“In an executive order the Obama Administration has secretly blocked the re-importation of American made M-1 Garand and Carbine rifles being stored in South Korea,” the National Association for Gun Rights (NAGR) asserts. “These rifles were used by the US military during the Korean War and left there after the war was over. With one stroke of his pen, he by-passed the legislative process and banned nearly a million American made rifles by executive fiat.” Yes, well, a few points of clarification . . .
The blocked sale (technically not a ban) wan’t a secret; it just went unremarked and unreported for a while. The U.S. never used the M-1 rifles in question; they were part of a lend-lease deal for the South Koreans, who stored the unused firearms in case of war.
Although it’s true that the State Department’s rationale for blocking the sale is inherently preposterous, the Obama administration wasn’t doing an end-run on democracy. They have the legal power to stop the importation deal. And the South Koreans have 857,470 spare rifles. That’s 142,530 weapons shy of a million.
Close enough? As we mentioned before, this “issue” is a storm in a teacup. It’s not as if the American firearms market is hurting for rifles. Does it really matter if endless crates of broken-ass Garands flood the U.S. market, depressing rifle prices, or not?
They are antiques of historical interest, particularly for those who, unlike Clinton and her husband, served this country honorably in America’s foreign wars.
That’s a misrepresentation; historians have plenty of M-1 Garands. As for the cheap shot at Clinton, OK, that’s funny. Still, NAGR should choose its battles more carefully. The average gun owner isn’t going to see the [potential] destruction of hundreds of thousands of defunct South Koren weapons as an assault on their rights. Good for fund-raising. Bad for the brand.
Anyway, here’s an alternative theory on the motivation for the blocked sale, from commentator slobo:
Have you noticed that a huge quantity of brand new SKS’s have flooded the market, as not seen in thirty years. Where do you think those SKS’s were imported from? China? For sure. Importing the M1 Garands from South Korea would infringe on China’s ability to sell their SKS’s to the American public. This issue has nothing to do with the American public arming themselves, it is purely economic.
If not China, something. Not gun control per se, methinks.