CIFTA: Treaty Without a Purpose

Ted Bromund / February 04, 2011

The Organization of American States (OAS) is an enthusiastic backer of its CIFTA treaty, the Spanish-language abbreviation for the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials. President Clinton signed CIFTA in 1997, but it has not been ratified by the Senate.

That is fortunate, for CIFTA is a bad treaty: It poses serious risks to liberties guaranteed by the First and Second Amendments and would undermine U.S. sovereignty by legally binding it to fulfill obligations that some current signatories already disregard. The OAS’s latest statement on “Reducing the Threat of Arms and Munitions in the Americas” demonstrates that the treaty is pointless as well as bad. (more…)