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Obama pushes anti-gun treaty: Obama has said that he will push for ratification of a gun treaty. He says the treaty will stop the international proliferation of guns; opponents say it's backdoor gun control.

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After meeting with Mexican President Felipe Calderon in Mexico City on April 16, President Barack Obama announced that he will seek U.S. Senate ratification of the "Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms" treaty, also known by its Spanish acronym CIFTA. The gun-control treaty was signed in 1997 by former President Bill Clinton, but it must still be ratified by a two-thirds majority vote of the Senate for the United States to become a party to it. Supporters of the treaty say it does not conflict with the Second Amendment or the right to bear arms, but would help combat illegal arms trafficking and defeat Mexico's powerful drug cartels.

Critics of the treaty, supporters of the Second Amendment, have blasted the agreement as a dangerous infringement on the right to keep and bear arms and as another attack on U.S. sovereignty. According to opponents, the measure would create a national database of gun owners in America that could then be accessed by other signatory countries and the United Nations. It would even provide for the extradition of people found to be in violation of the terms, like an American gun dealer whose merchandise turns up in Mexico.

"It would clear the way for imposing a national gun registry [and] would overturn the current prohibition on keeping centralized firearms records by the federal government," explained Larry Pratt, the executive director of Gun Owners of America. "It reflects a deep distrust that the government...

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