Obama Strikes another Anti-Gun Blow

The one thing you have to give the left credit for is their ability to implement their agenda… you know, by violating the Constitution and breaking a bunch of laws. This president and the cabal of anti-American, gun-hating sycophants he surrounds himself with are doing everything they can to subvert the Constitution and the will of John Q. Public when it comes to the right to keep and bear arms. Not only are they nonplused about violating the Constitution and breaking laws, they’re also more than willing to sacrifice small business owners when it furthers their objective. The most recent Obama blow to the Second Amendment comes in an attack against gunsmiths.

The Directorate of Defense Trade Controls, or DDTC, has issued new guidelines that will require most gunsmiths to register with International Traffic in Arms Regulations. ITAR is designed to prevent firearms and firearm technology from being exported out of the country. Okay, fair enough, but what does that have to do with your local gunsmith, a breed that is vanishing to begin with? The changes, I would point out, were implemented without warning or input from John Q or the industry.

So truth be told, ITAR has nothing to do with the average gunsmith, and that’s not the point. The point is it will require gunsmiths to pay an annual fee of $2250. How many gunsmiths do you know that are exporting anything? In fact how many gunsmiths do you know at all? For Obama, putting them all out of business is his most recent anti-gun crusade. Clearly the real reason behind the new guidelines is to simply make the cost of being a gunsmith far higher than the average gunsmith can hope to recoup in a given year.

What criterion requires a gunsmith to register and pay the tax? ITAR requires that “Anybody who engages in the business of ‘manufacturing’ a defense article” register with DDTC and pay the registration fee. And here’s the catch: the requirements apply even if the business has not in the past, does not now and does not intend to export any defense article. The changes to the rules now include pretty much everything a gunsmith would do with the exception of drop-in parts.

If a gunsmith does any work that requires cutting, fitting or “special tools,” BINGO – it’s considered manufacturing, including: modifications to a firearm that change round capacity; the production of firearm parts including, but not limited to, barrels, stocks, cylinders, breech mechanisms, triggers, silencers, or suppressors; the systemized production of ammunition including the automated loading or reloading of ammunition; and the machining or cutting of firearms such as the threading of muzzles or muzzle brake installation requiring machining and more.

So what are the chances that gunsmithing will go underground? Well, I’m sure it will, but here’s something to ponder. The penalties for violating ITAR-which are retroactive, I would point out-can result in a $1,000,000 fine and 20 years imprisonment per occurrence. And as anti-gun as Barack Obama is, Hillary Clinton makes Obama look like an NRA life member. Don’t expect anything less from President Hildabeast, so tell me again why it is you’re not going to vote for Donald Trump?