David Codrea

• Gun Rights Examiner

Will the Republican’s “Big Tent” accommodate UN gun grabbers?

Credits: 

Lee Celano/Getty Images

“A legally binding, global Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is being prepared in the back rooms of the UN,” a new analysis by researchers Paul Gallant, Alan Chwick and Joanne D. Eisen warns. “One goal of the Treaty's proponents is to create national weapon databases, leading to regional databases, and then to an eventual global database.”

“Countries will be charged with the duty to keep track, not only of all transfers,” we are told, “but also of the locations of all arms and ammunition, from manufacture to destruction.”

What will the database contain and track?

[S]mall arms must be marked on at least three - and in many cases - six parts: the frame, barrel, firing pin, ejector, extractor and magazine. And some firearm-prohibitionist groups suggest that the slide should be marked, as well. As each weapon – or each part - crosses a national border, an additional marking would need to be added. "Secondary markings" will add another layer of complexity.

Bear in mind that none of this will impact those who choose to ignore the “law” in the least.

“Even in relatively developed countries, the present condition of weapon databases is a nightmare,” Gallant, Chwick and Eisen point out, citing significant error rates in  Canada, Australia and the United States. Indeed, as Gun Rights Examiner reported in the Friesen case, the National Firearms Registration and Transfer Record (NFRTR) maintained by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to keep track of Title II weapons, “is insufficient for criminal proceedings” according to leading criminologist Dr. Fritz Scheuren in testimony before the 10th District Court. 

The abbreviation “GIGO” comes to mind: Garbage In, Garbage Out.  Which may be why an ATF manager claimed they routinely commit perjury over database accuracy…