Indianapolis: In a largely symbolic gesture to a group that helped him win the White House, President Donald Trump said on Friday that he is pulling the US back from an international agreement on the arms trade, telling the National Rifle Association the treaty is ‘badly misguided.’
Trump made the announcement at the NRA’s annual convention, where he vowed to fight for gun rights and implored members of the nation’s largest pro-gun group — struggling to maintain its influence — to rally behind his re-election bid.
“It’s under assault,” he said of the constitutional right to bear arms. “But not while we’re here.” With pro-gun legislation largely stalled in Congress and few deliverables during Trump’s term so far, the president told the group that he would be revoking the United States’ status as a signatory of the UN Arms Trade Treaty, which regulates the multibillion-dollar global arms trade in conventional weapons, from small arms to battle tanks, combat aircraft and warships.
“Under my administration, we will never surrender American sovereignty to anyone,” Trump said, before signing a document on stage directing the Senate to halt the ratification process.
His move against the treaty came as Trump sought to excite an organization that was pivotal to his victory in 2016 but, three years later, is limping toward the next election divided and diminished.
The treaty is aimed at cracking down on illicit trading in small arms, thereby curbing violence in some of the most troubled corners of the world.
It was the first legally binding treaty to regulate the international trade in conventional arms and was overwhelmingly approved by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly in April 2013.
At the United Nations, spokesman Stephane Dujarric called the treaty ‘a landmark achievement in the efforts to ensure responsibility in international arms transfers’ and particularly important at a time of renewed interest in expanding weapons arsenals. (AP)
