Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) said on Monday that he was a member of a bipartisan group that sent a letter to the president opposing the United Nations Arms Trade Treaty.
“This letter makes clear to the White House that the House will not stand by as Americans’ constitutional rights are threatened,” Kinzinger said. “This deeply flawed treaty should never have been signed – it places American sovereignty at risk and opens the door to U.N. intrusion into the personal lives of Americans.”
The letter was signed by 181 members of Congress, including members of the House leadership team and the chairmen of the committees on Armed Services, Homeland Security and the Judiciary.
The treaty would regulate the international trade of conventional firearms, including small arms, according to the U.N. Office for Disarmament Affairs.
The letter sent to the president outlines the representatives’ concerns that the treaty includes only a weak reference to the lawful ownership, use and trade of firearms, and does not recognize these activities as fundamental rights.
“It encourages governments to collect the identities of individual end users of imported firearms at the national level, which would constitute the core of a national gun registry, and it creates a national ‘responsibility’ to ‘prevent … [the] diversion’ of firearms, which could be used to justify the imposition of controls within the U.S. that would pose a threat to the second amendment,” the letter said.
The treaty passed the U.N. General Assembly, and was signed by Secretary of State John Kerry on Sept. 25. The treaty awaits the required two-thirds majority vote to pass the Senate.