At the NRA Annual Meeting in Indianapolis, President Trump announced his intention to withdraw the US from the Arms Trade Treaty signed by President Obama in 2013. The treaty, while signed by the president, was not ratified by Congress. The treaty set controls on the 70 billion dollar international arms trade with a goal of keeping arms out of the hands of human rights abusers. The announcement was essentially a kickoff to Trump’s re-election campaign fundraising. The NRA contributed over 30 million dollars to Trump’s first campaign. The withdrawal from the treaty was unnecessary, of course, because it imposed no US domestic obligations or laws and explicitly said so.
As reported by Al Jazeera, “At the same time, public sentiment has shifted. A March AP-NORC poll found that 67 percent of Americans overall think gun laws should be made stricter – up from 61 percent in October 2017. And a June 2018 Gallup poll found overall favourable opinions of the NRA down slightly from October 2015, from 58 percent to 53 percent. Unfavourable views have grown from 35 percent to 42 percent. “