Although I shy away from discussing political matters anymore I feel it’s necessary to discuss various gun-related politics in order to maintain the facade that this is a gun blog (at this point, I should probably admit that it’s primarily an anarchism blog). After having no luck getting gun control pushed through Congress, Mr. Obama decided to take direct action by issuing executive orders. I think he finally realized that those executive orders hurt his administration, specifically the parts that are providing arms to drug cartels under Fast and Furious, instead of gun owners. To correct this shortcoming he has issued two more executive orders:
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. 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.
The first one is the most concerning because it could effectively end the Civilian Marksmanship Program (CMP). For those who don’t know, the CMP is a government created organization that promotes marksmanship. One of the services the CMP provides is access to surplus M1 Garands and M1 carbines. Many of the Garands and carbines sold through the CMP were purchased back from foreign countries. If reimporting all military weapons becomes illegal then the CMP will have a more difficult time supplying shooters with rifles. With that said, the executive order apparently makes an exception for the government (nobody’s surprised) so the CMP may be able to squeeze under this order due to the fact that its a government chartered program. I’m not a legal expert so I can’t say for sure.
The second order is just asinine and effectively tosses up some additional road blocks between individuals and firearms regulated under the National Firearms Act (NFA). This order is probably little more than a spiteful attack by the current administration against us uppity gun owners. Of course the National Rifle Association (NRA) had some choice words regarding these executive orders:
“Requiring background checks for corporations and trusts does not keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. Prohibiting the re-importation of firearms into the U.S. that were manufactured 50 or more years ago does not keep firearms out of the hands of criminals. This administration should get serious about prosecuting violent criminals who misuse guns and stop focusing its efforts on law-abiding gun owners,” the NRA said in a statement.
I think the NRA’s mistake is assuming these executive orders are about reducing violent crime. My guess is that these orders are petty revenge from an administration angry with a group of individuals that tend to be on the more rebellious side.
In the end, you need only ask yourself one question: will you comply with these orders? If you will then these orders are likely to anger you. If you won’t then these orders are likely to be irrelevant to you. People from the former category will probably be very angry about the latest news and people from the latter category are probably figuring out a way to smuggle these newly verboten firearms back into the country. As always, do what you wish but I’m siding with the smugglers.