New Gun Control from the President

Old West lawmen (click here) routinely carried a short, double-barreled shotgun on walking patrol, and it was the weapon of choice for stagecoach security riders. The “sawed-off” is far from being a museum piece, however. For example, mechanized infantry in Iraq have used short shotguns to prevent suicide bombers from clambering onto moving tanks and APCs prior to detonating their explosives.

No longer without registration and special permit. Congratulations to the growing movement of responsible gun ownership. Great work.

Building on the 23 Executive Actions the President and Vice President Unveiled Last January (click here)

• Last December, the President asked the Vice President to develop a series of recommendations to reduce gun violence. On January 16, 2013, they released these proposals, including 23 executive actions. With the first Senate confirmation of an ATF Director on July 31, 2013, the Administration has completed or made significant progress on 22 of the 23 executive actions. The new executive actions unveiled today build on this successful effort. 

Closing a Loophole to Keep Some of the Most Dangerous Guns Out of the Wrong Hands

• Current law places special restrictions on many of the most dangerous weapons, such as machine guns and short-barreled shotguns.  These weapons must be registered, and in order to lawfully possess them, a prospective buyer must undergo a fingerprint-based background check.
•  However, felons, domestic abusers, and others prohibited from having guns can easily evade the required background check and gain access to machine guns or other particularly dangerous weapons by registering the weapon to a trust or corporation.  At present, when the weapon is registered to a trust or corporation, no background check is run.  ATF reports that last year alone, it received more than 39,000 requests for transfers of these restricted firearms to trusts or corporations.
• Today, ATF is issuing a new proposed regulation to close this loophole.  The proposed rule requires individuals associated with trusts or corporations that acquire these types of weapons to undergo background checks, just as these individuals would if the weapons were registered to them individually.  By closing this loophole, the regulation will ensure that machine guns and other particularly dangerous weapons do not end up in the wrong hands.

Keeping Surplus Military Weapons Off Our Streets

• When the United States provides military firearms to its allies, either as direct commercial sales or through the foreign military sales or military assistance programs, those firearms may not be imported back into the United States without U.S. government approval.  Since 2005, the U.S. Government has authorized requests to reimport more than 250,000 of these firearms. Hello!!! Who was in the Executive Branch? This is crony politics. Very dangerous chrony politics. 
• A quarter of a million military weapons were brought back into the USA. People were set up to purchase these weapons by stating they were necessary for self-defense. Get for real here. If every weapon was sold for $2000, which I am quite sure they sold for more than that, the sales to gun shops was $500,000,000. 
• A half of billion US traded hands within the gun industry and don't forget the original sales by the manufacturers overseas. That is a lot of money. 
• The folks that purchased these weapons didn't have them before 2005. No one is going to tell me those people could not have improved their lifestyles and financial security if they didn't buy the guns. There is no need for this. This is all part of the faux economy of Bush and the Right Wing still today. Not anymore. Those guns kill innocent people and empower nothing that isn't already available otherwise.
  
• Today, the Administration is announcing a new policy of denying requests to bring military-grade firearms back into the United States to private entities, with only a few exceptions such as for museums.  This new policy will help keep military-grade firearms off our streets.
• These weapons were facilitated through the foreign military sales or military assistance programs. That means there was a relationship with the USA to allow the sales in the first place. Then the recipient of those sales turned around and decided to make money from the USA by selling them back to the consumers in the country. Not only that, but, the guns are paid for by ASSISTANCE programs to facilitate the sales from the manufacturers in the first place. So, basically, if the foreign entities wanted to get rid of the military weapons they should rightfully have simply returned them to the consumers because taxpayer monies already paid for them during the transaction with manufacturers.
• This abuse raises the question as to whether the USA weapons programs are at all necessary AND should they be funded by USA taxpayer dollars. This is abuse that has killed Americans. 
• These are questions for elections. Will legislators allow such abuse in their capacity to vote for legislation?