The Obama Administration is anti-gun. You can try to deny it, but The Shooting Wire details how they are working against the interests of gun owners in an incremental manner.
First step:
…the State Department notified Canadian authorities of plans to issue an export ban on “military caliber ammunition” to Canada. That proposed action would prevent the sales of .223, .308 and other military calibers.
When Canadian authorities protested – and notified several members of the American media, the U.S. State Department suddenly went silent. But they quietly reinstated other rules and charges firearms exports-retroactively.
Second step:
Last Friday, the anglers and hunters were notified that the National Park Service planned to make all lands under their control totally lead-free by 2010. No lead in ammo or fishing tackle.
Finally, there is what The Shooting Wire calls “A very disturbing report that points to a very real assault on ammunition supplies.”
The Department of Defense has issued a directive that bans the sale of military brass to ammunition re-manufacturers.
Without that brass, a very large dent is put into civilian ammunition supplies.
New Defense Reutilization and Marketing Service (DRMS) requirements call for the “mutilation of shell casings”. Mutilation, incidentally, is the destruction of the property “to the extent that prevents its reuse or reconstruction”.
Government officials will determine what constitutes “sufficient mutilation” but it’s safe to say that it will no longer be suitable for remanufacturing.
“They’ll go after the ammunition.” I’ve heard it so many times, it’s almost cliche’. But it seems to be an all too dangerous truth.
This is something we should all be discussing with our representatives in Washington. Here’s what The Shooting Wire says to do:
All of us need to start contacting our elected representatives -and telling them, quite directly, that we’re not going to put up with a move that not only curtails access to ammunition (nearly all .223 and .308 manufacturing capacity is tied up to satisfy the needs of the military) for civilians – but wastes taxpayers’ money turning usable surplus into scrap metal.
Reducing the ammo brass to scrap reduces the value of the metal/surplus by nearly eighty percent. It also means that recast brass – in shippable form – may be shipped to China, one of the largest markets for U.S. metals on the world market.
If this is allowed to go unchallenged, anyone who owns a modern or traditional rifle in .223 or .308 calibers will see the impact- probably sooner than later.
…
Today, it’s important that every reader take time to notify Congress that we – taxpayers – oppose this latest DOD move- and all the other not-so-subtle moves against gun owners.
You can contact your elected officials in Washington by going to this webpage http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml and following the links to your respective Senator or Congressman.
One key member of the United States Senate is Montana’s Senator Max Baucus, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee. Baucus could make a call to the Pentagon and let them know their budgets might be reexamined if they don’t reconsider this latest directive. At that point, the directive might labeled a “misunderstanding” and rescinded.
But it is important that we keep pressure on Congress.
If that means phone calls, e-mails, and letters, let’s get that done. If that doesn’t produce results, we need to look beyond symbolic gestures like sending tea bags or bringing hundreds of thousands of gun owners to Washington and state capitols to protest.
These are, indeed, uncertain times. But the time for uncertain actions may be passing.
There is only so much America will take. We are not a nation of sheep. Read what was written above, and consider these words from Chuck Norris:
How much more will Americans take? When will enough be enough? And, when that time comes, will our leaders finally listen or will history need to record a second American Revolution?
The liberties that have been taken withthe Constitution didn’t happen overnight. The state America is in today is the result of years of encroachment by the federal government. It’s a bit like boiling a frog. You don’t throw the frog into a pot already boiling. You put it in cool water and slowly bring it to a boil.
The only difference is that Americans will jump out of the pot, and they will be heavily armed. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, but if it does, then remember the words of Thomas Jefferson:
What country before ever existed a century & a half without a rebellion? & what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon & pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots & tyrants. It is it’s natural manure.
Pray it doesn’t come to that. It will be a civil war to make the last one seem tame.
UPDATE:
Stand down folks, stand down. It’s all over:
- Prior to 11/2008, Demil B items required no mutilation for sale to the public. That policy changed in November, but several exceptions were granted. Expended munitions brass was one of those given a waiver.
- Enter the new administration. Since Demil B category items had been given a broad, general label as “national security sensitive” someone above the DRMS (likely in the DLA) reviewed the policy and immediately went with a CYA policy and yanked all exemptions. No thoughts or considerations were given to the implications of this policy change, but this directive was issued to DOD Surplus effective immediately last week.
- S*** storm blows up as a result. In particular, the letters, phone calls, and emails to our legislators, the media, and anyone else who would listen caused this policy to be review post haste.
- As of this morning our company was informed that expended munitions brass will now be reclassified as Demil Q –– which requires no mutilation unless sold to a foreign country.
There you have it, as the Exurban League writes, “No malice, just some mid-level bureaucrat making a really dumb decision.”
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