The National Rifle Association issued a stark warning that a U.N. Arms Trade treaty set to take effect on Christmas Eve could lead to a U.S. crackdown on Second Amendment rights — not via a Senate ratification, but rather an “end-run around Congress,” a spokesperson said.

“We are worried about an end-run around Congress,” NRA spokeswoman Catherine Mortensen told The Blaze. “Barack Obama or a future anti-gun president could use ATT and international norms compliance to rationalize enacting gun control politics through executive actions, especially in the import and export realms.”

The U.S. delegation to the United Nations supports the treaty, but the Senate, soon to be controlled by Republicans, is less than likely to ratify. But the current White House is publicly touting support for the treaty, and the NRA fears that support could eventually weave into the halls of Congress — or result in yet another one of President Obama’s executive orders.

“Even now, with an existing appropriations rider prohibiting action to implement the treaty unless it is approved by Congress, administration officials are publicly professing support for international efforts to bring the treaty into effect,” Ms. Mortensen told The Blaze. “That’s outrageous.”

She described the treaty as an “attempt by other countries, including some despotic regimes, to try and infringe on our constitutional rights.”

“This treaty is a very real threat,” she said.

Under the terms of the treaty, participating nations are required to set up export and import controls for combat vehicles, aircraft and small arms. The text of the treaty also requires that participating member states “establish and maintain a national control system, including a national control list, in order to implement the provisions.”

And the NRA isn’t alone in its worry about U.S. embrace of the provisions.

Investor’s Business Daily opined: “All treaties must be ratified by two-thirds of the Senate, and that’s not about to happen in the case of the unratified Arms Trade Treaty. … Yet a president who pays no attention to Congress or the Constitution has through Environmental Protection Agency regulations sought to impose Kyoto and cap-and-trade through regulation and fiat.”

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