MORAN EARNS ‘DEFENDER’ RECOGNITION
When Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran recently led a bipartisan group of his colleagues in the Senate to remind President Barack Obama that the controversial United Nations Arms Trade Treaty would not get a warm welcome on Capitol Hill, he was being true to form.
It was Moran who, in early 2012, introduced legislation to protect Second Amendment rights from the U.N. gun control effort, and was developed with the help of the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
When the letter was sent with the names of 50 senators, Moran noted, “The Administration’s recent signing of the U.N. Arms Trade Treaty was a direct dismissal of the bipartisan Senate majority that rejects this treaty. Throughout this process, it has been disturbing to watch the Administration reverse U.S. policies, abandon its own ‘red line’ negotiation principles, admit publicly the treaty’s dangerous ambiguity, and hastily review the final treaty text…The Senate will overwhelmingly oppose ratification, and will not be bound by the treaty.”
The Moran-led group inspired four more senators, all Democrats, to send their own letter to the president. That letter also made it clear that the Arms Trade Treaty, signed in September by Secretary of State John Kerry, could not garner a required two-thirds majority vote to ratify if a vote were held before the entire senate.
Sen. Moran’s Second Amendment Sovereignty Act unveiled in March 2012 was a political shot across the White House bow, warning the Obama administration against attempting to influence Arms Trade Treaty negotiations that might restrict the Second Amendment rights of U.S. citizens. But the president instead cranked up his support for the treaty just hours after his re-election was confirmed last November.
CCRKBA Chairman Alan Gottlieb to this day remains alarmed about the impact this treaty, if it were ever to be ratified, could have on hunters, target shooters and every other citizen who exercises his or her Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms. CCRKBA kept close tabs on treaty progress over the past year, and it got plenty of discussion during the recent Gun Rights Policy Conference.
“Senator Moran has been on point for American gun owners and the Second Amendment over this treaty since he was elected to the Senate three years ago,” Gottlieb noted. “Some people give lip service to gun rights, but Jerry Moran ‘walks the walk’.”
Sen. Moran first served in the U.S. House of Representatives prior to his 2010 election to the Senate. During his time in the House, he worked on agriculture programs and also was a member of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee and the House Veterans’ Affairs Committee.
He still travels back Kansas every weekend to meet with constituents and stay in touch with the Heartland.
Moran attended Fort Hays State University and the University of Kansas, earning a degree in economics in 1976. After that, he worked at a bank and then went back to the University of Kansas School of Law to earn his J.D. in 1982.
He and his wife, Robba have two daughters, Alex and Kelsey.
When Kerry signed the treaty, Moran was quick to draw a line in the sand. He noted then that signing the treaty was “a direct dismissal of the bipartisan Senate majority that rejects this treaty.”
“Throughout this process,” he stated, “it has been disturbing to watch the Administration reverse U.S. policies, abandon its own ‘red line’ negotiation principles, admit publicly the treaty’s dangerous ambiguity, and hastily review the final treaty text. It is regretful that the Administration has nonetheless continued to press forward and sign the treaty…”