Obama to Push for Treaty on Arms Trafficking

President Obama wants to add muscle to America’s promise to curb the flow of weapons to Mexico’s drug cartels. After meeting with Mexican leader Felipe Calderon today, Obama said he would push the Senate to ratify a decade-old treaty on the matter, the Washington Post reports. President Clinton signed the pact, negotiated by the Organization of American States to cut down on arms smuggling throughout the hemisphere, but it’s languished in Congress since 1997.

“The president felt it was important to push now for the ratification of the treaty because the question of illegal arms trafficking is of great concern,” a senior official told the New York Times. The treaty calls for nations to take concrete steps, including the adoption of stricter licensing rules. Gun-rights advocates don’t oppose the measure, because its wording does not impinge on the 2nd Amendment, the Post notes. (More Latin America stories.)