Korean Garands Updated Again
Via Kopel, Maxim Lott discusses the Obama administration’s role in this:
The South Korean government, in an effort to raise money for its military, wants to sell nearly a million antique M1 rifles that were used by U.S. soldiers in the Korean War to gun collectors in America.
The Obama administration approved the sale of the American-made rifles last year. But it reversed course and banned the sale in March – a decision that went largely unnoticed at the time but that is now sparking opposition from gun rights advocates.
A State Department spokesman said the administration’s decision was based on concerns that the guns could fall into the wrong hands.
“The transfer of such a large number of weapons — 87,310 M1 Garands and 770,160 M1 Carbines — could potentially be exploited by individuals seeking firearms for illicit purposes,” the spokesman told FoxNews.com.
Lott’s piece is not consistent with what the ODCMP is telling people, which is that the guns are actually a lend/lease arrangement. And the .gov already owns them. This situation is interesting.
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:36 am
Given the involvement of State.gov in the matter implying MAP, I think Lott’s wrong.
September 2nd, 2010 at 10:37 am
It actually is consistent, if you think about it. South Korea wanted to sell the guns, and the statists at State reflexively balked with the normal liberal line. But then on further review discovered that they actually had a legitimate reason to block the sale.
September 2nd, 2010 at 11:55 am
And there I thought they had that great CMP program to sell large quantity of surplus weapons owned by the government ….
September 2nd, 2010 at 1:09 pm
I’ve written to both ODCMP and the Korean reporter who broke the story asking for clarification on the blog report that the rifles are actually US-owned. No response as of yet.
September 2nd, 2010 at 5:21 pm
Korea says they bought the guns but can’t produce evidence. No evidence nets an assumption that they’re loaners.
If I had to guess, State granted a MAP waiver last year and has changed its mind this year. Why? Who knows, State is a black box. When it comes to firearms imports, they can do whatever they want for any reason, or no reason, with no appeals process unless you’re friendly with the Secretary or the President.
Just my idle thinking, anyway.
September 7th, 2010 at 9:59 am
Government intelligence: It will be much better if these guns are sold on the international market as shipping them to Al and Bobby Joe Qaeda will cost much less