Obama Administration to Sign U.N. Arms Trade Treaty "In the Very Near Future"

As we reported last month, on April 2, the United Nations General Assembly voted 153-4 to pass the Arms Trade Treaty, with the United States voting in favor and several countries abstaining. The vote in the General Assembly pushed the treaty process forward after negotiations twice failed to deliver on the goal of developing the treaty by consensus. The Obama Administration is expected to sign the treaty soon after it is opened for signature on June 3.

According to a May 16 Amnesty International article, a senior US diplomat--Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Countryman--has confirmed the U.S. government will be quick to sign the new treaty. According to the article, Countryman said on Wednesday that the United States would sign the ATT "in the very near future."

If the deeply problematic treaty is signed, the fight will move to the U.S. Senate, where the Obama administration would need to find 67 senators to ratify the treaty.

NRA Supports Lawsuit Against Gun Control in Colorado

The NRA is proud to support a lawsuit filed today in federal court by 54 Colorado county sheriffs, the firearms industry trade association, several firearms retailers, individuals with disabilities and other parties, which challenges the State of Colorado's recently enacted gun control laws.

"The National Rifle Association, the many plaintiffs in this case, and the law-abiding gun owners in the state of Colorado know that the recently enacted gun control laws are unconstitutional," said NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris W. Cox.

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Confiscate! Confiscate! Confiscate!

Hell hath no fury like an anti-gunner who doesn't get her way on gun control.

The Star-Ledger reported last Friday that after a closed-door hearing on gun control in the New Jersey Senate the previous day, three state senators--believed to be Democrats Loretta Weinberg, Sandra Cunningham and Linda Greenstein--were caught on tape, complaining that bills introduced in the Garden State--including one that would require mandatory training to possess a firearm--don't go far enough.

First, a voice is heard complaining, "We needed a bill that was going to confiscate, confiscate, confiscate." Then, the trio apparently focuses its ire on gun control opponents who say that the way to keep guns out of the hands of criminals is to throw the book at them.

NRA Succeeds Because of its Human Resources

Far too many ignorant and politically motivated observers wrongly attribute NRA's recent victories in Congress, as well as our past successes, to NRA's perceived financial might (which is dwarfed by that of billionaire anti-gun zealots like New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg). Of course, financial resources, when spent wisely, are certainly crucial to any organization's success. However, what makes NRA successful is our extraordinary grassroots efforts--and more specifically, those of our members and volunteers who typically make the difference between legislative success or failure through their continued activism.

According to a recent Forbes.com article, NRA's success is based on the fact that we "simply execute the basics extremely well."

Outrage of the Week

In March, we reported on the outrageous case of a seven-year-old Baltimore, Md. student who, according to a Daily Caller article, was suspended for two days for the "horrendous" act of shaping a breakfast pastry into what his teacher thought looked like a gun.

This week's outrage is a follow-up to that story. According to a WashingtonPost.com article this week, the request by the family of the second-grader to have the incident expunged from the child's record was denied by the Anne Arundel County School System.

Country Star Kevin Fowler is an NRA Supporter

Rising country music star Kevin Fowler was the opening act for the "NRA Country Jam" at this year's NRA Annual Meetings in Houston. Fowler is an unabashed supporter of NRA and the Second Amendment, and he'll gladly let you know that, graphically and in no uncertain terms. Fowler recently weighed in on the gun control debate during an exclusive interview with TheBlaze.

In the interview, Fowler said the U.S. already has plenty of gun laws on the books, and that those laws are just not properly enforced.