Ah, whatever. Looked at it again this morning over coffee.
The infowars.com clip is just wrong. Does no one know how to read legal language? Alex Jones' concern is entirely misplaced. The preamble specifically mentions that private ownership is not affected by the treaty where is it legal in the member states. Here is the actual language:
"Recognizing the legitimate international trade and lawful private ownership and use of conventional arms exclusively for, inter alia, recreational, cultural, historical and sporting activities for States where such ownership and use are permitted or protected by law;"
See what I bolded there? Inter alia means "among other things." This is not language that bans weapons for any use not specifically listed. This section, in fact, is a guiding principle and not an enforceable action item anyway.
The only thing I've seen so far that is potentially dangerous is Section 2, Item 4:
" 4. Each State Party shall establish or update, as appropriate, and maintain a national control list that shall include the items that fall within Paragraph 1 above, as defined on a national basis, based on relevant UN instruments at a minimum. Each State Party shall publish its control list to the extent permitted by national law."
Paragraph 1 is the list of things covered, tanks and so forth. The "control list" is undefined. While the US ~currently~ mandates records of each weapon from manufacture to sale by a dealer, and that satisfies this section,gun controllers could try to interpret this as mandating private ownership registration. Since no part of the treaty ANYWHERE refers to treatment of firearms inside a state it would be difficult to interpret this one section as applying to a "state's" internal affairs.
The entire treaty refers only to international transfer of weapons. This treaty wouldn't affect US gun owners at all and wouldn't have much affect on the US business of importing and exporting guns. We already do all the things the treaty calls for except for the reporting. All the treaty says is "Hey Nations, don't sell guns n' stuff to bad guys in other nations, mmmm'k?"
Disagree? Prove me wrong. Please.
I don't give a rats ass about the treaty itself, actually. What I care about is that the outrage it has generated here makes US gun owners look like a reactive, fearful, ignorant lot. If I'm wrong in my reading of the treaty language I'd love to hear it because right now we look exactly like the uneducated, fearful, frontier gun nuts that the Europeans think we are.