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A man holds up a gun control sign as President Obama's motorcade passes in Minneapolis, Minnesota

The Civilian Disarmament Industrial Complex have adopted the phrase “gun violence prevention” to justify pretty much everything they do these days. No matter how inane the measures they propose, their position is that it’s all intended to reduce “gun violence.” That’s the marketing angle they’ve come up with to sell it to the American people. But the latest proposal by the White House to curb firearms ownership in the United States is proof positive – as if any more were needed – that they either have no idea what’s actually happening on the streets, or simply don’t care. It’s just a smokescreen intended as cover to ram through still more regulations designed to keep firearms out of the hands of the civilian population . . .

Let’s start with the worst part of Obama’s latest proposals: the ban on re-importing surplus firearms.

Branding something as “military grade” is the latest trend in gun control parlance. The idea is that by associating a particular firearm with use by the military, the gun control advocates can try to differentiate the “traditional hunting rifle” from the “deadly assault weapon.” Or as President Obama puts it, “weapons of war do not belong on our streets.” It’s the same “divide and conquer” approach that Feinstein took when she successfully pushed her original assault weapons ban legislation through congress, isolating owners of AR-15 rifles and counting on those who primarily self-identify as “hunters” to stay out of her way lest she come for their “sniper rifles” next.

“Military grade” is the new “assault rifle,” an attempt at branding some of the most popular firearms in use today as bringers of death and destruction as opposed to “sporting” firearms. It’s like 1994 all over again, except that while the players stayed the same, the language has been updated.

There are two things at play here. The first is that the president and his ilk are trying to take full advantage of the anti-military bias of the baby boomer generation. They grew up in the Vietnam era when those in the military were considered subhuman “baby killers.” It’s a bias they hold to this day, and anything associated with the military is similarly tainted in their eyes.

The second is that gun control advocates are broadening their aim, trying to associate anything military as being “evil” and making it easier to expand on the original list of “evil” rifles and “evil” features. Of course almost every single firearm was derived from a military design at some point in its lineage. Everything from the AR-15 to the m1903A1 to the Brown Bess muzzle loading black powder rifle was a “military” firearm at one point or another. Even the “hunting rifles” that Senator Feinstein was looking to exempt from her latest ban were all military firearms at one point way back when.

There’s ultimately no way to clearly differentiate between “sporting” and “military” firearms. They know this and that’s the reason they are going full-speed with their re-branding efforts. It makes the job of associating any firearm they deem objectionable as a weapon of war that much easier for future bans.

While that may be their end goal, the specific strategy of keeping Korean M1 Garand and M1 Carbine rifles out of the United States is of a piece with their the greater goal: prevent anything that could result in more gun owners. These rifles aren’t exactly what one would consider to be the first choice for gangsters. Study after study has shown that what today’s hip and happening gang banger is looking for is a small, concealable, cheap handgun. They want something that they can pack in case they run into a rival gang member. They’re not looking to make a 100-yard shot — they can’t even make 100-foot shots. In that sense, the M1 rifles that are waiting to be repatriated from the Korean peninsula are the exact opposite of what those perpetrating most “gun violence” today want.

Less than 2% of all firearms related crimes in the United States are committed with rifles of any kind. Statistically speaking, the president would be more effective at reducing the death rate among teenagers and young adults if he banned the import of foreign sports cars. And given the fact that these rifles (the M1 Garand and M1 Carbine) were specifically exempted BY NAME from Dianne Feinstein’s updated and expanded proposed assault weapons ban, a bill that sought to ban every “evil” firearm in a bid to reduce “gun violence,” one would be led to believe that these firearms were not considered dangerous at that time by the gun control advocates. The Queen of Confiscation herself didn’t have a problem with the ownership of these guns six months ago. Has some mass shooting taken place in the last six months involving an M1 Garand that I was not aware of?

The reason for the rifles being kept from importation, therefore, is clearly not out of any desire to reduce “gun violence.” Instead, what the president is trying to do is drive up the price of firearms and make it more difficult for new shooters to own one. What we see, time and time again in places where outright bans on firearms have failed, is that the next step is always to tax them to the point where the average person simply can’t afford them. That was the case in the 1930’s with the National Firearms Act and its taxation of all “dangerous” firearms, and it continues to be the case today with proposals for mandatory firearms insurance, a proposed 50% sales tax on firearms in some states and registration fees in excess of $200 in New York City. By increasing the total cost of owning a firearm, it makes it difficult for anyone other than elites to own them.

The lack of new M1 Garand rifles and M1 Carbine rifles also means that the 110 year old Civilian Marksmanship Program, one of President Teddy Roosevelt’s legacies, will shortly cease operations. They are tasked with supplying firearms for marksmanship training among the U.S. population, and their last source of new stock was the overseas stockpiles in Korea. Without that new stock, they will no longer be able to continue handing out rifles.

It also sets a dangerous precedent. If the president can ban the import of certain firearms because they are “weapons of war,” then what’s to stop him from shutting off the importation of any other firearms that are made overseas? Almost the entire Winchester line of firearms is made in Portugal and Japan. FN’s guns come from Belgium before final assembly in the US. Taurus is made in Brazil. What would happen if, by fiat, the president suddenly stopped the importation of all those firearms as well due to concerns over “gun violence?” Prices go up, availability goes down, and the supply of cheap firearms that keeps the gun culture alive quickly disappears. That’s it — game over. All because of a precedent set with a couple thousand WWII era rifles.

Speaking of the National Firearms Act, that brings me to the second part of Obama’s proposal. Question: when was the last time someone killed someone else with a legally owned and registered NFA item? I’ll let you think on it, because I sure as hell can’t remember a single instance (Dorner doesn’t count — they were indeed illegal in CA).

Gang bangers don’t bother to register their illegal firearms. It goes against their criminal nature, and violates their 5th amendment rights. Law abiding citizens, on the other hand, run that bureaucratic gauntlet every single day to obtain their legal SBR, SBS, machine guns and silencers. And not a single one has been used in a crime in the last decade. So the idea that by “cracking down” on the ATF’s scrutiny of NFA applications it will reduce “gun violence” is patently absurd. These so-called “dangerous weapons” have proven to be far less deadly than cars, or swimming pools, or even sharks.

The worst part about the proposed changes to the NFA transfer process is that we have just learned that they are planning to extend the “CLEO sign-off” requirement to all individuals named on a trust as well as individual transfers. The CLEO sign-off is a requirement that the Chief Law Enforcement Officer of a city or county physically put pen to paper and sign the ATF NFA paperwork saying that the person listed as the intended recipient is not a “bad guy.” It’s a throw-back from before the NICS system was in place, assuring the ATF examiners that the intended recipient is not a criminal. The way around needing to go groveling to your CLEO for their signature was to form a trust and submit the paperwork that way, since a corporation (trust) is not an actual person and therefore cannot undergo a background check.

These days the CLEO sign-off is redundant, since a NICS check would serve the same purpose. But the real reason that the CLEO sign-off remains a requirement is that it allows individual sheriffs to determine whether they want to allow their subjects to purchase these “dangerous weapons.” The previous CLEO for San Antonio outright refused to sign any NFA paperwork, creating a de facto ban in the city limits that contradicted state and federal law. By extending the CLEO sign-off to all forms of NFA transfers, Obama’s proposal lays the ground work to allow for these elected officials to begin denying their subjects their right to own these firearms, without any legislative or judicial oversight.

We don’t have a “gun violence” problem here in America — we have a “violence” problem. There’s a culture of violence that has become a way of life in the inner cities, glorified by pop culture and perpetuated by a lack of enforcement by the police. The Chicago police, on average, solve 26% of all murders in the city. That’s a 74% probability that if I shot someone in the head in Chicago there would be no adverse consequences for me whatsoever. With that kind of a shitty record, it’s no wonder why the murder rate is through the roof. It’s not the guns causing the murders, it’s the fact that there are no consequences. And it’s definitely not THESE guns, the ones that Obama is targeting with his latest gun control proposals.

So we can see that, in reality, the measures that Obama has introduced would have no impact whatsoever on “gun violence.” The guns that he’s targeting aren’t the kind being used in crimes, and wouldn’t have any impact on the inner-city murder rate. But what these measures do impact is the law abiding gun owner. It keeps new gun owners from being able to buy cheap rifles in the short term, and sets a dangerous precedent that could allow for broader importation bans in the future. And it further demonizes NFA items just at a time when the NFA stamps are flowing like fine champagne, threatening to re-open the campaign to permanently ban those items.

The fact that these specific actions are so minor in comparison to what was on the table less than a year ago is a testament to the power of the gun owning public in America. But the implications of these measures makes me think that a whole new front may be opening up in the war on our guns. Where legislation has failed, the president is trying to stifle gun ownership without their permission. And the scary part is that he might actually get away with it.

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87 COMMENTS

  1. I’d love to tie a bunch of these clowns to posts at 500 yards and let a bunch of Korean War vets take target practice. We were fighting communists then and we’re still fighting them now.

  2. “Of course almost every single firearm was derived from a military design at some point in its lineage.”

    I would argue that actually the inverse is true when it comes to small arms.

    “They want something that they can pack in case they run into a rival gang member.”

    ….and disposable.

    • That may be true for shotguns because shotguns never had widespread military use. But most modern rifles are based on the Mauser, Garand, Kalashnikov or Stoner designs. All originally developed for military use.

      The lever action was originally developed for civilian use but it was quickly adopted by the military, which contributed to it’s affordability and widespread use in the civilian market.

    • When their are only 5 people in attendance at the mayors against guns rallies, it isn’t hard to choose who you take pictures of.

    • Obama failed to get the legislation through he wanted so he could make a legacy for himself. So now he’s grasping for anything he can. just look how big of a pouty lip he had when he gave his post Manchin Toomey bill failure. I would say he’s trying to punish us for disagrreing with him, but how dare I say that about our glorious leader of united soviet states.

    • Just what is this “gun culture” I hear the Left spouting out? I had never even heard of the phrase “gun culture” until a few months ago. I think it is the Left playing word games again, as they seem to do constantly.

      When I was growing up, guns were no big deal. .22’s were sold at department stores like K-Mart. Guns were just tools or for recreation. Now the Left has the nation brainwashed into thinking guns are evil items like on that TV show Friday the 13th (the short lived TV show where items were cursed and demanded death, not the movies).

      My grandparents kept a rifle and shotgun in a corner in their kitchen. It was no big deal at all. They were just tools. Where my grandparents lived, every home had firearms as tools appropriate for the task. There, it was no more or less scary than having a screwdriver in the house. In addition, there were no murders or home invasion in their area either than anyone could recall, they were so rare. (My grandparents literally didn’t even have a lock on their back door.)

    • Easy, through handing out welfare, food stamps and anything else a hard working citizen should earn but dosnt have to.

    • You haven’t heard of Misinformed-Dipshits-R-Us?

      Oh, you should check them out. They will fill all of your narcissistic, low information voter needs.

  3. Note the release of this decision on a Friday before a long holiday weekend. Classic Washington DC tactics to suppress MSM coverage and dissemination to the public.

      • Yes you are right about MSM. In the couple of reports I heard (including Fox) this was clearly described as “the NFA LOOPHOLE “. Needless to say that was a phrase invented in the White House.

        • Probly he wants to get some credit for “doing something”, since most federal efforts at suppressing 2A rights fell flat last spring. Now he and the rest of the ruling class can say to the Moms Demanding Action that the administration is making it harder for criminals to get guns (lie). The fact that no one’s been shot with a Garand in 60 years matters not to them. They’re Demanding Action, and he’s gonna give it to them.

        • It’s always about closing “loopholes” with these people. You know what a loophole originally was? Basically a small hole in the walls of an improvised barrier or fortress that allowed the defenders to look out and shoot at their besiegers.

          Freedom is a loophole.

  4. We don’t have a “gun violence” problem here in America — we have a “violence” problem.

    We actually have neither. What we do have is a tyranny problem. The NSA reads your emails and monitors your phone calls. The local heat sends uniformed killers who are pleased as punch to shoot you and your dog just to serve a warrant for a minor infraction. The head assassin in the WH is about to save Syria by killing Syrians.

    I’m not worried about punks in the hood. I’m far more concerned about punks in Washington and the State House.

    • In Miller v US, we are told that if a gun isn’t military grade, we have no right to it. Goodbye to convenient shotguns. Now we are supposed to believe that we don’t need firearms if they are appropriate to the military of an earlier era, either. That doesn’t leave much, does it? And Lady Liberty is shrieking in pain as she gazes on NY harbor. And NYC says, “If you haven’t got a house in the Hamptons, lady, spare us your tears, you loser.”

      • The problem is that the people of the gun don’t harp on the Miller decision often or loudly enough.

        The rule of thumb: if it’s in use by the military then civilians should have access as well.

        That was the yardstick. That we don’t hammer it hammer and hammer it is our own fault!!

    • Off topic, I know, but what would you-realistically– have them do in Syria, Ralph?

      My answer, which is tell them all to fu*k off– is not the realistic one, by the way.

      France sent a terse letter from an aircraft carrier, I say let them deal with it.

      There are no good guys to support there.

      All that said, the Obama administration is in a tough spot here. I know for you, Obama can do no right, so what do you think they should do?

      • If it wasn’t for Mexico the .38 Super would have never survived. 9mm, .45acp = military weapons and are therefor banned in Mexico.

        • It’s a reach, gov, but finally you’ve convinced me Mexico has contributed to civilization. They acquit the brother of a president despite obvious massive graft. They reaffirm the establishment of a Spanish-descended elite. They ban the guns needed to fight off the cartels. And yet, despite their flaws, they sponsored the survival of the .38 Super, so that IDPA could be gamed. Being a remorseful 1911 devotee, I nonetheless salute Mexico.

  5. FUCK YOU, President Obama. For years I’ve wanted to just pin your failed attempts to save lives on good intentions + a lack of knowledge. But there isn’t any excuse for this.

    FUCK YOU, Mr. President.

  6. I think you are spot on, Nick. At first I thought these two executive orders were just another Obama Scam to make it look like he “did something” when Congress wouldn’t. Thinking on it overnight I began to realize it was a way to open a whole new avenue of attack on gun ownership pretty much as you describe, but you thought it out more deeply than I had. Thanks for the well-thought-out and written article.

  7. You all just don’t get it do you. This will actually work, let me explain how. Gun collectors will be unable to buy M-1 Garandes and Carbines. They will then spend those bucks buying AR-15s, M-1As, and other high end retail. The people who went out wanting an AR then have to settle for something else, and the trickle down effect keeps the gang bangers from getting their glocks at the local five and dime….. Oh, wait…

  8. The way I counter the “military grade” argument is to ask the other side to show me a firearm that is not “military grade”.

    It’s fun to watch them scramble to define ANY firearm that was not, at any time, considered a military grade.

    After that, accuse them of wanting to ban all guns.

    It really is great fun debating these idiots. It’s almost too easy.

    -ted

  9. Take heart fellow citizens. Obama and his ilk are playing the short game and they’re playing it quite poorly at that. What they are doing is driving more and more people into our fold. The facts bear this out. We may lose a battle here and there but that is to be expected. Look at just how much ground we’ve gained since 1994. Some form of concelaed carry in all 57 states now, the NRA now has over 5 million members and climbing, we’ve added many tens of millions of new firearms (many of them of military utility) to our civilian stockpiles, we’ve added countless billions of rounds of ammo to those same stockpiles, we’ve won major court cases with more wins in the pipeline, and the list goes on. A whole lot of people are wising up. Like the saying goes, culture eats strategy for lunch and in these dangerous times our culture is the one that makes the most sense to just about anyone that has two brain cells to rub together.

    Now might be a good time to re-read the Declaration of Independence. Here’s a brief passage to wet your appetite; “That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.”. The Civilian Industrial Disarmament Complex (CIDC) just doesn’t have the juice for a sustained campaign, despite all the money that Bloomberg, Soros, Joyce, Broad or any of the others can bring to bear. We’re voting with our feet, our wallets, our rock solid principles, our rationality and our blood sweat and tears. They think that they’ve got us surrounded, the poor spineless, pinko bastards. They will be brought to heel and they will rue the day. Remember, when democracy becomes tyranny, the rifleman still gets to vote.

    BTW, if you’ve got a spare hour and forty-five minutes to spare and you’re a fan of Bill Whittle, you owe it to yourself to watch this. I came across it today and was spellbound, as was his audience, and his audience was in Toronto of all places! It’s an hour and forty-five minutes of pure, unadulterated, weapons-grade awesome, eloquent rationality and insightful historical perspective. Take notes and pass it along if you please. Enjoy!! This is why we’ll win.



    • The 57 states comment is dangerous if you have a beverage in your hand!

      I like most of the stuff I’ve seen from Bill Whittle. I’ll have to watch some of the video.

    • “brief passage to wet your appetite”

      The correct word is “whet”, not “wet”.

      Sorry for being the spelling Nazi … thought you might like to know the correct spelling of that word. (I only learned about the word “whet” in the last few years so don’t feel bad.)

    • +1000 The only reason that the morons are doing this is because they know that they can’t do anything more. I do believe that these are the final death throes of the federal civilian disarmament movement. In the end, liberty will prevail and the tyrants will fail.

  10. Well said, mah man Leghorn. It put a little eloquence to all the angry thoughts in my head.

    And don’t beat yourself up on the NFA thing much- We were blindsided. Everything the ATF, its processors, etc has said the last year seemed to trend toward removing the CLEO signature. This kind of about face reeks of outside orders. The ATF ain’t our friends, but they hate extra busy work just like anyone else.

  11. It will be interesting to see of the next step is confiscation of all those M1s etc that have US property stamped on them.

  12. “Where legislation has failed, the president is trying to stifle gun ownership without their permission. And the scary part is that he might actually get away with it.”

    Even with a broken system our voices were loud enough that legislation “failed”, though I’d say that legislation doesn’t fail when it heeds it’s constituents. However this is yet another stone cast into the pond that clearly shows what the statist agenda truly is. How people cannot see the end game, especially at this stage in the play, is beyond me. Emotion will only take you so far, at some point logic and reason have to come to bear, and I truly hope that logic and reason come to bear arms…

  13. So an Egyptian Rolling Block couldn’t be imported now? After all It’s Military Grade. So’s a Brown Bess, for that matter.

    • Wouldn’t this apply to Mosin-Nagants as well? That is something that we should spell out to the world loud and clear — the Obummer administration’s new policy objective includes banning 100 year old Russian rifles because they are “dangerous, military grade weapons”.

    • From what I understand, this executive order only prevents the re importation of guns that were made in the U.S. and exported. (Like the Garands in Korea.)

      • Yes, initially, but if he gets away with this, he can expand it little by little (or the next anti-civilian gun ownership President can). This might be just “testing the waters”.

  14. Went out this morning and bought a spare ak47 clone… what do u think he will target next if not the ‘terrorist guns’

  15. Obama, for reasons he has never expressed, appears to believe that the intent of the Second Amendment is satisfied as long as the People have access to hunting and recreational use firearms–and, grudgingly, handguns. But he believes that the People have no “need” for “military type” “military style “military grade” or generic “assault” weapons, that these have no place in a civilized society, and morally should be banned. I would like to hear the rationale, because it is hard to imagine that it is based on logic and not emotion. Except on the rare rampage occasion, these weapons simply do not present a significant risk of harm or criminal use. And it is indisputable that the militias in their day were armed with “military grade” armaments.

  16. The 2nd amendment protects “commonly used” firearms; there’s got to be hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of Mosins, Garands, m1 carbines, etc. throughout the U.S..

    This’ll be stopped, right?

    Right?

    (Please)

  17. Not gun violence, but domestic terrorism called GANGS. Homeland security should use some of the horded ammo they have stored away, and fight the terrorists we have going in our own cities not overseas.

  18. As per usual, Obama is punishing law abiding citizens and enabling criminals…. this is getting redundant and embarrassing. Again.

    As if the term “law-abiding” isn’t explanation enough of how moronic all of these preventative measures are when they only affect non-criminals.

    This is like the most ineffective version of Pre-Crime I’ve seen. You can’t stop people from flipping the switch from sane to insane or criminal. And that’s all this anti-gun violence crap is geared to supposedly prevent — that random person that goes from law-abiding citizen to mass shooter. By limiting weapons of a certain type, they hope to decrease the odds of a crazy person having that specific weapon? Crazy is crazy and they use anything to get the job done. If they can’t get a gun, they’ll get a knife or a bomb.

    Stop with the ineffective pre-crazy counter measures — you can’t ever predict when a normal person will go nuts. We already have measures in place to stop the mentally ill from purchasing weapons, that’s enough.

    The rest is just policing ourselves and our relatives and making common sense decisions about weapon storage…. it’s not that difficult to comprehend.

    We don’t need the govt. banning weapons willy nilly thank you very much.

  19. You are sounding like a stuck record. All this whining is getting old. Do something and propose a counter point and submit to your congressman. All this whining does nothing.

    • My Congressmen are of New York state. I’d have better luck walking up to a grizzly bear and trying to make friends with it.

  20. Is there a stockpile of M16s that someone was about to import and market to all of the gun trust holders?
    I just can’t believe they give a damm about Garands.

    • The government has to retain the M16s to dole out to police agencies, both federal and local, to keep the people down. The thing is, I would rather have a Garand than an M16 in a push come to shove problem.

  21. Wow I feel sooooo much safer now that this has happened. There have been so many shootings using Garands I cannot fathom any other decision. OK, enough stupid sarcasm.
    This is complete idiocy. Of course it is in keeping with the administration we have. This knucklehead (Obummer) will continue to chip away at our freedoms with his kingly proclamations until we are serfs again.He is much more dangerous than ALL the M1s ever brought back to this country. Unseat this pretender.

  22. I think the President is spot on. The last time I drove through SE DC everybody and his brother had M-1s slung over the shoulders. 40% of them were bought at gun shows with no background checks.

  23. The sign in the photo: “Ban Private Ownership of Military Weapons”
    Ban = from the peaceful and compliant public
    Private = them, not the state
    Military = designed for use on human targets, tactical use
    Weapons = guns

    “Discourage the willing and peaceful public, not us, to own guns designed for human targets.”
    I think this can be translated to “Discourage guns for self defense.” Is this accurate?

  24. 2014 elections. . . . . focus on the senate. even if you are a democrat, vote republican. take away control of the senate so he cannot put in new supremes and wait the bastard out.

  25. So wait. “Military Grade” means retired service weapons, yeah? Which means that the scope will be expanded to include clones and derivatives. Which means that at some point, the M1911 is going to be “Military Grade”.

    I see what you did there, O.

    • Since the Marines have chosen the 1911 as their next service sidearm the 1911 isn’t military grade it’s once again a modern weapon of war. We have to ban it for the children.

  26. Remington 700, 30.06 springfield w/3×9 scope. Beats .223 every time. Though I wouldn’t mind having an M1 just for fun.

    • My Remington Model 750 chambered in 30-06 with an after market 20 round magazine equals the M-1A and beats the AR-15. But like you I would jump at the chance to buy an M-1

  27. “The lack of new M1 Garand rifles and M1 Carbine rifles also means that the 110 year old Civilian Marksmanship Program, one of President Teddy Roosevelt’s legacies, will shortly cease operations. They are tasked with supplying firearms for marksmanship training among the U.S. population, and their last source of new stock was the overseas stockpiles in Korea. Without that new stock, they will no longer be able to continue handing out rifles.”

    This is false. The CMP is not an importer, and were not the ones looking to buy the Korean rifles. The CMP gets their rifles from the government. Lend/Lease rifles that were returned to the United States by our allies, not sold to us. The government is still allowed to re-import US surplus rifles under this new executive order.

  28. Would love to head butt the puss with the Obummer stocking cap and the insanely stupid sign. Jackoff thinks an AR is full auto.

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