(Pictured: Russian President Vladimir Putin shows off AK-47’s now banned in the United States)
A new round of sanctions by the United States targets Russia’s financial, energy and defense sectors.
The Executive Order signed on Wednesday by President Barack Obama is being called “evil” by Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev and bans, among other things, the sale of all Russian-made AK-47 semi-automatic rifles, Saiga-12 shotguns, and all other firearms and parts manufactured by Kalishnikov Concern.
According to the U.S. Treasury Department, Americans will still be able to purchase AK-47’s in the secondary market, as long as Kalishnikov Concern does not have a direct financial interest in the transaction.
If a U.S. person is in possession of a Kalashnikov Concern product that was bought and fully paid for prior to the date of designation (i.e., no payment remains due to Kalashnikov Concern), then that product is not blocked and OFAC sanctions would not prohibit the U.S. person from keeping or selling the product in the secondary market so long as Kalashnikov Concern has no interest in the transaction. (US Treasury)
The Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control released a statement advising concerned U.S. gun owners that, while they can still sell existing stocks of AK-47’s and other firearms on the importation ban list, new purchases from the Russian-based manufacturers by private or commercial gun interests have been outlawed.
According to Kurt Nimmo of Infowars the President’s unilateral move by way of Executive Order could usher in a new era of gun restrictions across the United States without Congressional oversight, “The criminalization of an entire line of foreign manufactured firearms is possible under ‘national emergency powers’ and there is no appeal process.”
Last year President Obama vowed to push forward on gun control with Congressional approval, a promise that prompted Americans to clear retail store shelves of ammunition and drive the price of firearms like AK-47’s and AR-15 semi-automatic rifles to double or triple within just a few months. Within a week of vowing to act independently of an elected Congress, the Obama administration began exploring methods to completely ban the importation of ammunition, magazines and gun accessories from international manufactures.
Earlier this year, during the opening salvos of the Ukrainian conflict, it was believed that Obama was implementing a ban on ammunition originating from Russia and Russian-friendly states. Russian manufacturers responded to the rumors by claiming they were not aware of any such restrictions, though it is clear that they are now in the Obama administration’s sights.
The targeting off ammunition through heavy taxation has been a strategy that the anti-gun lobby has tried in states like Illinois. And, in November of last year the US government shut down America’s last lead smeltering plant because of new EPA regulations, making it nearly impossible for US ammunition manufacturers to source their raw materials from the United States.
With sanctions now targeting the defense sectors of foreign companies whose governments are friendly to Russia and no ability to produce lead-based ammunition in the U.S., the time is ripe for the Obama administration to circumvent the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment altogether by taking Executive actions under the guise of national security concerns..
With the stroke of a pen President Obama has banned tens of thousands of firearms. Under such an approach the President could effectively target a wide variety of gun-related industries including the raw materials suppliers and parts manufacturers. This could potentially have the effect of not just banning importation of firearms, but making it nearly impossible for US-based manufacturers of firearms, ammunition and accessories to produce their products if any of their raw materials are sourced outside of the United States.
The Obama administration has already begun targeting legally operated retail suppliers of firearms by classifying them as high-risk businesses like pornography, which has lead to their transaction processing and bank accounts being shut down by some of America’s top banking institutions.
The attack against the Second Amendment continues on all fronts and the end goal is a total ownership ban of the some 300 million firearms held in the possession of law abiding American citizens.