-- "Guns Kill Civil Society," says State Department Nominee
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has scheduled a Wednesday vote on a State Department nominee who supports gun control on a global scale.
While advocates of the Second Amendment have come to expect that appointees of President Barack Obama would be hostile to the rights of gun owners, the president's nominee for legal advisor to the State Department reaches a whole new level of anti-gun extremism.
Harold Hongju Koh, who served at the State Department under the Clinton administration, is a self-described "trans-nationalist" who believes that our laws -- and our Constitution -- should be brought into conformity with international agreements.
"If you want to be in the global environment, you have to play by the global rules," Koh told a Cleveland audience.
Koh's positions treat our constitutional law as if it were a mere local ordinance on the greater world stage. This is of particular concern to gun owners at a time when the U.S. Congress is under pressure from President Obama to ratify an international gun control treaty with countries in the western hemisphere. That treaty, known by its Spanish acronym CIFTA, would likely serve as a forerunner to a more extensive United Nations initiative, the "Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects."
The Bush administration, under the leadership of UN Ambassador John Bolton, rejected the small arms treaty. Bolton plainly told the world that the United States will not accept a gun control document that violates our Constitutional right to bear arms. Harold Koh commented that Bolton was being "needlessly provocative."
In a paper entitled "A world drowning in guns," Koh maintains that a civil society cannot exist with broad gun ownership: "Guns kill civil society," he said.
Koh is eager to assume his post at the State Department, having lamented that there is only so much that can be done from the outside to push gun control treaties, and that ultimately we need people like him in positions of power. The chief lawyer for the State Department is just the position someone like him needs to put his agenda into play.
While Koh's nomination has been delayed largely because of Second Amendment concerns, Sen. Reid plans to force a vote this week.
It is imperative that gun owners contact their Senators and insist that they vote AGAINST this anti-gun extremist.
ACTION: Please contact your Senators immediately and urge them to oppose Harold Hongju Koh's nomination to the State Department. You can use the Gun Owners Legislative Action Center to send your Senators the pre-written message below.
----- Pre-written letter -----
Dear Senator:
The Senate is expected to soon vote on a State Department nominee who supports gun control on a global scale.
Harold Hongju Koh, who served at the State Department under the Clinton administration, is a self-described "trans-nationalist" who believes that our laws -- and our Constitution -- should be brought into conformity with international agreements.
According to Koh, "If you want to be in the global environment, you have to play by the global rules." Well, I don't support global rules that contradict our own Constitution.
Koh supports international gun control treaties such as the United Nations initiative entitles the "Program of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its Aspects."
When former UN Ambassador John Bolton told the world that the United States will not accept a gun control document that violates our Constitutional right to bear arms, Harold Koh commented that Bolton was being "needlessly provocative."
And in a 2003 Fordham Law Review article entitled "A world drowning in guns," Koh maintains that a civil society cannot exist with broad gun ownership: "Guns kill civil society," he wrote.
I urge you to reject this trans-nationalist, anti-gun extremist who would place foreign laws and international agreements on equal footing (at minimum) with the U.S. Constitution.
Sincerely,
© 2009 by Gun Owners of America
8001 Forbes Place, Suite 102, Springfield, V
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