What’s The Obama Administration Up To On Firearms?

U.S.A. –-(Ammoland.com)- The Obama Administration’s record on firearms is curiously mixed. On the one hand, the President deserves an award – which he is unlikely to receive or want – as America’s greatest gun salesman. All of his musings about gun control have gone hand in hand with boom times for the firearms industry.

Imports have surged. In 2008, the U.S. imported 1.468 million handguns and 538,000 rifles. Last year, we imported 2.423 million handguns and 708,000 rifles – though remarkably, imports in 2015 were down from their peak 2013 levels. Much the same is true of manufacturing: up from 4.5 million firearms in 2008 to 10.8 million in 2013. Exports are still below the levels of the early 1990s, but even here, the story over the Obama years is one of growth: 228,000 firearms exported in 2008, 393,000 in 2013.

Finally, interest in items covered by the National Firearms Act – including automatic weapons, suppressors, and certain shotguns – has skyrocketed. Before 2006, fewer than 350,000 forms processed annually. In 2014, that number exceeded 1.37 million. This remarkable record undoubtedly has many causes, including concern about terrorism. But the one thing all of these numbers have in common is that the growth correlates well with President Obama’s rise, his re-election in 2012, and the approach of the 2016 election, which former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton appeared poised to win.

But then there is another side of the story. Over the past several years, the Obama Administration’s actions – or, in one case, non-action – regarding firearms exports have been, at best, vexatious. At worst, they are more than vexatious: they are commercially damaging, bad for our national security, and inconsistent with previous pledges and regulations.

Most recently, in November 2016, the State Department’s Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC) confirmed, in response to a request for a ruling from the FireArms Import/Export Roundtable (FAIR) Trade Group, that it would treat parts and components for firearms as though they are, for the purposes of congressional notification, actually firearms.

DDTC argues that, since the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) does not define “firearm,” it is free to define the term as it pleases. DDTC’s interpretation is in direct conflict with the regulations and their own published industry guidance. Coming after a July ruling by the DDTC on what constitutes firearms “manufacturing,” a ruling that met with vehement industry and Congressional protests, the November decision continues a pattern of regulatory overreach based on the AECA.

One problem with the Administration’s approach is that it is completely arbitrary. Christopher Stagg, an international trade and regulatory attorney who served as Senior Advisor with the DDTC from 2010-2013, commented to me that “Seven years ago, the Seventh Circuit unanimously admonished DDTC over its constitutionally dubious practices of carrying out and enforcing secret laws, which that court noted were akin to the behavior of a totalitarian regime. . . . It is certainly deeply troubling that the DDTC now tacitly acknowledges it secretly disavows publicly-noticed, unambiguous regulations.”

About Ted R. Bromund, Ph.D.:

Ted R. Bromund studies and writes on British foreign and security policies and Anglo-American relations as senior research fellow in The Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. He also explains why America must defend and advance its unique leadership role in the world. Visit: http://blog.heritage.org/author/tbromund/ to read more.

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