Obama wants to loosen arms export restrictions
So reports the Wall Street Journal:
U.S. homeland-security and law-enforcement agencies have objected to Obama administration proposals to relax export restrictions on high-powered firearms, threatening a centerpiece of the president’s trade and national-security agenda.
The agencies, in internal memos viewed by The Wall Street Journal, warn the changes could help arm drug cartels and terrorists and make it harder for the U.S. to crack down on gun-trafficking.
The arms proposal is part of a broader overhaul of U.S. export rules sought by Mr. Obama, with the goal of helping domestic manufacturers compete in global markets, as well as improving U.S. national security by focusing controls on higher-risk items and enhancing the capabilities of allies.
The president knows a growth industry when he sees it. And suddenly, the government is concerned about arming drug cartels? That’s a good one.
May 2nd, 2012 at 9:56 am
If it annoys Kofin Anan, it’s a good thing. I think that they’re just tweaking the letters of origin process a bit. I doubt Colt would be delivering M4s to North Korea.
May 2nd, 2012 at 10:45 am
So how about loosing some IMPORT Restrictions?
May 2nd, 2012 at 10:54 am
If he was serious about helping domestic manufacturers, he’d be pushing repeal of ITAR.
May 2nd, 2012 at 11:04 am
This is being pushed so that we gunnies can’t point at him as a gun-banner. Gunwalker? Never heard of it…
May 2nd, 2012 at 11:04 am
Sooo… would Romney support this?
May 2nd, 2012 at 1:47 pm
He wants to sell them to foreigners rather than to American citizens.
May 2nd, 2012 at 3:09 pm
Victory lap for the Gun Salesman of The Year.
Decade, century…he’s going for the millennium!
Hope he’s paid up on his Merchant of Death card.
Hate to have to send an enforcer around the back gate.
May 2nd, 2012 at 9:05 pm
We don’t need to loosen the export restrictions. That would cost the taxpayer more money with all of the red tape involved. Just get the Bureau of Artifice and Two-Faced Equivocators (BATFE) involved. They seem to do just fine regardless of what the law says! Like you and me, only better.
Disavowed With Honor
May 2nd, 2012 at 10:02 pm
I’m confused, this is one area in which the President can act independently. It’s considered foreign relations. Sure, there are procedures and a whole series of interagency committee approvals but in the end, even if all of the agencies say it’s a bad idea, the President can approve an arms export. Last President to do that, if memory serves, is when Carter sold some arms to Iran even after the whole licensing process said it was a bad idea.
May 3rd, 2012 at 8:35 am
how am I supposed to irrationally hate Obama and be a paranoid gunnie when he does things I support?
May 3rd, 2012 at 12:50 pm
The game here is:
Loosen export restrictions, putting upward pressure on domestic prices.
Give foreign countries money to buy arms from our manufacturers.
This causes a huge backlog of orders, and effectively dries up supply of new weapons in the U.S., while making the weapons already in circulation that much more expensive.
You didn’t think Obama was doing this just for the good of domestic manufacturers, or even for his own campaign, did you?
May 3rd, 2012 at 5:16 pm
But we still can’t get our own firearms back from S. Korea