IAPCAR

“The Second Amendment Sovereignty Act ensures that our country’s sovereignty and firearm freedoms will not be infringed upon by an international organization made up of many countries with little respect for gun rights. Our Second Amendment rights are not negotiable.”

CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb has devoted considerable time and energy working in the background to thwart this global gun control initiative. He was a powerhouse behind formation of the International Association for the Protection of Civilian Arms Rights (IAPCAR) a couple of years ago. Both CCRKBA and its sister organization, the Second Amendment Foundation, were deeply involved in IAPCAR’s formation.

IAPCAR now includes gun rights groups from several nations, and recently made news when it called for Attorney General Eric Holder to step down over his continuous stonewalling on Operation Fast and Furious. This column discussed that development.

Gottlieb and his wife, Julianne, have spent much time at the United Nations on the global gun control issue, and traveling to meetings of international gun rights leaders. They see this initiative as a looming threat to Second Amendment sovereignty. When Moran introduced his legislation Wednesday, Gottlieb made this observation:

“With the U.N. poised to move on its proposed treaty this summer, it is important for Congress to fulfill its responsibility to protect our Constitutional rights, rather than allow them to be eroded by international political correctness.”

In December, after Walsh unveiled his measure – which would prohibit the expenditure of U.S. tax dollars on U.N. activities if those efforts in any way threaten the gun rights of American citizens – Gottlieb greeted that bill by noting:

“At a time when our constitutional freedoms are at stake, the only way to prevent their erosion by international treaty is to put in place the legislative mechanism to cut the U.N. off financially. We’re delighted that Walsh and nearly a dozen of his colleagues have the vision and intestinal fortitude to pursue that preventative measure. International gun grabbers need to keep their hands off of our Constitution, and out of our pockets.”

The good news is that CCRKBA and SAF, and IAPCAR, are not the only ones in this battle. The National Rifle Association has also been alerting its troops to the U.N.’s global gun control threat. Many gun rights activists are convinced that Fast and Furious was a component of the global gun control effort, though there has yet been no evidence directly linking the two.

Then, again, as Congressman Darrell Issa has repeatedly noted, the Justice Department has yet to deliver tens of thousands of documents requested by Issa’s House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which is investigating Fast and Furious. This column refrains from engaging in “tinfoil hat” speculation about what may or may not be in those documents – and whether Fast and Furious could be part of some sinister global gun control plot. On the other hand, who would have guessed 15 months ago that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives would have engaged in a gun walking effort that put some 2,000 guns into the hands of Mexican drug cartels? Who would have thought the only reason that operation was hastily shut down was because two of those “walked” guns were recovered at the murder scene of Border Patrol agent Brian Terry in December 2010? Anyone remember one disgusted ATF whistleblower telling Issa’s committee last year that Fast and Furious was “the perfect storm of idiocy?”

Wednesday, while chatting with NRA Executive Vice President Wayne LaPierre, he recalled traveling last year to the U.N. to speak.

“Talk about an out-of-body experience,” he said, with no small degree of sarcasm. “Standing there in front of all those ‘bastions of freedom’ like Syria and Iran and North Korea and Cuba and China, and understanding that they want to come into our country and infect our freedoms literally like a germ, and dumb our freedoms down to a lesser standard…that’s their intent.”

And he added this gem:

“What I told them in July when I testified…I looked them right in the eye and told them about American freedom, and that they had no authority to mess with it, no way, no how.”

There is a battle looming in July over global gun control and U.S. constitutional sovereignty, but expect very little attention from the national “mainstream” press. They’re not likely to report how the Obama administration warmed right up to the treaty concept back in 2009, after the previous administration (you know, the one that gets blamed for everything from current high gas prices to the sinking of the Titanic) consistently turned thumbs down on it.

It is too late, however, to sweep this one under the same rug as Fast and Furious. As Wyatt Earp allegedly stated to Ike Clanton after the shooting started in Tombstone on Oct. 26, 1881, “The fight’s commenced. Get to fighting or get away!”

In the gun rights community, that appears to be the sentiment.

While it may be a long shot for either piece of legislation to get any traction, that’s not going to discourage American gun owners. They are already fired up over this year’s national elections, and many see the current administration’s interest in international gun control as an example of things to come unless there is a sea change in November.