Last month, the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence issued a report card [PDF] for President Obama's first year in office. The report called Obama's prevention of gun violence "an abject failure."
In just one year, Barack Obama has signed into law more repeals of federal gun policies than in President George W. Bush’s eight years in office. From the repeal of Reagan Era rules keeping loaded guns out of national parks to the repeal of post-9/11 policies to safeguard Amtrak from armed terrorist attacks, President Obama’s stance on guns has endangered our communities and threatened our national security.
His "failures" haven't changed the minds of NRA members, 79 percent of whom believed, as of last December, that Obama would try to ban the sale of guns in his first year.
But even though Obama has signed laws permitting guns to be taken into national parks and checked as baggage on Amtrak, and has left in tact existing laws that limit the government tracing of firearms, the NRA still isn't happy.
A spokesman admits the president has signed some provisions it favors, but notes that they were attached to legislation he wanted, making them hard to veto. Says Andrew Arulanandam, "He has disappointed us with his appointments," particularly Atty. Gen. Eric Holder and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, neither a darling of the shooting set.
In the February issue of the NRA's magazine, The American Rifleman, NRA President Wayne Lapierre rails against what he calls a "radical shift in U.S. policy" for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's support of the United Nations' Arms Trade Treaty, which seeks to control the international trade of firearms and ammunition.
The main objectives of the treaty, as described by the group of Nobel Peace Laureates who have been advocating for it, would:
- require states to adopt and implement national mechanisms requiring the express authorization of international transfers of arms.
- prohibit the transfer of arms that could be used to seriously violate internationally established standards of human rights, international humanitarian law and non-aggression.
- require exporting states to take into account the effect that transferred weapon could have on sustainable development, regional peace and security, or the commission of violent crimes.
Trying to control the flow of illegal arms around the globe is a pretty far cry from Obama personally disarming every American. And given the myriad other challenges he faces -- as well as urging from Congressional Democrats not to pursue a renewed "Assault Weapons" Ban -- he isn't likely to make that attempt any time soon.
That's not to say that the Arms Trade Treaty doesn't deserve close scrutiny; it does. It's a legitimate question to ask whether and how such a treaty would affect gun ownership within the United States. But as usual, the NRA's hysteria about "gun grabbing" and the "new world order" undermines any legitimate arguments it might otherwise have and makes the NRA, once again, look like an association of crazy people.