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It means exactly what you think it means, small arms not at all different from what you can privately own in the United States. The difference is the scope of what the treaty covers, it does not cover domestic sales of weapons. What it does it set standards for control of international arm sales, everything from battle tanks to the glock pistol at your local store gun when its imported to the United States, these standards are designed to prevent the sale or transfer of weapons to the kind of people none of us have weapons. The United States, already having seen the need to know what kind of weapons are imported into its borders and where they are going, is already in compliance with this treaty.
What the treaty does then is give the United States and other nations a way to both act as an example to the rest of the world and to shame other nations who do not live up to the standards within the treaty. Its not a treaty that's going to radically change anything, after all we already do shame nations that allow weapons to fall into the hands of terrorist organizations for example.
Is there any language in the treaty that could be in any way a 'toe in the door' to messing with our sovereignty? I am not so sure considering what the UN is attempting with Agenda 22 for example.