US halts exports of most civilian firearms for 90 days | Hacker News Reader

US halts exports of most civilian firearms for 90 days

reuters.com

30 pointskoolba32 comments

> "risk of firearms being diverted to entities or activities that promote regional instability, violate human rights, or fuel criminal activities."

The hypocrisy of the United States government saying this...

Yeah after operation fast and furious it’s like a cheating partner accusing you of cheating. Firearms makers should halt sales to police and governmental agencies for 90 days and see how fast they pass a law banning such a thing.

No, it’s not like a cheating partner. The United States is a country. It’s not a single person. It can’t be hypocritical the way a person can.

Different people get elected and are in charge of the US at different times. This is why a country like the US doesn’t behave consistently the way a person does. Judging countries as though they were people is committing the fallacy of composition.

One decisionmaker within the country can still see what others have done, and act as-if-one.

Eg. the statement could have said:

"We have realised that some actions we have taken with weapons have promoted regional instability, but to prevent others making the same mistake as us, we won't export weapons to other countries."

This is very insightful. Still, there are central policies and various mechanisms by which people have to obey them.

Do you have an email address where I could ask your opinion about something privately? (Or could you email me at mine, it is listed in my profile.)

Thanks.

Is that reasonable? It's bad for entity to prevent bad if entity did bad?

EDIT: -3? For an innocuous query? :|

They want to direct them, not divert them!

Reading the article, it sounds like the headline is a bit off. As far as I can tell, they’ve halted on issuing most *new* civilian firearm export licenses for 90 days, not stopping exports where licenses have already been issued.

Yeah, the headline seems off. The guidance document [1] says "The pause does not affect previously issued/received export licenses."

[1] https://www.bis.doc.gov/index.php/documents/policy-guidance/...

Not a huge deal and not a surprise. This aims to stop opportunists profiting from dual-purpose items sent to war zones and arming US adversaries, and to maintain domestic supplies that are under stress.

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2023/oct/19/war-could-li...

Another problem outside of the civilian arena is lack of DoD oversight and regulation of the military-industrial complex to ensure it can function and doesn't create a single-points of failure. Layers of mergers and outsourcing create a web of ownership that the DoD has all but given up on tracking. And when the sole-source vendor for a specialized component forgets or decommissions the tools, materials, sources, and knowledge for restarting an assembly line, then there are risks of delay and outright nondelivery... and F-35's get incorrectly imported materials and arms remain backordered.

https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/why-america-is-out-of-amm...

Perhaps this move is to improve the US government's negotiating position. Currently government direct exports compete with exports from various US arms manufacturers and resellers.

By restricting exports, the US government has a monopoly position on types of weapon that can't be purchased from other countries, so can jack up the price.

Background: https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2023-us-made-gun-exports-...

A Biden response to Desantis "exporting" arms to Israel? https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/desantis-is-sending-so...

But they will happily continue to arm foreign governments with military weapons that could be used against civilians.

Yeah. Good thing China, Russia, Iran and North Korea hold their arms buyers to a higher humanitarian standard.

You can say the same thing about hammers, knives, cars, etc…

Guns lower the barrier to commit violence but nation state actors are typically not burdened by this because they have the resources to work around barriers.

Your point being?

Firearm and ammunition exports are quite a big sector of the economy are they not?

Seems like an unusual move to do such a high impact action. I guess the concern must be large!

It's not unusual to restrict arms and ammo operations in wartime. We're blowing through supplies.

A few weeks ago, one of the principal manufacturers of 5.56 rounds canceled all commercial contracts and now will only supply to the government. The US has tremendous third-party commitments in addition to its own mounting needs.

I bet my local firearms dealers already spiked his prices on ammo - despite all the ammo he sells being sourced from European manufacture.

Firearm and ammo distributors love even the slightest tangential development in current events so they can price gouge, which weirdly seems to cause constantly panic-stricken consumers to buy even more.

I used to collect and was more active in the scene, but the market, industry, and community (if you can call it that) has turned into an unpalatable intersection of cult mentality, seedy people, and grifters. I reduced to a smaller number of good tools for my needs, keep an essential ammo supply, I get in and out a couple times a month for practice, and have sold off and avoid everything else.

There was news last week that one of the largest us factories stopped selling to civilians. That took over 30% off the shelves. Cue both panic buying, and sellers holding to realize the higher prices down the road.

It would be great if the US cracked down on straw purchases in certain lenient states. Your neighbours north and south would thank you.

Name and shame them.

Florida is a one. What's different about the system there than other states?

I was hoping they banned them for all countries including the cia backed ones.

Now do sales of firearms in general

What do you mean by that?

No more sales of weapons, period.

Fuck you, no.

Well argued.

Self preservation, and by extension arms, are a human right.

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