South Korea wants to surplus a bunch of M1 Garands and M1 Carbines that have been gathering dust in warehouses around the R.O.K. Â The Obama Administration obviously thinks we’ll shoot ourselves, or sell them to terrorists if we are allowed to get our hands on them:
“The U.S. insisted that imports of the aging rifles could cause problems such as firearm accidents. It was also worried the weapons could be smuggled to terrorists, gangs or other people with bad intentions,†the official told The Korea Times.
“We’re still looking into the reason why the U.S. administration is objecting to the sale of the rifles and seeking ways to resolve the problems raised,†he said.
The Obama Administration has no legal authority to prevent the importation of these rifles. Under a provision of the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986, rifles and shotguns that are Curios and Relics are permitted to be imported, the “sporting purposes” language in the 1968 Gun Control Act be damned. That’s probably why they are resorting to back channel pressure to prevent the South Korean government from selling them as surplus.
This goes to show that the Obama Administration may be unwilling to take us on head on, but they are willing to screw us through the back channel.
“willing to screw us through the back channel.”
Pun intended, I presume?
:)
The idea that gangs who gravitate towards M1 Garands is absurd. I’d like to see a reporter take the administration to task on this. They would look so ridiculously stupid.
Although I have to admit it would be a gang showing some panache to use M1s in a drive-by. “Boom! Boom! Boom! Ping!”. At least then the media reporting it would be accurately using the term “high powered rifle” correctly.
Even then they would call the weapon an AK-47. Just American made.
Since C&R fireatms are legally importable no matter what preference the administration shows, could this not have the effect of price controlling? I ask because I seem to recall hearing that the UMCP can/is beginning to import these, and if that’s true they can probaby get them at a good price since there are no other customers…
Am I wrong?
since the Garands are still legaly on “loan” from the US, we will not be seeing any of them here in America. At least as long as this administration is in charge. not a snowflake chance in hell…
At least you can legitimately say the prospective owners of these weapons have clips of ammo when doing a junk-on-the-bunk display :)
Sound sliek something to get Congress hot & bothered about, to be honest.
The administration has shown its willingness to engage in lawless actions to enforce its ideology, as when it reinstated the gulf drilling ban despite a clear court decision to the contrary. The good news is that the more of these kind of things they do, the bigger the eventual ass-biting will be (though I’m convinced it’s already a lame-duck presidency)
Too bad the obama administration doesn’t trust US as much as Pres Harry Truman trusted our Grandfathers & Fathers!
The rifles belong to the ROK, but under the terms of the assistance program that gave them the rifles, if they sell them, they have to remit the money from the sale back to us. Their other options are to keep them, or to give them back to the US government (whereupon they would probably wind up with the CMP). Same deal with the MAP rifles from Denmark, Greece, West Germany, etc.
For once, the government was looking out for our (their) money.
Enh – I think it a better use of the fisc to dump them into the CMP than take the wholesale price and run. IIRC you still pay for the CMP weapons; and probably enough over the wholesale cost to cover the shipping cost.
Isn’t the M1 Carbine still considered an illegal “assault weapon” over in New Jersey? I recall that the M1 Garand was one of the many semi-auto rifles some of these gun-hater Democrats in the US Congress wanted to add to their AWB2 bill over a year ago.
Yes, the M1 carbine is banned by name in NJ.
Now that I think about it, the South Korean government would be better off selling the rifles to their own people.
When I heard Ron Paul’s idea of pulling our troops out of other countries, I liked it…except that I didn’t like the idea of leaving those vacuums out there, ready to suck in tyranny. I would much rather declare that we’re leaving in four years, and recommend that they arm their unorganized militias during that time. We could even offer some training!
Hrm…and I was looking foreward to picking one of these guys up, too.
I would expect that the Korean.gov would have to remit the money no matter who they sold them to – their citizens or a foreign power
“Under a provision of the Firearms Owners Protection Act of 1986, rifles and shotguns that are Curios and Relics are permitted to be imported, the “sporting purposes†language in the 1968 Gun Control Act be damned.”
I do not believe that is correct with respect to U.S.-manufactured arms provided under Lend-Lease or the MAP; the same problem has come up with M1911’s a couple years back.
Obama doesn’t have the first idea about what religious freedom means. Take Islam for example. The entire religion, and culture that surrounds it is oppressive and bigoted – to women, to anyone of another religious belief, to anyone who doesn’t follow its tenets. And this a**wipe “president” of ours insists on defending an imam who has excoriated America and American people – similar to the Irreverend Wright.
@Jason;
Is that from personal research or experience, or what you’ve heard on TV? As a Muslim myself I can tell you that the culture and the religion are separate entities that always seem to get lumped together and that there is no acceptance that Islam can actually be a wholesome religion to follow…but that’s not for this particular topic.