A gun importer in Vermont that blames President Barack Obama for the recent layoff of 41 employees, actually makes a decent argument for why the White House is responsible for the cutbacks. It also shows how short the government has fallen when it comes to delivering on the gun control reforms promised after the tragic Sandy Hook shooting.
According to the Associated Press, Fairfax's Century International Arms was unable to import close to $30 million worth of vintage rifles from South Korea because of a an executive action signed by the president last summer. The Huffington Post explained at the time:
One new policy will bar military-grade weapons that the U.S. sells or donates to allies from being imported back into the U.S. by private entities. In the last eight years, the U.S. has approved 250,000 of those guns to come back to the U.S., the White House said, arguing that some end up on the streets. From now on, only museums and a few other entities like the government will be eligible to reimport military-grade firearms.
Fox News further explained that the ban, which was announced in August (in addition to one that would prevent people from avoiding a background check by registering guns to a corporation), came "after Congress declined to pass any gun control legislation earlier this year despite an aggressive White House push for action in the wake of the Newton, Conn., shooting massacre." The bans were seen as an effort to keep gun control on the agenda after a failure to significantly shift the status quo following the Sandy Hook tragedy, and in the midst of increased panic about how to handle the crisis in Syria.
At the time, onlookers said antique dealers would be sure to take issue with the ban. And, indeed, yesterday Century posted a statement online blaming the government for thwarting its import plans, and forcing it to significantly cut its staff:
What the cry babies in Vermont are forgetting is that the Executive Order didn't only affect their deal with South Korea - it banned the importation of all military grade weapons. That's a good thing. Plus, let's not overlook that little trick about registering guns to a corporation as a way of avoiding the background check. That won't fly any longer.Unfortunately and unexpectedly, The White House intervened at the last minute and blocked this importation. This importation was denied despite our explaining that the denial would harm the company and pointing out that there is no rational, gun-control reason to block the importation of these historic, 70-year-old firearms.
What's the purpose of banning the import of guns that are perfectly legal to own in all 50 states? Spite?
ReplyDeleteNo, not spite, common sense. The only reason these types of guns are not frequently used in crime is because they're relatively scarce. Change that and you change that.
DeleteGuns do more harm than good.
First off, what to your mind is a military grade weapon? They aren't used often in crimes but of course neither are "assault rifles" the government largely doesn't go after the pistol, which is the most oommon arm used because they can't make a pistol a fringe issue like they can with the evil "assault rifle". And for the record, the types of guns banned from import by the order are 03 Springfields m1a's and enfields. Hardly as uncommon as you claim. There's 5 on he shelf at the local sporting goods store.
DeleteMikeZ
The reason we don't see these M1s is simply because there aren't that many of them around. Import a few million of them and that'll change.
DeleteThe question is why did the president have to do this himself? Didn't Congress think this was a good idea?
ReplyDelete