Look, please nobody get pissy about the main source article I'm quoting being on Fox, OK? You don't earn any respect by attacking the messenger. This is not some Fox fabrication, it's been reported all over the place. If you're unhappy reading a Fox article, read the Washington Times coverage instead.
Anyway, to get down to the meat, the issue here is that last year, South Korea removed 850,000 now-antique US-manufactured M1 Garand rifles and (unrelated) M1 carbines, used by American troops during the Korean War, from its arsenals and, seeking to raise funds for its military, offered a deal to sell them back to the United States. At the time, the Obama administration approved the deal; then, in March, it quietly reversed itself. Now, the shenanigans have come to light, and the finger-pointing and excuses have begun.
A State Department spokesman said the administration's decision was based on concerns that the guns could fall into the wrong hands.
Keep in mind that from this administration's point of view, with Hillary Clinton at the helm of the State Department, ALL OF US have "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.
"We are working closely with our Korean allies and the U.S. Army in exploring alternative options to dispose of these firearms."
Based on precedent from the Clinton administration, it can be inferred that "alternative options to dispose of" means "melt down".
"Guns that can take high-capacity magazines are a threat to public safety," said Dennis Henigan of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence.
Well known for their complete expertise in all areas of firearms knowledge. (NOT.)
"Even though they are old, these guns could deliver a great amount of firepower. So I think the Obama administration's concerns are well-taken."
So, let's see. The M1 Garand fires a rifle cartridge from an 8-round bloc clip, and CANNOT be modified to take "high-capacity magazines". (Oh, wait, if you speak Brady Bunch, "high capacity" means "more than one".) And the M1 Carbine, while it normally comes with a 20-round magazine, fires a round little more powerful than many pistols, and has FAR less firepower than any of a hundred AR15 clones that can be legally bought over the counter in the US. So explain this "great amount of firepower" again...? Heck, the US Government ALREADY SELLS identical rifles to US citizens through the Civilian Markamanship Program. (A program, granted, which the Obama administration has several times expressed a desire to terminate.)
But gun rights advocates point out that possessing M1 rifles is legal in the United States -- M1s are semi-automatics, not machine guns, meaning the trigger has to be pulled every time a shot is fired -- and anyone who would buy a gun from South Korea would have to go through the standard background check.
Unless, of course, you're the BATF, to whom completely rebuilding a rifle's receiver and trigger group in your machine shops by skilled armorers is a "simple modification" that anyone with simple hand tools could replicate. I'm waiting for the first time the BATF converts a bolt-action rifle into an automatic weapon, by totally rebuilding the entire weapon, then stands up in court and says with a straight face that it was an easy conversion with off-the-shelf parts found in the owner's possession.
"Anything that accepts an external magazine could accept a larger capacity magazine," [NRA lobbyist Chris] Cox said.
"But the average number of rounds fired in the commission of a crime is somewhere between 1 and 2 … this issue just shows how little the administration understands about guns."
A perfectly true statement, but one which falls into the conceptual error of assuming that the administration has the least interest in understanding anything about guns beyond that they go bang.
Asked why the M1s pose a threat, the State Department spokesman referred questions to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. ATF representatives said they would look into the question Monday afternoon, but on Wednesday they referred questions to the Justice Department. DOJ spokesman Dean Boyd referred questions back to the State Department.
HOT POTATO!!! HOT POTATO!!!
The White House referred questions on the issue to the Pentagon, which referred questions to the U.S. Embassy in South Korea, which deferred back to the State Department.
It's like a Three Stooges skit, isn't it? Gee, you might almost get the idea they don't want to answer the questions. Anyone remember "historic levels of openness"? This is just one more issue shoved hastily into the closet by the most furtive, secretive administration in American history.
According to the ATF Guidebook on Firearms Importation, it would normally be legal to import the M1s because they are more than 50 years old, meaning they qualify as "curios or relics." But because the guns were given to South Korea by the U.S. government, they fall under a special category that requires permission from the State Department before any sale.
And the State Department, under noted gun-phobic Hillary Clinton, is exploiting that loophole for all it's worth. These are old rifles, of mainly historical and collector interest; they would add less than 1% to the total number of firearms in private possession in the US; but that's irrelevant. They're GUNS, and all the same old shrieking, gibbering, hysterical paranoia comes raging out in a technicolor torrent of the screaming meemies.
This is nothing more, and nothing less, than the Obama administration trying to throw a bone to the die-hard gun-control fringe of the Democratic Party without anyone else noticing. You would think that, by now, the Democrat Party would have learned that banging the gun-control drum loses elections. But I get the impression the Democrat Party has become as incapable of learning anything as the Republican Party. Just like the Republican party, they really don't have a reasoned platform any more; they have dogma, and it may not be questioned.
