UN arms treaty could put U.S. gun owners in foreign sights, say critics

[ThaBigP]

Make no mistake, somewhere prominently displayed will be a phrase to the effect of "Nothing in this Treaty should be construed as to ban the private ownership of firearms". Never mind the fine print later: "all provisions herein are subject to change, void where prohibited, and subject to UN interpretation". Also, note the clever strawman: if they ban all firearms above .17 rimfire caliber, and all firearms that load more than a single round at a time, and limit individuals to 20 rounds in their posession at any given time, could that be considered "banning the private ownership of firearms"? Heavens, no! You still have a firearm... limit one per household! And 20 round limit! And single-shot only! And .17 rimfire only! And even that, down the road, is subject to change, void where prohibited, and subject to UN interpretation.

[ThaBigP]

A few other, tangential considerations. I'm working on building up a mil-surp collection of WWII battle rifles. Good luck with those Arisakas (sp?), Mausers, Mosins, Lee-Enfields and whatnot even if the US doesn't sign. Most of those are yanked out of cosmoline mothballs in far-flung areas and sold to importers who clean them up (sorta) and sell 'em. If they sign, they won't be able to ship 'em here anymore and in fact may be required to destroy them. Further, with my two Mosins I love chewing through 440 round spam cans of mil-surp Russian/Romanian/Yugo ammo at $100 a can. No mas, por favor. they can't export them here either. So it's $30/20rnd box of Remington instead. Same with old 8mm Mauser ammo. The Japanese stuff doesn't really exist in mil-surp anymore, nor .303 British, so you already hand-load or pay out the arse for factory specialty ammo. Probably couldn't even get an M1 Garand returned from Korea anymore, since that would be an international transfer even though the US taxpayer paid for them, and paid to store/guard them all these years. What supply remains in circulation in the US would skyrocket in price pretty quick. Wanna see a $500 bare-bones Mosin-Nagant 91/30? Just wait a bit.... And no more cheap Wolf/TulAmmo rounds for plinking either. Made in Russia. No more affordable PMC 5.56 SS109 rounds anymore, either. Made in South Korea (good stuff too). No more "Springfield Armory" XDs/XDMs. Made in Croatia.

Been wanting an Arsenal SGL 21 or 31 AK? No mas, por favor. They don't actually manufacture them, they get them from Russia and hang a few parts on them to make them ATF-compliant. And no more mil-surp 7.62x39 spam cans to feed it at an affordable price, either.