The Senate Foreign Relations Committee supported ratification, with half of the Republican members voting in favor.
Chemical weapons pose a serious threat.
They can easily be manufactured and stored without detection. If chemical weapons were difficult to manufacture or hide or if they were militarily significant only in large quantities, it might make sense to attempt to ban their possession. But when the opposite is the case, the ban cannot be expected to work against countries whose governments can easily act in bad faith and have a history of doing so. It is bad practice for the United States to enter into an arms-control agreement that cannot be verified. Signing on implies either that we trust the other parties, or, if we do not trust them all, that we can satisfactorily monitor those of concern to us.