. In a move that was intentionally deceptive and rife with political theater \u2014 with the annual meeting of the National Rifle Association as a symbolic backdrop \u2014 the president\u2019s decision damages both America\u2019s security and its credibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It took more than five years of negotiations to develop the ATT and we spent those years working together as the U.N. consultant to the treaty process and as the U.S. lead negotiator, working hard to develop a treaty text that met U.S. interests and satisfied those dedicated to stopping the irresponsible and illicit arms trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And we succeeded. The final text, which reflected great compromise by close allies, is wholly consistent with American priorities and values. The president\u2019s decision is an abdication of U.S. leadership and moral authority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most Americans do not know what the ATT is or does. The president even seemed surprised that his announcement was met with cheers by the NRA faithful, but the NRA has dominated the dialogue on the ATT in the United States and the president willfully and gleefully gave credibility to the NRA\u2019s politically expedient mythology on the arms trade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The president repeated the false claims that the ATT could lead to United Nations bureaucrats taking guns away from American citizens. But the treaty explicitly says that administration of the ATT is purely the responsibility of national governments, consistent with their own constitutional and legal systems. The ATT does not create any supranational bureaucracy that requires the United States to give up its sovereignty to foreign countries in making any arms transfer decisions. And most importantly, the ATT only regulates the international trade in weapons and has no effect \u2014 in the United States or elsewhere \u2014 on legitimate domestic trade or individual rights to bear arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So what does<\/i> the Arms Trade Treaty do? It seeks to require other nations to implement the same rigorous processes and standards that legislation has required the U.S. federal government to implement for more than 50 years. Adherence to the ATT would not require the U.S. government to change a single thing in its arms-export control laws, processes or regulations, as we negotiated a treaty that is modeled on and consistent with decades-old U.S. legislation.<\/p>\n\n\n\t