Texas GOP Vote reports that Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott is alarmed after the United Nations General Assembly today passed the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty.
The United Nations passed an arms control treaty that could, if signed by the President and ratified by the Senate, radically alter Americans’ Second Amendment rights. In response to this treaty, Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott declared a “Red Flag Alert” to a group of bloggers and other media in a conference call held this afternoon. General Abbot said this treaty not only represents a threat to Second Amendment Rights but is also a threat to all American liberties protected by the U.S. Constitution.
The treaty is aimed primarily at the trafficking of tanks, armored vehicles and other conventional weapons of warfare. There are provisions in the treaty, however, that call for nation states to provide gun registrations to the U.N. and to restrict the sale of yet to be determined small arms.
Abbott sent a letter to President Obama, stating that “Treaties do not trump constitutional liberties. Even if you, as the President, signed and the Senate ratified the UN Arms Trade Treaty, our Constitution remains the Supreme Law of the Land and would supersede any treaty provision that violated Second Amendment rights.”
Abbott bases his logic on the 1957 Reid v Covert case, in which the US Supreme Court ruled that treaties do not trump rights spelled out in the Constitution. Abbott says he is prepared to take the federal government to court if it ratifies the U.N. pact to defend Americans’ right to keep and bear arms.
Both of Texas’ senators, John Cornyn and Ted Cruz, reiterated their strong opposition to the treaty today.
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