They Don't Like Him As Much As You Think They Do

The Gun Industry’s Surprising Take on the Trump Administration, Daily Signal, February 2, 2018. "Certainly, it was great to hear the president speak up for the Second Amendment in his State of the Union address. But as I learned at this year’s SHOT—Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trades—Show, which wrapped up last week in Las Vegas, it’s more complicated than that."

Another Impending UN Misfire

Beware: The United Nations Is Taking Aim at Ammo, Fox News, January 30, 2018. "The United Nations will have a busy year in 2018 on the firearms front. That’s not good news for anyone in the U.S. who buys firearms. When it comes to the U.N. and guns, the best form of action is always inaction."

What's Up For Guns in 2018

It Could Be A Great Year for America’s Gun Owners. And for Gun-Makers, Too, Daily Signal, January 30, 2018. "One of the nation’s largest gatherings of gun owners, hunters, and sports shooters was bigger and better than ever, and again set the tone for the year in firearms—and for the people who love and work in the industry. In previous years, the tone at the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show, known as the SHOT Show, had been buoyant but concerned. Buoyant because in the years after 2009, fears about what President Barack Obama would do drove gun sales to unprecedented heights. Concerned because—well, it’s never pleasant to know that the man in the White House doesn’t like you."

SHOT Wonders if Trump Will Hit the Target

With Obama Gone, Firearms Industry Hopes for New Freedom for Gun Owners, Daily Signal, January 26, 2017. "In past years, the SHOT Show—the Shooting, Hunting, and Outdoor Trade Show; organized annually by the National Shooting Sports Foundation, held this year in Las Vegas—has been marked by delight at the booming firearms market, clouded by concerns about impending executive actions by now-former President Barack Obama. This year, SHOT was the exact opposite: hopes for regulatory relief from President Donald Trump, tempered with regret at the end of—or at least a pause in—the remarkable sales run of the past eight years."

Obama's Paradoxical Role at the SHOT Show

Why Firearms Makers Are So Worried Even as the Second Amendment Is Stronger Than Ever, National Review Online, January 27, 2015. "In one sense, Obama has been very, very good for the U.S. firearms industry. Far from controlling guns, his outspoken anti-firearms advocacy has made him the industry’s top salesman."

They're Not Fans

What the Firearms Industry Thinks About the UN Arms Trade Treaty Signed by Obama Administration, Daily Signal, January 27, 2015. "Supposedly, the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, which took effect Christmas Eve, is no big deal. But people who work in the business of manufacturing, importing and exporting firearms are concerned about the treaty and what it means for them and their industry."

When It Comes to Treaties, I Don't Believe in Magic

The Magical Thinking Behind the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, June 14, 2013. "The problem with the world’s arms trade is not, as treaty defenders like Oxfam America President Raymond Offenheiser like to claim, that there are “loopholes in the current, irresponsible global arms trade.” The problem is that some nations deliberately sell arms to terrorists and dictators, and many others are corrupt. If a nation cannot maintain democratic law and order, it will not be able to implement the ATT. A treaty cannot make the incompetent competent. Nor can it make the malicious responsible."

The Latest on the Arms Trade Treaty from the Hill

As U.N. Arms Trade Treaty Opens for Signature, Opposition Rises on Hill, Heritage Foundation Foundry, June 3, 2013. "The ATT is badly flawed in substance, and the way it was adopted in the U.N. General Assembly and the speed of the U.S. review process of the treaty poses further serious problems. In part for those reasons, the treaty has drawn considerable skepticism on the Hill. A Concurrent Resolution offered by Senator Jerry Moran (R–KS) and Representative Mike Kelly (R–PA) has 35 bipartisan cosponsors in the Senate and 144 in the House. Kelly has also released a Dear Colleagues letter opposing the ATT, with 129 co-signatories. Finally, Kelly has the support of 50 of his colleagues for an amendment to the fiscal year 2014 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Bill that would ban funding for the ATT."

The Process of Implementing the ATT Poses New Risks

New Risks, Dangers Loom as UN Arms Trade Treaty Opens for Signature, Foxnews.com, June 3, 2013. "The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) opens for signature on June 3. Well over 30 nations will sign it immediately, and the U.S. has announced it will follow suit. Once 50 signatories ratify the treaty, implementation begins 90 days later. And implementation will present new risks to the U.S. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Countryman insists implementation will bring “no change in legislation, policy, or procedures.” That promise will be nearly impossible to keep, since key terms in the treaty have no fixed meaning. As they evolve, the U.S. will change its policies accordingly. But the ATT was never designed to stand on its own. It will be fleshed out in innumerable ways. That process that will end up determining what the treaty actually means."

The ATT and the ABA: Part 2

The Arms Trade Treaty and the Second Amendment: Encouraging Executive Actions, with John G. Malcolm, Heritage Foundation Foundry, March 14, 2013. "In the first part of the series, we noted our concerns with the implications of the treaty for the import of firearms and as they relate to the federal structure of the U.S. In this second part, we look at how the treaty’s requirements may invite further executive actions by the United States."

Debunking the Debunkers

Debunked: ‘Myths’ of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, March 14, 2013. "The office of Representative Raul M. Grijalva (D–AZ) distributed a “Dear Colleagues” letter to House Republicans on March 1 that seeks to debunk what it describes as four “myths” about the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The truth is more complex than the letter allows."

The ATT and the ABA

The Arms Trade Treaty and the Second Amendment: Answering the American Bar Association, with John Malcolm, Heritage Foundation Foundry, March 13, 2013. "On February 26, the American Bar Association’s Center for Human Rights issued a white paper on the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT), which concludes that “the proposed ATT is consistent with the Second Amendment.” This conclusion neglects important facts about the treaty and the processes surrounding it, which we will explore in this four-part blog series."

A Review of the ATT Text and Process

The U.S. Cannot Fix the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Backgrounder #2774, March 13, 2013. "The failure of the initial negotiating conference for the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) has been wrongly blamed on the U.S. This false accusation and the conference’s lack of seriousness illustrate the fundamental flaws of any global treaty on the conventional arms trade. While improving the currently unacceptable treaty text may be possible, the treaty would still fail to achieve its purported aim and would pose irremediable risks to U.S. national interests. Yet if the U.S. blocks the adoption of a consensus text at the March conference, a significant number of states will likely negotiate a treaty outside the U.N. system. Participation in this conference is therefore a no-win game that the U.S. should decline to play on the grounds that it already has, and will continue to operate and reform, a world-class export control system that substantially achieves the supposed object and purpose of the proposed treaty."

The ATT Cannot Work

The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty and the ‘Gun Grab’, The Blaze, March 5, 2013. "The U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) is a bad idea. But it’s not a bad idea because it’s a gun grab. It’s a bad idea because it will restrain the democracies, not the dictatorships. It’s a bad idea because it cannot work."

The PoA --Time for the US to Quit This Farce

U.S. Should Quit U.N.’s ‘Programme of Action’, Heritage Foundation Foundry, September 4, 2012. "So let’s sum up: The PoA has achieved little of use, has a constantly expanding agenda, promotes restricting civilian firearms ownership, and seeks to advance this agenda by the slow elaboration of international norms. It is high time for the U.S. to quit this farce."

The Programme of Action is Ineffective and Dangerous

The U.S. Should Withdraw from the U.N.’s ‘Programme of Action’ on Small Arms, Heritage Foundation Issue Brief #3714, August 31, 2012. "The PoA contains a range of commitments on which participating nations have agreed to report biennially. It is not a treaty process: it is, in theory, a mechanism for encouraging voluntary cooperation. In practice, it has achieved little. On August 29, the U.N. released its International Small Arms Control Standards (ISACS), which epitomizes the PoA’s promotion of gun control norms. Since the PoA is ineffective and seeks to constrain freedoms protected by the Constitution, the time has come for the U.S. to withdraw from it."

Stopping the Arms Trade Treaty, Again

U.S. Should Act to Stop Renewed Rush to Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation issue Brief #3690, August 2, 2012. "The U.N. negotiating conference on the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) ended on July 27 without reaching consensus on a treaty, but the ATT is far from dead. The conference was only one step in the process. When the U.N. General Assembly (GA) meets in September, it will have before it the report of the negotiating conference and the draft treaty text. The ATT’s proponents plan to vote it through the GA. The U.S. should act now to stop this renewed rush to adopt the ATT."

How to Solve the Crime Problem: Ban It!

The United Nations Drafts a Law Banning Crime, National Review Online, July 25, 2012. "If the nations of the world wanted higher standards on their arms imports and exports, they could have them today. If they wanted to respect U.N. Security Council sanctions and embargos, they could do so today. But they don’t, and they don’t. In spite of the complexities of drafting a text that satisfies everyone’s hypocrisy, the July conference may end up producing a treaty. But it won’t matter to the people of Syria or Somalia — never mind Iran or North Korea. And it won’t stop the NGOs from blaming the U.S. and, sooner or later, demanding yet another treaty. The only thing it will do is give Harold Koh a bit more to chew on, and add another layer of legal complexity to U.S. commercial interests and foreign and security policy. At the U.N., they call that a good day’s work."

The ATT's Fundamental Flaws

Five Fundamental Flaws in the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty, Heritage Foundation Foundry, July 23, 2012. "The overwhelming majority of commentary in the United States on the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) has focused on the possible risks it poses to rights protected under the Second Amendment. There is nothing wrong with being watchful on this front, but the ATT raises broader concerns for U.S. foreign policy. Indeed, the ATT is inherently flawed simply because of the beliefs on which it is based and the process by which it is being drafted. Here are five reasons why."

The UN, Gun-Grabber?

Can the U.N. Grab Americans’ Guns?, Heritage Foundation Foundry, July 13, 2012. "For much of the past two weeks, I’ve been attending the U.N.’s Arms Trade Treaty conference in New York and blogging on the craziness of Turtle Bay. A number of comments on my blog—and of course many external commentators—have raised the question of whether the ATT is, pure and simple, a “gun grab” treaty."