Permission to reprint or post this article in its entirety is hereby granted provided this credit and link is included. Text is available at www.FirearmsCoalition.org. To receive The Firearms Coalitions bi-monthly newsletter, The Knox Hard Corps Report, write to PO Box 3313, Manassas, VA 20108. Copyright © 2010 Neal Knox Associates The most trusted name in the rights movement.
http://www.shotgunnews.com/knox/
The Knox Update
From the Firearms Coalition
ATF Shoots Own Foot While in Mouth!
by Jeff Knox
(Manhatan, KS, 15 October 2010) New documents have come to light showing that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) was behind the recent State department decision to renege on an arms sale agreement with South Korea. The Republic of Korea has some 800,000 military surplus M1 rifles and carbines which they would like to sell to US importers as part of a plan to upgrade their military arms. The guns qualify as Curios & Relics under US law and are completely legal for importation and sale here, but since they were originally given to the ROK by the US government there is a requirement that the US Department of State approve of any plan to dispose of them. The Obama State Department, headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had originally approved the ROK plan to sell the guns to US importers over a 10-year period, but they reversed that decision a short time later citing concerns that the firearms posed a threat to public safety.
What has been missing from this story until recently is the rationale for the threat to public safety statement. The newly uncovered documents, which are posted at www.FirearmsCoalition.org, show that it was the ATF which raised objections to the deal. In a report titled Effect of Granting Retransfer Authority to the Republic of Korea for M1 Garand and M1 Carbine Rifles, ATF spells out their concerns. First they suggest that approving the deal would set a precedent and open the floodgates to millions of similar firearms in military warehouses around the world. They also insert the idea that if the M1s are allowed in, that M1911 pistols would also be included in future import requests. It is this potential deluge of US made, military collectables that ATF says poses a threat to public safety in the US.
The ATF report offers the following reasons for objecting to the retransfer agreement:
· Increased Imports: Spread out over the proposed 10-year period, the deal would represent a 15% increase in rifle imports. (ATF bans most military-look rifles from importation and Americans are very faithful to US gun makers so only about a half-million rifles, mostly bolt and lever-actions are imported each year currently.)
· Lack of Controls on Distribution of Imports: ATF laments that these imported rifles would be treated just like every other gun in the US and they would not be able to track them to the end users. (These guns are no different than any of the millions of guns sold every year in the US and it is silly to suggest that not being able to treat them differently is some sort of problem.)
· Ease of Converting the M1 Carbine to a Machinegun: The M1 Carbine only requires 7 additional parts to be installed (with special tools, knowledge, and skills) to make it a full-auto machinegun. Possession of these 7 parts all together is a felony, but they are relatively easy to find individually over the internet. (I have never heard of an illegally converted M1 Carbine being used in a crime or even being confiscated from a criminal who might have intended to use it in a crime.)
· Crime Guns: Garands are unlikely to be used in crime, but the M1 Carbines and the M1911 pistols (which ATF fears might be allowed to be imported if this deal which includes no M1911s is allowed to go through) are more likely to be recovered in crimes. As noted above, the M1 carbine is likely to become relatively inexpensive and is easily converted into a machinegun, making it potentially popular with criminals. (How can one argue with possible logic like that? It almost seems sad that so many millions of these guns in current circulation have thus far failed to live up to their potential.)
Based on these specious arguments from ATF, Hillary Clintons State Department reversed their decision to approve the ROK retransfer. So far it has been Secretary Clinton who has caught most of the flack from this decision including letters from dozens of members of Congress but it is quite possible that it will be ATF that winds up with a proverbial bullet hole in the foot thats in their mouth.
The reversal on the deal has stirred up such outrage among the rights community that one Representative, Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), has introduced legislation removing the State Departments authority to interfere in legal firearms sales in the US. They would still have authority to oversee and restrict sales of weapons given to foreign countries by the US, to avoid such weapons ending up in the hands of communist guerillas or Islamist terrorists, but not if the sale is back into the US market. Removing that bureaucratic oversight is exactly the reward ATF should receive for interfering in this business.
Permission to reprint or post this article in its entirety is hereby granted provided this credit and link is included. Text is available at www.FirearmsCoalition.org. To receive The Firearms Coalitions bi-monthly newsletter, The Knox Hard Corps Report, write to PO Box 3313, Manassas, VA 20108. Copyright © 2010 Neal Knox Associates The most trusted name in the rights movement.
http://www.shotgunnews.com/knox/
The Knox Update
From the Firearms Coalition
ATF Shoots Own Foot While in Mouth!
by Jeff Knox
(Manhatan, KS, 15 October 2010) New documents have come to light showing that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) was behind the recent State department decision to renege on an arms sale agreement with South Korea. The Republic of Korea has some 800,000 military surplus M1 rifles and carbines which they would like to sell to US importers as part of a plan to upgrade their military arms. The guns qualify as Curios & Relics under US law and are completely legal for importation and sale here, but since they were originally given to the ROK by the US government there is a requirement that the US Department of State approve of any plan to dispose of them. The Obama State Department, headed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, had originally approved the ROK plan to sell the guns to US importers over a 10-year period, but they reversed that decision a short time later citing concerns that the firearms posed a threat to public safety.
What has been missing from this story until recently is the rationale for the threat to public safety statement. The newly uncovered documents, which are posted at www.FirearmsCoalition.org, show that it was the ATF which raised objections to the deal. In a report titled Effect of Granting Retransfer Authority to the Republic of Korea for M1 Garand and M1 Carbine Rifles, ATF spells out their concerns. First they suggest that approving the deal would set a precedent and open the floodgates to millions of similar firearms in military warehouses around the world. They also insert the idea that if the M1s are allowed in, that M1911 pistols would also be included in future import requests. It is this potential deluge of US made, military collectables that ATF says poses a threat to public safety in the US.
The ATF report offers the following reasons for objecting to the retransfer agreement:
· Increased Imports: Spread out over the proposed 10-year period, the deal would represent a 15% increase in rifle imports. (ATF bans most military-look rifles from importation and Americans are very faithful to US gun makers so only about a half-million rifles, mostly bolt and lever-actions are imported each year currently.)
· Lack of Controls on Distribution of Imports: ATF laments that these imported rifles would be treated just like every other gun in the US and they would not be able to track them to the end users. (These guns are no different than any of the millions of guns sold every year in the US and it is silly to suggest that not being able to treat them differently is some sort of problem.)
· Ease of Converting the M1 Carbine to a Machinegun: The M1 Carbine only requires 7 additional parts to be installed (with special tools, knowledge, and skills) to make it a full-auto machinegun. Possession of these 7 parts all together is a felony, but they are relatively easy to find individually over the internet. (I have never heard of an illegally converted M1 Carbine being used in a crime or even being confiscated from a criminal who might have intended to use it in a crime.)
· Crime Guns: Garands are unlikely to be used in crime, but the M1 Carbines and the M1911 pistols (which ATF fears might be allowed to be imported if this deal which includes no M1911s is allowed to go through) are more likely to be recovered in crimes. As noted above, the M1 carbine is likely to become relatively inexpensive and is easily converted into a machinegun, making it potentially popular with criminals. (How can one argue with possible logic like that? It almost seems sad that so many millions of these guns in current circulation have thus far failed to live up to their potential.)
Based on these specious arguments from ATF, Hillary Clintons State Department reversed their decision to approve the ROK retransfer. So far it has been Secretary Clinton who has caught most of the flack from this decision including letters from dozens of members of Congress but it is quite possible that it will be ATF that winds up with a proverbial bullet hole in the foot thats in their mouth.
The reversal on the deal has stirred up such outrage among the rights community that one Representative, Cynthia Lummis (R-WY), has introduced legislation removing the State Departments authority to interfere in legal firearms sales in the US. They would still have authority to oversee and restrict sales of weapons given to foreign countries by the US, to avoid such weapons ending up in the hands of communist guerillas or Islamist terrorists, but not if the sale is back into the US market. Removing that bureaucratic oversight is exactly the reward ATF should receive for interfering in this business.
Permission to reprint or post this article in its entirety is hereby granted provided this credit and link is included. Text is available at www.FirearmsCoalition.org. To receive The Firearms Coalitions bi-monthly newsletter, The Knox Hard Corps Report, write to PO Box 3313, Manassas, VA 20108. Copyright © 2010 Neal Knox Associates The most trusted name in the rights movement.
