Biden Freezes Gun Exports to Ensure it Won't 'Undermine U.S. Policy Interests'

The Biden administration announced a ninety-day freeze on exports of most U.S.-made firearms and is reviewing the Commerce Department’s support of the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show, known as SHOT Show, a gun marketing expo that occurs every January in Las Vegas. The freeze won’t apply to Israel, Ukraine, and about 40 other countries that participate with the US in a multilateral export-control agreement. But it will include huge U.S. customers like Brazil and Thailand.

In 2020, oversight of gun exports was transferred from the State Department to the business-friendly Commerce Department and exports of U.S. firearms soared.

“The review will be conducted with urgency and will enable the Department to more effectively assess and mitigate risk of firearms being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, violate human rights, or fuel criminal activities,” the Department said in announcing the pause.

More ominously, the review will seek to overturn or alter some pro-industry policies that have led to a golden age of American firearm exports.

Bloomberg:

Those include shifting in 2020 the oversight of most commercial gun exports from the State Department to the business-friendly Department of Commerce and strong support for the Shooting, Hunting and Outdoor Trade Show, known as SHOT Show, a gun marketing expo that occurs every January in Las Vegas.

The gun industry’s successful strategies to increase global sales of its products — in combination with friendly US policies — have been the subject of a months-long investigation by Bloomberg. The investigation began in July with an examination of gun sales to Thailand, which last year suffered one of the world’s worst mass killings. A story published Oct. 19 examined the lavish support the Commerce Department gives SHOT Show, including steering more than 3,200 international buyers to the event this year.

Twenty years ago, the U.S. sold very few guns abroad. But with the transfer of oversight authority from State to Commerce, foreign orders for semi-automatic and automatic firearms poured in.

Democrats are raising questions about who is getting these guns and what they are doing with them.

Many of the guns are exported to countries plagued by skyrocketing gun crime, while others go to authoritarian regimes, with many of the sales supported by Democratic and Republican presidents alike. But some Democrats in Congress have recently grown more vocal in the criticism of those sales.

Two companies in particular might be hit hard.

The Messenger:

U.S. firearm companies such as Smith & Wesson Brands or Sig Sauer Inc. — the American subsidiary of L&O Holding — could be affected by the pause. Sig Sauer became the largest U.S. exporter of guns after developing close ties with former President Donald Trump, who loosened export restrictions, Bloomberg reported.

American-made firearms are highly valued for their craftsmanship and quality. To prevent their sale abroad based on ideology is stupid. But what do you expect from the Biden administration?