Lifts Silencer Ban: May be his biggest and deadliest
(I
emphasize the word deadliest)
Big new report from NY Times on Gun
silencers back on the market for sale by U.S.
manufacturers to foreign sources.
Related stories here from The Hill (cites NY Times)
and here NY Post.
FYI: Private
citizens can legally purchase and possess silencers in 42
states without a permit but must follow Federal guidelines.
A ban had
been in place from 2002 until now lifted by State Department (July 10).
The NRA
and manufacturers are elated – and money expected to flow to Trump, thanks to
this guy: Michael B. Williams.
Williams spent nearly two years helping to run a
trade group focused on expanding sales of firearm silencers by American
manufacturers.
But try as
he might, he could not achieve one of the industry’s main goals: Overturning
that 2002 ban on sales to private foreign buyers enacted by the State
Department to protect U.S. troops in Afghanistan and elsewhere.
Now Williams
has joined the Trump administration as a White House lawyer, He from there
pushed to overturn the prohibition, raising the issue with influential
administration officials and creating pressure within the State Department –
that according to current and former government officials.
Now on Friday (July
10), the State Department lifted that ban, and a longtime industry goal was
realized.
The change paved the way for as much as $250 million a year in
possible new overseas sales for companies that Williams championed as general
counsel of the American Suppressor Association.
His role in pushing to lift the
ban, which has not been previously reported, follows a well-established pattern
in the Trump administration, with the president handing over policy making to
allies of special interest groups with a stake in those policies; in this case,
Williams’ victory comes for a key constituency as Trump seeks reelection: the
NRA and massive gun lobby.
Former
lobbyists now in Trump’s Cabinet that Williams has joined:
1. A former coal lobbyist now as
administrator of the EPA.
2. A former defense lobbyist at Raytheon
Technologies now as Defense Secretary.
3. A former lobbyist for the automobile
industry now as Energy Department Secretary.
4. A former oil and gas lobbyist now as
Interior Secretary.
Note: Those
industries all have been sources for a lot of money going to Trump’s campaign
and committees supporting him.
My 2 cents and impact
of this: Some
military, diplomatic, and arms control circles defended the 2002 ban and
expressed alarm about Trump lifting it now.
It was announced a website from the State Department’s
Directorate of Defense Trade Controls. Although the department’s rules had long
permitted selling silencers to foreign governments, they did not allow sales to private
companies or individuals, whose use of the devices is more difficult
to monitor.
Lincoln P. Bloomfield Jr., who was assistant secretary of state for
political-military affairs when the ban was enacted in 2002, said the policy
was intended to prevent American equipment from making its way to hostile
groups that might use it against U.S. service members, especially during the
Afghanistan and Iraq wars.
Remember Trump’s 2016 campaign rally chant about
“Draining the Swamp?”
He has not – he has simply widened and filled it with
more and newer bottom feeders than ever – more and more former lobbyists who
are now insider policy makers.
Trump is so pathetic that it defies gravity
itself.
Shame on those who fell for his conning and voting for him, and sadly, still standing by him.
Thanks
for stopping by.
No comments:
Post a Comment