2009-10-14 U.S. reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade

2009-10-14 Arshad Mohammed Reuters \international arms trade\US/treaties\Obama-Biden administration\Hillary Clinton\Amnesty International\Oxfam International\right blogosphere\hoaxes http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idUSTRE59E0Q920091015 U.S. reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade U.S. reverses stance on treaty to regulate arms trade  The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.

The decision, announced in a statement released by the U.S. State Department, overturns the position of former President George W. Bush's administration, which had opposed such a treaty on the grounds that national controls were better.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said the United States would support the talks as long as the negotiating forum, the so-called Conference on the Arms Trade Treaty, "operates under the rules of consensus decision-making."

"Consensus is needed to ensure the widest possible support for the Treaty and to avoid loopholes in the Treaty that can be exploited by those wishing to export arms irresponsibly," Clinton said in a written statement.

While praising the Obama administration's decision to overturn the Bush-era policy and to proceed with negotiations to regulate conventional arms sales, some groups criticized the U.S. insistence that decisions on the treaty be unanimous.

"The shift in position by the world's biggest arms exporter is a major breakthrough in launching formal negotiations at the United Nations in order to prevent irresponsible arms transfers," Amnesty International and Oxfam International said in a joint statement.

This article has been widely cited by gun ownership advocates as proof that Obama plans to ban gun ownership in the United States, despite the fact that it only relates to international gun trading and not to domestic gun ownership at all.

The article is typically presented with additional text at the top entitled "Obama Takes First Step in Banning All Firearms On Wednesday Obama Took the First Major Step in a Plan to Ban All Firearms in the United States" (or variations thereof) and has been circulated extensively via blogs, forums, and chain-emails.

Examples:
 * 2009-11-12 The Patriot (no comments as of 2009-12-20)
 * 2009-11-18 Facebook
 * 2009-11-16 Roger Knecht
 * 2009-11-24 GunBroker
 * 2009-12-01 SodaHead
 * 2009-12-06 Congress.org: letter sent to president Barack Obama, representative Robert Aderholt, and senators Richard Shelby and Jeff Sessions
 * reddit

FactCheck agrees that this interpretation is impossible: "The administration’s agreement to talk about writing a United Nations treaty to regulate arms exports and imports is a far cry from banning possession of firearms, which Obama says he doesn’t want to do and the Supreme Court has said can’t be done anyway."

&ldquo;The United States reversed policy on Wednesday and said it would back launching talks on a treaty to regulate arms sales as long as the talks operated by consensus, a stance critics said gave every nation a veto.&rdquo;   