Exclusive: Secretary of State Kerry to sign Arms Trade Treaty - diplomats

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. That's not what the proposed treaty says, but that apparently escaped you.

From the article:

President Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, whose country has been repeatedly attacked by a cross-border Islamic jihadist militant group called Boko Haram, told the United Nations such rebellions are "sustained by unfettered access by non-state actors to illicit smart arms and light weapons."

"The treaty recognizes and protects the freedom of both individuals and states to obtain, possess and use arms for legitimate purposes," said the official.

The U.S. is the world's largest arm exporter by several times the world's second largest arms exporter, China. We supply almost a third of all "legitimate" arms sales across the globe. As long as we are pouring the gasoline, the fire will not go out.

The article points out that the weapons are brought in by "non-state actors" and no treaty is going to stop, or even slow that. This is a sop, a diplomatic fig leaf so that we can say we're doing something about a problem we exacerbate every single day.