Canada’s endorsement of UN Arms Trade Treaty an unecessary overreach says MP Bob Zimmer

Canada has finally signed on to a United Nations Resolution aimed at curtailing the illegal firearms trade. Resolution 55/255 seeks to better regulate the manufacture and sale of firearms to ensure guns and other weapons don’t end up in the hands of terrorists.

Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies MP Bob Zimmer says he’s disappointed in the government’s decision to uphold the treaty.

“Canada already has a very rigorous firearms regime and what this does is sign on to a larger more bureaucratic regime involving the UN which would require firearms manufacturers to label every firearm coming into Canada or going out with a Canadian essential label. The cost that will be incurred with that will be expensive and another thing that’s of great concern to firearms owners is it creates another form of firearms registry.”

Complying with the UN resolution shouldn’t mean much of a change for Canada, which already fulfills the other two provisions of the resolution by tightly controlling firearms sales and manufacture and regulating firearm ownership. But Zimmer says there’s no reason for Canada to participate.

“The ATT is really meant for third world countries and other countries that don’t have the regimes like we have in Canada and to put this on Canadians…it’s onerous, it’s expensive and it’s unnecessary. What it’s attempting to do is to try to source where these illicit firearms are coming from. The problem with that is is that Canada already has a robust system of who we trade with and which countries our companies trade with.”

He says the obeying the resolution could have negative consequences for firearms owners and users, although aside from increased tracking and a possible slight increase in cost, Zimmer did not elaborate on what those consequences would be.

“I still absolutely support licensed firearms owners and licensed firearms use in Canada and want a safe, reactive system that keeps firearms out of the hands of criminals. This, to me, is an overreach and just not necessary.”