INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — With pro-gun legislation largely stalled in
Congress, US President Donald Trump said Friday he is withdrawing the US
from an international agreement on the arms trade, telling the National
Rifle Association the treaty is “badly misguided.”
Trump made the announcement as 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.”
Trump said he would be revoking the United States’ status as a
signatory of the UN Arms Trade Treaty, which regulates international
trade in conventional weapons, from small arms to battle tanks, combat
aircraft and warships. President Barack Obama signed the pact in 2013
but it has never been ratified by US lawmakers.
It has long been opposed by the NRA.
“Under my administration, we will never surrender American
sovereignty to anyone,” Trump said, before signing a document on stage
asking the Senate to halt the ratification process. “We will never allow
foreign diplomats to trample on your Second Amendment freedom.”
“I hope you’re happy,” he told the group, to cheers.
President Donald Trump poses with
NRA-ILA Executive Director Chris Cox, left, and executive Vice President
Wayne LaPierre before speaking at the National Rifle Association
Institute for Legislative Action Leadership Forum in Lucas Oil Stadium
in Indianapolis, Friday, April 26, 2019. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)
His move against the treaty came as Trump sought to excite an
organization that was pivotal to Trump’s victory in 2016 but, three
years later, is limping toward the next election divided and diminished.
“You better get out there and vote,” he said, telling the crowd of
thousands that the 2020 election “seems like it’s a long ways away. It’s
not.”
Gun activists denounced the treaty when it was under negotiation as
an infringement of civilian firearm ownership, despite the
well-enshrined legal principle that says no treaty can override the
Constitution or US laws. 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.
Advocates of tighter gun restrictions denounced Trump’s decision.
Kris Brown, president of the Brady organization, said it was a “reckless
move” that will “only embolden terrorists and other dangerous actors
around the world.”
In a speech full of grievance, Trump railed against the Russia
investigation, which did not establish a criminal conspiracy between
Russians and the Trump campaign. Special counsel Robert Mueller outlined
potential episodes of obstruction of justice by the president without
concluding that he had committed any crime, leaving such questions for
Congress to pursue as it saw fit.
“They tried for a coup,” Trump said. “It didn’t work out so well.”
“And I didn’t need a gun for that, did I?” he quipped, adding:
“Spying. Surveillance. Trying for an overthrow? And we caught ’em.”
And in a pre-emptive attack against his 2020 Democratic challengers,
Trump claimed without evidence that the other party wants “to take away
your guns.” The 2nd Amendment and the Politics of Gun Control: To watch, click here.
An emboldened NRA had high hopes and ambitious plans for easing state
and national gun regulations after pouring tens of millions of dollars
into the 2016 presidential race, seeing its dark horse candidate win and
Republicans in control of both branches of Congress.
But much of the legislation the group championed has stalled, due, in
part, to a series of mass shootings, including the massacre at a
Parkland, Florida, high school that left 17 dead and launched a youth
movement against gun violence that has had a powerful impact. And
Democrats won control of the House in the midterms.
At the same time, the group is grappling with infighting, bleeding
money and facing a series of investigations into its operating
practices, including allegations that covert Russian agents seeking to
influence the 2016 election courted its officials and funneled money
through the group.
As Trump landed in Indianapolis, a judge imposed an 18-month prison
term on gun rights activist Maria Butina, an admitted Russian agent who
tried to infiltrate American conservative groups.
The NRA’s shaky fortunes have raised questions about the one-time kingmaker’s clout heading into 2020.
“I’ve never seen the NRA this vulnerable,” said John Feinblatt,
president of Everytown for Gun Safety, a nonprofit that advocates for
gun control measures.
With Trump in office, gun owners no longer fear the Second Amendment
is under attack to the extent it was perceived to be under Democrats.
“Good times are never good for interest groups because it’s much
better when Armageddon is at your doorstep,” said Harry Wilson, a
Roanoke College professor who has written extensively on gun politics.
“Fear is a huge motivator in politics.”
The NRA, said Adam Winkler, a UCLA law professor and expert on gun
policy, has also dramatically changed its messaging over the last two
years, with its NRATV service advocating a panoply of far-right
political views that have turned off some members.
Holding pictures of victims killed in
gun violence, thousands of people, many of them students, march against
gun violence in Manhattan during the March for Our Lives rally on March
24, 2018 in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFP
At the same time, public sentiment has shifted. A March AP-NORC poll
found that 67% of Americans overall think gun laws should be made
stricter — up from 61% in October 2017.
And a June 2018 Gallup poll found overall favorable opinions of the
NRA down slightly from October 2015, from 58% to 53%. Unfavorable views
have grown, from 35% to 42%.
Against that backdrop, Democratic politicians have become more
comfortable assailing — and even actively running against — the NRA and
pledging action to curb gun violence. And gun control groups like
Everytown, which is largely financed by former New York City Mayor
Michael Bloomberg, and a political action committee formed by Gabby
Giffords, the former Arizona congresswoman wounded in a shooting, have
become better organized and more visible, especially at the state level.
That reversal was made clear during the 2018 midterm elections, when those groups vastly outspent the NRA.
During the midterms the NRA “committed almost a disappearing act,” said Everytown’s Feinblatt.
Winkler, the UCLA law professor, allowed that the group had scored
some victories under Trump, including the appointment of two Supreme
Court justices who may be open to striking down gun laws.
But overall, he said, “On the legislative front, the NRA has been
frustrated,” with priorities like national reciprocity for conceal carry
laws and a repeal of the ban on silencers stalled. FALSE FLAGS ON FIVE FRONTS: Sandy Hook, Boston bombing, Charlottesville, Las Vegas and JFK: to watch, click here.
Instead, Trump introduced a new federal regulation: a ban on bump
stocks after a man using the device opened fire on a crowd of
concertgoers on the Las Vegas strip, killing 58 people and wounding
hundreds.
That bothered some members attending the convention, even as many
donned “Make America Great Again” hats and cheered Trump loudly.
Mike Cook, who works at a shipyard in Alabama, said he’d been
disappointed that gun rights haven’t seen much improvement under Trump.
The bump stock ban, in particular, upset him because it was done
administratively by Trump officials.
He’s uncertain if the millions spent on Trump’s campaign in 2016 were
worth it. But, he said, Trump is “better than the alternative”.
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