Explore The NRA Universe Of Websites

APPEARS IN News

Biden Administration Targets Lawful Firearm Exports in Latest Antigun Crackdown

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Biden Administration Targets Lawful Firearm Exports in Latest Antigun Crackdown

If you want to know what gun control proponents would do given unchecked authority, just watch how the Biden White House abuses its executive powers to harass and persecute the lawful firearms industry, which Biden himself has referred to as “the enemy.” Biden’s latest moves show him leveraging his foreign affairs apparatus to crack down on American firearm exports to law-abiding end users.  Not only is this nakedly antagonistic, it’s counterproductive to international peace and stability, to say nothing of disadvantaging U.S. businesses in world markets. To understand how, you need look no further than the official policy of the Obama/Biden regime itself, which began the very process of export reform Biden now seeks to unravel.

The federal government oversees the export of goods destined for both the commercial and defense sectors. Starting with the Obama/Biden administration, there was an effort to reform export practices for so-called “dual use items,” i.e., those with both commercial and military applications but whose technical information was already readily available in the public domain. Experts in the field believed that rules arising from the Cold War Era devoted too many resources to micromanaging exports of dual use items that were lawful for commercial sale, widely available in different countries, and produced by U.S. companies. This not only disadvantaged U.S. companies from competing in international markets, it diverted the government’s limited export control resources from stricter oversight of game-changing military technology with true strategic importance.

The processing of reforming this state of affairs began in earnest under the Obama/Biden administration. A series of public rulemakings set out to establish which types of defense articles “provide the United States with a critical military or intelligence advantage, or, in the case of weapons, are inherently for military end use.” Export of these items would be overseen by the U.S. Department of State, with priority given to concerns of national defense and of preserving international peace and stability.

Export of items that did not meet this threshold would be overseen by the U.S. Department of Commerce, which would more holistically promote American goods against foreign competitors, while ensuring sufficient safeguards remained to protect U.S. exports from diversion or misuse. The idea, as summarized by one official, was to “build a taller fence around a smaller yard.” The upshot would be tighter control of the most sensitive military technology, and more competitiveness for U.S. businesses. Steering international buyers to U.S. companies also meant the U.S. government would have a greater role in ensuring these sales met more stringent security and human rights oversight and greater visibility of the goods’ ultimate destinations.

The advantages of this plan were so obvious that it proceeded largely with bi-partisan support … except when it came to firearms. The subject matter experts drafting the rules actually took up firearms as one of the earliest categories of good to be recategorized, since there is a robust and legitimate international market for them and because America’s firearms were considered highly desirable to foreign buyers. Nevertheless, the antigun politics of the Obama/Biden administration pushed guns to the back of the line, even as more exotic and far-reaching technology -- including spacecraft and satellites, explosives and propellants, and toxicological agents – were recategorized with little controversy.

It wasn’t until President Trump took office that the project of completing export reform was finally completed, ending where it began with the recategorizing of ordinary firearms readily available in America from gun shops and even some big box retailers. Trump’s involvement, however, allowed firearm prohibition groups to be fully mobilized against the change, and they invoked their usual tactics of lawsuits, anti-gun litigation, and media propaganda to stop it. These efforts failed, however, and American businesses have been selling guns abroad to police forces, militaries, and private businesses with the support and oversight of the Commerce Department since Biden took office, much to the fury of his gun control supporters.

It was, however, only a matter of time before anti-gun activists within the Biden Administration revisited this state of affairs, not because the status quo has proven unworkable but merely because the issue provided a ready way to persecute the U.S. firearms industry, one of Biden’s primary political targets.

As is often the case, the administration’s moves have coincided with a supposed “investigation” by one of the regime’s media collaborators that tried to gin up a phony scandal over the unremarkable fact that the Commerce Department was promoting U.S. gun businesses to legitimate and eligible foreign clients. The outlet, Bloomberg News, is of course backed by billionaire Michael Bloomberg, perhaps the single largest funder of anti-gun efforts in America. A follow-up Bloomberg News article focused on a horrible 2022 mass murder in Thailand that, while involving a pistol of U.S. origin, was “mostly” committed with a knife, according to local officials cited in another media report, and also included the perpetrator running people down with his vehicle. The Bloomberg News article made much of one U.S. gun company’s attempts to expand its markets overseas but acknowledged that China and Turkey, among other countries, also supply guns to Thailand. 

Nevertheless, the reporting helped to fortify the Biden White House’s unprecedented and heavy-handed “pause” on otherwise lawful firearm exports that began last October, supposedly to assess whether current controls were sufficient to prevent firearms from falling into the wrong hands.

Meanwhile, rules were quietly being drafted to roll back the reforms of firearm exports that originally began under the Obama/Biden Administration, demonstrating Biden’s commitment to anti-gun politics continues to supersede his commitment to sound and rational policy. A version of those rules was leaked to the press, indicating that the administration’s seeks to limit civilian access to firearms even (perhaps especially) in the Ukraine and West Bank conflict zones where civilians as well as military troops are being targeted by the enemies of American allies.

If that weren’t enough, a partisan group of anti-gun senators and members of Congress are demanding Biden extend his export “pause” past the original 90-day deadline, which ended on Jan. 24 (not coincidentally the day Bloomberg News published follow-ups to its “investigation”). The letter demands additional crackdowns on firearms exports, including withdrawing the Commerce Department’s involvement in promoting U.S. gun companies to foreign buyers.

Of course, demand for firearms by overseas buyers will continue, whether or not U.S. companies and the U.S. export regime is involved. The export crackdown firearm prohibitionists are now insisting upon may simply divert these sales to suppliers in other countries, including those who are far less concerned with and capable of preventing diversion and misuse than the companies and officials involved in U.S. exports. Indeed, the political games anti-gunners are playing with this issue may have real-world consequences that are exactly opposite to what they profess to be their own objectives.

TRENDING NOW
North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

North Carolina: Update on Permitless Carry

Last week the North Carolina General Assembly briefly returned from recess and re-referred Senate Bill 50, Freedom to Carry NC, to the House Rules Committee.

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Thursday, October 2, 2025

Federal Court Strikes Down Biden Administration’s “Engaged in the Business” Rule in NRA Case

Yesterday, in Butler v. Bondi, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama held that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives exceeded its statutory authority by issuing its 2024 Final Rule expanding ...

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

First Affirmative Lawsuit in Support of Gun Owners Filed by Trump’s DOJ

California officials’ egregious foot-dragging over the issuance of carry permits has finally attracted the ire of the federal Department of Justice (DOJ). 

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

President Trump’s GOP Leads Polling on Crime and Guns, To No Surprise

A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll revealed that Americans know the President Donald Trump-led Republican Party has a better plan than their Democratic Party opponents on crime and gun control.

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Friday, October 3, 2025

NRA Files Amicus Brief in Fifth Circuit Case Challenging the Federal Switchblade Act

Yesterday, the National Rifle Association filed an amicus brief in Knife Rights, Inc. v. Bondi, urging the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas’s decision upholding the Federal ...

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

Trump Administration Repeals Biden Era Firearms Export Crackdown

Last Monday, the Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) at the U.S. Department of Commerce published a final rule that reversed a crackdown on the commercial export of firearms from the U.S. to other countries.

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

News  

Monday, October 6, 2025

Trust in Mass Media Craters to New Lows, in Single Digits With Republicans

There’s an old saying that rings especially true to Second Amendment supporters: If you don’t read the news, you’re uninformed.

Alphabet Eases the Reins on Censorship; Will Gun Content Eventually Benefit?

News  

Tuesday, September 30, 2025

Alphabet Eases the Reins on Censorship; Will Gun Content Eventually Benefit?

With the free speech debate recently co-opted by one TV host’s use of false and incendiary remarks about his political opponents, it might have been easy to miss another important First Amendment story last week. 

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

News  

Monday, September 29, 2025

Canada’s Public Safety Minister on Gun Ban & Confiscation: “Don’t Ask Me to Explain the Logic”

There have been multiple developments on the Canadian gun grab and ban in the last few days, but the most astounding has got to be a leaked bombshell recording of the Liberal Public Safety Minister, ...

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Friday, October 3, 2025

U.S. Supreme Court Agrees to Hear Challenge to Hawaii’s Private Property Default Carry Ban

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for certiorari in Wolford v. Lopez, a challenge to Hawaii’s law forbidding carry on private property open to the public (such as restaurants, gas stations, and grocery stores) ...

MORE TRENDING +
LESS TRENDING -

More Like This From Around The NRA

NRA ILA

Established in 1975, the Institute for Legislative Action (ILA) is the "lobbying" arm of the National Rifle Association of America. ILA is responsible for preserving the right of all law-abiding individuals in the legislative, political, and legal arenas, to purchase, possess and use firearms for legitimate purposes as guaranteed by the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.