In a late Friday afternoon news dump, the Biden administration announced that it would put a 90-day freeze on gun exports. As the “news” outlet of the Gun Control Industry’s biggest financier gleefully reported . . .
The department late Friday announced the pause in approval of new export licenses for the commercial sale of semiautomatic and non-automatic firearms around the world. The freeze doesn’t apply to Israel, Ukraine and about 40 other countries that are part of an export-control agreement. But it does cover some of the biggest markets for American gunmakers, including Brazil, Thailand and Guatemala, where a Bloomberg News investigation documented the impact US government support for weapons sales has had on those countries.
“The review will be conducted with urgency and will enable the Department to more effectively assess and mitigate risk of firearms being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, violate human rights, or fuel criminal activities,” the Department said in announcing the pause.
Uh huh. Does “entities that promote regional instability” include the Mexican army that “loses” a third of its small arms every year? The ATF must be breathing a sigh of relief since its efforts to move small arms south across the border have never needed export licenses, so they remain unaffected by this move.
The Friday night announcement, timed to make as few media waves as possible, is merely the latest tactical move by the White House in its three-year war on gun rights and America’s firearms industry…a group the desiccated husk who occasionally sits behind the Resolute Desk has referred to as “the enemy.”
Relentlessly pushed by its Gun Control Industry backers, the Biden administration, since the day it took office, has instituted a range of moves and administrative changes to limit gun rights and clamp down on aspects of the firearms industry they thought they could get away with. Think: frame and receiver redefinition, a pistol brace ban, pulling funds from schools with hunting safety programs, and the creation of a White House ministry of gun control, to name just a few.
Oh and here’s a happy coincidence. The announcement of this 90-day “pause” in export licensing just happens to be perfectly timed to include pulling the Commerce Department’s support for the NSSF’s SHOT Show scheduled for January 23 to 26.
Hard-line anti-gunners have been seething ever since the Trump administration shifted oversight for gun exports from the anti-gun State Department to more business-friendly Commerce Department back in 2020. They’ve never been happy about the BideBots’ perceived lack of action on curbing exports. Now, with the President’s approval ratings cratering and the election nearing, the administration is throwing them another bone.
Critics of the rule change praised the department’s decision. “For too long, firearms from the United States have contributed to violence and instability abroad,” said Representative Joaquin Castro, who with Senator Elizabeth Warren has sought answers for more than a year from the Biden administration about the increase in approvals of assault weapons export licenses.
“This 90-day pause and review on small arms exports is a welcome announcement by the Commerce Department,” added Castro, a Texas Democrat. “I look forward to engaging with the Department during this review so US policy moves in the right direction.”
The gun industry’s successful strategies to increase global sales of its products — in combination with friendly US policies — have been the subject of a months-long investigation by Bloomberg. The investigation began in July with an examination of gun sales to Thailand, where a US-made semiautomatic pistol was used last year in one of the world’s worst mass killings. A story published Oct. 19 documented the lavish support the Commerce Department gives SHOT Show, including steering more than 3,200 international buyers to the event this year.
The overseas sales of firearms is, of course, strictly regulated and requires government approval. The Commerce Department, it seems, was doing far too good a job of promoting a disfavored American business sector.
Someone on Constitution Avenue apparently didn’t get the memo that effectively facilitating the overseas sales of firearms now constitutes trading with the enemy as far as the White House is concerned.
