Biden aims to sign on to UN’s global gun registration treaty

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The Biden administration this week signaled that it is eyeing a United Nations small arms treaty that critics claim will lead to an international gun registration plan — including for individual American gun owners.

Two years after former President Donald Trump withdrew from it, a top arms diplomat at the State Department told the global body that the current administration is swinging behind the Arms Trade Treaty.

“I have come from Washington, D.C., this week to take the floor on the agenda item Treaty Universalization to underscore the continuing commitment of the United States to responsible international trade in conventional arms,” William Malzahn said at the 7th Conference of States Parties to the Arms Trade Treaty.

“The United States has long supported strong and effective national controls on the international transfer of conventional arms, and the Arms Trade Treaty is an important tool [for] promoting those controls internationally,” he said according to a transcript provided to Secrets by the lobbying arm of the National Rifle Association.

The NRA has warned that, among many moves, the treaty will require all arms that Americans buy from overseas makers to be tracked. To do that, a global gun registry would be created and maintained for 10 years. Every owner will be listed on that registry.

“This is the first step towards creating a global firearms registry,” said the Second Amendment advocacy group.

“President Biden wants to give foreign bureaucrats control over the rights of law-abiding Americans, and the NRA will fight it every step of the way,” it added today in a Twitter thread.

In his statement, Malzahn said that the administration is reviewing and working to strengthen the “Conventional Arms Transfer Policy” that guides the transfer policy of firearms.

“The new CAT Policy will better frame the intent and priorities of the Biden/Harris administration and formalize the approach of the administration as adopted on arms transfer decisions that have been in effect since President Biden entered the White House in January,” he said, according to the transcript.

“The revised CAT Policy should be finalized shortly and released as a public document. When it is, the United States will then use that policy framework to review specific arms transfer issues, including determining the proper relationship of the United States to the Arms Trade Treaty,” he added.

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