By: Daniel Nardini
Recently, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry signed the United Nations’ Arms Trade Treaty. Under this treaty, the United States will work with other governments to try and prevent firearms and weaponry from falling into the hands of criminal organizations, terrorists and rogue regimes. Strangely enough, the National Rifle Association (NRA) has alleged that this treaty will obligate the United States to prevent imports of firearms into the United States that may consist of 50 percent or more of foreign components. The NRA, and other right wing organizations, are screaming that this may be the “beginning” of the U.S. government trying to “confiscate” all of America’s guns.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmm. I don’t think so. In terms of firearms per population, no other country has as many guns per person as the United States. I have traveled around Illinois, and indeed across the United States, and the sheer number of gun owners I have found is just staggering. I have met some individuals who have wall-to-wall rifles, handguns, and even assault rifles. They are proud of their “collection,” and you can be sure that the only way they will ever give-up their firearms is “over their dead bodies.” That some people have so many weapons does not change the fact they are legal gun owners. I can think of one small rural town where 80 percent of the residents own at least two hunting rifles and assorted hand guns. And keep in mind that these are all legal gun owners.
These people are protected by the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. No president, no act of the U.S. Congress, and no court will change the minds of so many millions of Americans who believe that it is their “God given right” to own guns and as many as possible. Only two other nations in the world, Israel and Switzerland, allow their residents to own firearms. But even these two nations cannot compare to the sheer number of firearms that any single individual citizen can own as can be found in the United States. I honestly cannot see the U.S. Department of Homeland Security going into individual American homes and trying to confiscate on a massive scale the number of firearms millions of Americans own. This would be way more crazy than the U.S. government trying to deport every single undocumented person in America, and even that is crazy in my book. Under these circumstances I see no hidden agenda that would try to do something on anything like this scale against tens of millions of legal American gun owners. In my view, the NRA and other right wing organizations are really going on over-reach here.
How Do You Disarm the United States?
By: Daniel Nardini