Obama urged to ban imports of military-style guns

[Jgarrick]

This discussion thread was locked as off-topic by ucrdem (a host of the Latest Breaking News forum).

Source: WGRZ.com

WASHINGTON – Nearly 100 congressional Democrats are asking President Barack Obama to take executive action to close loopholes in a ban on the importation of military-style firearms. In separate letters sent to the White House over the last week, a dozen Senate Democrats and 82 House Democrats urged the president to use his broad authority under the 1968 Gun Control Act to impose a stricter ban. Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer of New York are among the Senate letter's signatories. Fifteen of New York's 27 House members signed the other letter, including Reps. Louise Slaughter of Fairport, Nita Lowey of Harrison and Eliot Engel of the Bronx.

The ban on importing military-style weapons began during the George H.W. Bush administration. Bush took action following the 1989 shooting deaths of five children and the wounding of 30 others at Cleveland Elementary School in Stockton, Calif., by gunman Patrick Purdy, who used an imported AK-47 rifle. The ban continued under President Bill Clinton but lapsed under President George W. Bush, according to Engel, who initiated the House letter. Engel said he has lobbied unsuccessfully for the stricter ban for the last decade and urged Obama to take action beginning shortly after the president took office in 2009. "I really am at a loss to know why the administration hasn't implemented it,'' Engel said Thursday. White House spokesman Keith Maley had no comment.

Obama did issue an executive order last August denying requests to re-import surplus military firearms such as M-1s that had been shipped to allies such as South Korea. That order doesn't cover foreign-made firearms. "These military-style firearms are not prohibited under the current import ban, even though they are functionally equivalent to prohibited rifles with a military origin,'' the Senate letter said. The Senate letter also says a 1998 Treasury Department guidance issued during the Clinton administration "allows foreign-made firearms to be imported into the United States without military features, even if the firearms have the capacity to fire multiple time in quick succession without the need to reload and can easily have military features attached.''

Citing research by the Violence Policy Center, the lawmakers say imported military-style firearms were involved in 64 percent of the 2,528 firearms prosecutions in 2011 and 2012 in which the gun type was identified. That's up from 18 percent between 2008 and 2010. The Violence Policy Center data covers the limited number of cases in which details of the weapons was publicly available. The Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms has a comprehensive database that tracks the make of guns used to commit crimes, but Congress has barred the agency from releasing that data to the public. It can be shared only with law enforcement agencies. ATF does not keep data on imports of military-style weapons. But it says imports of rifles, shotguns and handguns almost tripled, from 1.63 million in 2002 to 4.84 million in 2012.

Read more: http://www.wgrz.com/story/news/politics/2014/04/11/obama-urged-to-ban-imports-of-military-style-guns/7589459/

[paleotn]

1. Window dressing.....

...until we finally get serious and ban all semi-auto firearms. And when will that be? Probably never, so let the American blood bath continue.

[MicaelS]

3. And that will never happen. n/t

[Jgarrick]

4. While there are a few local restrictions on magazine capacity, a general ban in semi-autos will

never happen, thankfully.

[hack89]

2. A huge boon to US gun manufactures

it would be interesting to see where their campaign contributions are going.

[Jgarrick]

5. Absolutely. "What, I can't get an AK clone from Romania?"

"I guess I'll just have to settle for a domestically made AR-15, then."

What an idiotic proposal.

[EX500rider]

6. "military-style guns" WTF?!? Who cares what "style" a gun is? They all shoot bullets. n/t

[Jgarrick]

7. Ah, but they look scary. Eek!

[hollowdweller]

8. I don't think you should ban guns that have collector value

Like M1's are historical. I think guns that are NOT military but that are made to look like military ones are the ones that should be restricted..

For instance you can't own a real, surplus AK47 unless you apply for a special license because it's fully automatic. However you can buy a AK semi auto which is not really a collectors item.

[Jgarrick]

9. Why ban guns based on their looks?

[dookers]

10. This wont change anything

Since alot of foreign manufacturers are starting to build factories in the US. Most of the AKs in the US are built with domestic made parts. Alot of them have more US parts than foreign parts.

[ucrdem]

11. Consensus of LBN hosts is that this is not LBN.

Over 12 hours old. Please consider reposting in Gun Control & RKBA. Thanks for understanding!