President Barack Obama said last night he will push the US Senate to ratify a long-stalled arms trafficking treaty meant to curb the flow of guns and ammunition to drug cartels in South America.
Activists want Washington to push for ratification of the Inter-American Convention against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Materials.
The convention, known by Spanish acronym CIFTA, has been languishing in the US Senate since it was adopted in 1997.
Mr Obama, who visited Mexico yesterday to show his support for President Felipe Calderon's efforts to reduce violence and rein in drug cartels, said he would put his weight behind the treaty's ratification.
"I am urging the Senate in the United States to ratify an inter-American treaty known as CIFTA to curb small arms trafficking that is a source of so many weapons used in this drug war," he told a joint news conference with Mr Calderon.
Denis McDonough, Director of Strategic Communications at the White House's National Security Council, told reporters the treaty was on a list that had been submitted to the Senate of treaties the president viewed as priorities. "This is one of the priority treaties that we'd like to see the Senate's advise and consent on," he said.
The treaty faces strong opposition in the Senate. The treaty has to garner 67 votes in the 100-member Senate, where lawmakers have been loathe to take on the National Rifle Association (NRA), a powerful gun lobby, despite a spate of domestic shootings that have resulted in multiple deaths.
The NRA opposes the treaty. Wayne LaPierre, NRA executive vice president, said his organisation takes "a back seat to no one" in opposing illegal arms trafficking. "The answer is to enforce the current law. Everything these drug cartels are doing involving firearms is illegal on both sides of the border already," he said.