Well, I feel safer
Andy sends us a link to an Associated Press article about the Obama Administration’s attempt at grabbing guns. Basically, they’re just more useless gestures so they appear like they’re doing something…much like our foreign policy these days;
One new policy will end a government practice that lets military weapons, sold or donated by the U.S. to allies, be reimported into the U.S. by private entities, where some may end up on the streets. The White House said the U.S. has approved 250,000 of those guns to be reimported since 2005; under the new policy, only museums and a few other entities like the government will be eligible to reimport military-grade firearms.
The Obama administration is also proposing a federal rule to stop those who would be ineligible to pass a background check from skirting the law by registering a gun to a corporation or trust. The new rule would require people associated with those entities, like beneficiaries and trustees, to undergo the same type of fingerprint-based background checks as individuals if they want to register guns.
I’m sure that criminals are setting up shell companies just so they can buy guns in their corporation’s name. But I’m sure that gun grabbers will be applauding this. Actually, like most of the other executive orders that Obama has already signed this year in regards to gun ownership, I’m surprised this isn’t a law to begin with.
Anyway, to celebrate the new executive order, which doesn’t effect me in the least, I’ve just ordered a Colt Defender in .45 ACP on the *gasp* internet and when I go to pick it up this weekend, I’ll have to go through the background checks that everyone else who didn’t order their gun on the *gasp* internet has to pass. It’s coming from Tampa, thus shifting the balance of fire power north.
Category: Barack Obama/Joe Biden
I’ve got to laugh… To keep from crying.
Well, it looks like anyone looking to acquire a M1 or M1 carbine might just have to pay a helluva lot more now – those are all “military grade” weapons we sold or donated to allies; many of those allies are now trying to get rid of them. Although if I remember correctly, the current Administration’s been dragging their feet on allowing those to be re-imported for a while now.
Good choice- a Colt Defender is my carry fireare. If I was allowed to carry one im Maryland, of course…
don’t be laughing too fast…. essentially this means the market for re-imported P17s, 03A3s, M1s, M1911s etc just got cut off, limiting the pool to what is already here. One more way for the gun-grabbers to lock off a little of the market at a time until no one can get or afford to buy. Sorry, Jonn, you’re dead wrong taking this lightly.
Well, I’m going to go make some popcorn and celebrate with a lot of butter on it. I feel better already.
Gee, I did NOT know this was good news week. Why didn’t you say so on Monday?
Guess I got that Bavarian Forestry Police M1 carbine just in time.
The one thing about the trust signoff is that rumor has it that attached to that is that CLEO signoff for individual NFA forms is going away. Which is a good thing in itself.
I’m stilling going trust because it’s the only way my wife and I can “jointly” own NFA firearms. Can’t do that on an individual form.
military-grade firearms
And what does that mean? Pretty much anything the gun-grabbers want it to. My .45 M1911 is a “military-grade firearm.” Ditto my M4. So’s my 12-gauge (used by teams for breaching, etc.)
Sleep with one eye open, folks.
All this from the same gov’t that won’t answer details about Fast ‘n Furious?
Fargin’ cork-soakers.
Yeah I have difficulties imagining a stick up being carried out with an imported Mosin-Nagant or k98k.
However, I did some looking around and found an article where a guy turned a car thief’s life around with a Mosin five years ago:
http://www.seattlepi.com/local/article/Man-who-killed-prowler-says-he-aimed-for-legs-1288556.php
Unfortunately that shooter got sent up for Man 2.
Hondo and David are correct–the only firearms this will affect are the ones resold through CMP and some private dealers like Century Arms. Those warehouses of Garands that are occasionally discovered and imported back to the US will be a thing of the past. More modern arms like the M14 and M16 are not sold to the public anyway, so essentially this only affects “obsolete” weaponry.
As a military surplus rifle collector of sorts, I wonder where this will go next. Will the Mosin-Nagants, Mausers, and other fairly commonly imported foreign weapons be targeted next?
Exactly how many “gangstas” are out roaming the streets with M1903A3s? If the next illogical step is taken, how many Ballester-Molinas or vZ24s will the administration keep from the “streets” (actually, the safes of people like me)?
I remember reading in the book “Freehold” how that planet’s military would sell their old hardware to citizens, then use the money to help buy new equipment.
We really need a system like that in place.
Fast and Furious suddenly makes a lot more sense. The Obama administration was simply trying to deliver every available firearm that wasn’t a revolver or double-barrel shotgun to one of their foreign allies so that US citizens wouldn’t be able to buy them.
@10, 12: I was thinking the exact same thing when I read this. A Mosin Nagant has a 5-shot non-detachable magazine, it’s bolt action, it weighs a good 6 or 7 pounds (and that’s the “carbine” versions like the M44 and M38, which are longer and heavier than most AR-15 variants.) Not an ideal weapon for a mass shooting. The P38/P1s that have been imported for years might be a little handier – they are, after all, 9mm’s – but they’ve got 8-round mags and they’re not exactly concealable, and you really shouldn’t fire anything but relatively tame military ball ammo out of them (no +P, +P+, or hollow points.) Again, not the kind of weapons that “taking off the streets” will make much of a difference to the kinds of shootings we all want to stop. But it sounds good to the large portion of the public that hears “military grade weapons” and thinks of M4s and SAWs. And that’s what matters when you’re a career politician.
@13 I sometimes get dragged down to the level of arguing with the myrmidons of gun control. I usually trap them by asking how they feel about bows & arrows as weapons. The universal response is “those are obsolete”. To which I respond, well if you could see what the military carries today, then you would realize that my AR-15 is pretty much “obsolete” too.
@13 I have no idea why that isn’t done in the first place. Replace the Trigger Group w/ Semi auto and Viola!
It really is a shame, and I hope this gets reversed by a future administration (not to mention the half a million US-made Garands and M1 Carbines languishing in warehouses in South Korea for decades.) There’s something very cool about handling weapons that were a part of history, and the Mausers, Garands, Mosins, etc. are not going to be used in mass shootings or most crimes – they don’t make sense for that purpose. I’ve got most of what I could want for myself, but there is a generation of future collectors who will be deprived by this action, for no reason but political posturing.
I just heard Joe Bite Me say that this will keep machine guns out of the hands of criminals. I shit you not. I guess none of the other countless laws restricting the ownership of machine guns aren’t working, but this one will.
@15 Ask Charles Whitman about committing mass murders using heavy (7+lb), bolt-action, 5 rd magazine weapons.
dghi – small correction, the majority of Charles Whitman’s shots were from an M1 Carbine. He had a .35 Remington pump-action rifle, a 6mm Remngton M700, and a sawed off shotgun. So only one bolt action rifle out of four long guns. Two semi-autos, neither of which were long-range weapons a pumpo rifle, and one bolt.
If you want to do something I would suggest writing to you representatives to support H.R. 2247 which would allow for curio and relic US weapons to be brought back into the country. Right now it has nine Co-Sponsors, the more it gets the more likely that it can be passed or better yet attached to a piece of must pass legislation like the budget resolution.
If you want more info on HR2247 you will find it here:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/thomas
@16: Ask them what other rights in this country are obsolete and see the blood flow from their ears as their reality filter tries to adjust.
@17: Heck, even the heavier stuff could be bought by collectors and hobbyists. Military gets rid of old inventory, has an extra bit of cash to apply towards new weapons. Win/Win. Then again, I still wish we had a provision like the Swiss Army where we get to take our weapons home.
@20: I said those WW2 rifles (and in fairness, the Mosin is a Tsarist design from the late 19th century) were not ideal for active shooters. I didn’t say they were useless. But realistically, it won’t happen. There are so many handier, lighter semi-automatic rifles on the market, at affordable price points. Not that I want to give pointers to mass shooters, but most C&R-type weapons are not plausible for that purpose.
Write this down: The anti gun laws are written by people
1) who know nothing about guns
2.) Are totally afraid of all guns
3.) Are so afraid of guns, they have nightmares and make up shit
4.) Want to get rid of ALL guns.
@26 – I used to be afraid of spiders. Then I learned a lot about them. I am no longer afraid of spiders. I just don’t want one in my house.
If the ‘fraidy cats did what I did, they might stop being afraid of guns. The obstacle is getting them to learn something about them.
They’re quite stubborn about not wanting to learn.
Here is a better link to HR 2247:
http://beta.congress.gov/bill/113th/house-bill/2247
And here’s a sample letter:
Dear Dr. Heck (my ‘critter),
I am writing to encourage you to cosponsor HR 2247, the Collectible Firearms Protection Act, cosponsored by Congresswoman Lummis of Wyoming. This legislation would reverse the new Obama Administration Eexecutive Order (EO) against importation of collectible surplus military rifles and handguns.
Although the Obama EO sounds warm and fuzzy to the uninformed, it will only ban the importation of guns which have long been obsolete. For example, probably the most popular Curio & Relic collectible rifle right now, due to its affordability and history, is the Mosin Nagant rifle carried by the former Soviet Red Army in both world wars. The first Mosins were designed in 1891, over 120 years ago. They weigh nearly 9 pounds, are bolt action allowing only one shot at a time, and carry their ammunition in a nondetachable 5-round magazine. Not exactly ideal weapons for robberies or mass shootings. But these are the weapons President Obama has chosen to ban importation of. With respect to the Vice President, nothing common sense there.
President Obama has also blocked the reimportation of up to a half-million historic, collectible M1 Garand and M1 Carbine rifles originally lent to the Republic of Korea after the Korean War. These 70-year-old weapons were made in America and are a part of our history, yet they have been treated like illegal immigrants. Like the Mosin, the M1 Garand is a long, heavy rifle that is the last thing a criminal would care to use. These pieces of history belong back home, before they become scrap metal. Please cosponsor HR 2247 and help make it happen.
Hasn’t everyone heard about all of the gang punks in Chicago arming themselves with Nagant’s and shooting up everyone in sight? Oh, maybe not.
Now, I’m going to get a machinegun and register it through my family trust so I can commit crime because that will leave no paper trail at all. None….
CI Roller Dude says:
“Write this down: The anti gun laws are written by people
1.) who know nothing about guns
2.) Are totally afraid of all guns
3.) Are so afraid of guns, they have nightmares and make up shit
4.) Want to get rid of ALL guns.”
Except for the ones they and their armed security detachment have– those dang “little people” have to be kept at arms length by any means necessary for “social justice,” you know!
@29: Jonp, the gang punks are arming themselves with Nagant REVOLVERS. The 7-shot wheelguns that have to have the spent brass ejected and then reloaded one by one because the cylinder doesn’t flip out, using a loading gate instead, and fire an anemic cartridge that wouldn’t even be military-grade if the cylinder didn’t do that gas sealing thing where it moves forward on cocking, increasing the chamber pressure. The gangs are all OVER that noise. They’re taking turns driving out to Vermont and robbing the Century Arms warehouse in the dead of night!