Why?

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This is unheard of:

US halts exports of most civilian firearms for 90 days

The U.S. has stopped issuing export licenses for most civilian firearms and ammunition for 90 days for all non-governmental users, the Commerce Department said on Friday, citing national security and foreign policy interests.

The Commerce Department did not provide further details for the pause, which also includes shotguns and optical sights, but said an urgent review will assess the “risk of firearms being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, violate human rights, or fuel criminal activities.”

The Commerce Department declined to comment beyond the posting on its website.

The halt covers most of the guns and ammunition that could be purchased in a U.S. gun store, said Johanna Reeves, a lawyer who specializes in export controls and firearms with the law firm Reeves & Dola in Washington.

Reeves said she had not seen the Commerce Department take such a sweeping action like this before. “For sure they have individual country policies – but nothing like this,” she said.

Export licences for Ukraine and Israel, as well as some other close allies, will be exempted from the temporary halt in exports.

Why would they do this now? A concern about guns and ammunition getting into the hands of Hamas? An attempt to hurt U.S. manufactures?

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11 thoughts on “Why?”

  1. They’re giving domestic firearm manufacturers and exporters no other options but ti sell to Ukraine and Israel. If you’re in the business of firearm exports, that’s what you do, or you fold up shop for a bit. If you start exporting to those two, momentum will keep it happening.

    I’m paranoid enough to think that might be the point of the Third Way corporatists that are keeping Americans from having the free market they want and deserve.

    • Bingo. It’s about making sure the demands of Israel are met. They’ve had strict gun control for a while, and most Israelis don’t own one; they are under 8 guns per person from what I can tell. The chickens of gun control coming home to roost. The US government, being heavily influence if not outright controlled by Jewish interests, will seek to arm them up a bit.

      • “….they are under 8 guns per person from what I can tell….”

        8 guns per person, or 8 persons per gun? Big difference, and from what I’ve read it’s the latter, and a great deal worse than 8 per gun.

        Which brings up something to consider; if you’ve never built an AR-15 from scratch, now would be a good time to start; you’ll learn a lot about ARs in the process, and, at some expense, acquire quality tools which will serve you well for future maintainance and upgrades. It will also give you a spare AR, and potentially, one to hand out should “conditions warrant.”

        Pro Tip: Build a “Go Kit” for that spare AR – musette bag with 6-8 full magazines, a small bottle of lube, old toothbrush, bore snake, etc, and keep the rifle zeroed, oiled and ready to go. “Handing out” a bare rifle may be budget-friendly and altruistic but of less advantage than also providing at least minimal functional support for it. A simple 4X crosshair scope adds functionality for the under-skilled and the plastic Magpul BUIS shows up on sale frequently.

        Pro Tip 2: Always store it with an empty 10 round magazine inserted; takes up very little additonal space in the Storage Container, keeps dust, dirt, etc out of the mag well, and while certainly not as useful as a standard capacity 30 rounder, you’ll never have a single shot AR-15 if you’re forced to “grab ‘n’ go.”

    • Thank you. But that doesn’t really give any more useful information.

      I would like to know the specific countries they don’t want firearms shipped to. And why not those countries?

      It is all very vague.

  3. It’s a good time to be an arms dealer in Ukraine or Israel. Just ship the newly arrived arms to any country you want at huge mark up. No ITAR worries at all.

  4. It has got to be connected to gun control at home in some way. Few other countries have widespread (legal) civilian ownership. There is no government, to my knowledge, the issues semiauto rifles to the military. Police and militia could be an exception. The world is awash with weapons of non-US origin, mostly full auto or even crew served, available on the black market. My best guess is that the intent is a financial hit on US manufacturers.

  5. Maybe they want some guns and ammo left out there in the civilian market to arm their friends visiting from the south?
    Back during one of the of the crisis times I was working at the gun shop. The que for a background check was pushing over an hour at the state level, (Oregon background check system.)
    Someone that had obviously just crossed the border and could not speak english, had his friend help him fill out the form. Zipped through and passed his BGC in under 45 seconds. Paid cash for his AR and ammo. And was out the door inside 30 minutes.
    Why? He had a state ID and no criminal record. No one bother with the fact that he had NO record of being in this country at all. He just wasn’t a criminal as far as records went.
    So, So. Oregon got a shiny new, well armed pot grower for the cartels.

    I’m sure Biden and crew have their reasons, which could be as simple as thinking their reducing the amount of ammo in the world.
    Or just to piss us off.
    Kind of like the new frame and receiver rules. You know, clarifying the rules by expanding them 196 pages.
    In my aged and impoverished mental state. I only have so much brain cells activity I’m willing allocate to what Biden and crew thinks will work, and then their actions that follow.

  6. This from the crew who left 80 Billion +(hell nobody knows the actual figure and the DOD ain’t talkin’) worth of mil-grade weaponry for the taliban in afgan. The “Big Guy” probably is trying to stifle the competing sales for a while to increase his 10%.

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