Plan To Shift Oversight Of Gun Exports Kicks Up Firestorm

By Tom Knighton

The Trump administration has a plan to shift the regulatory burden for the exportation of firearms away from the State Department and over to the Department of Commerce. It makes a certain kind of sense. After all, the State Department is for dealing with foreign governments and being the official face of the United States government outside of the presidency, and the Commerce Department is for, well…commerce.

However, the move has many spun up over the change and some are preaching doom and gloom scenarios.

The Trump administration’s expected plan to transfer the licensing of gun exports from the State Department to the Commerce Department has Democratic lawmakers and foreign policy advocates readying for a fight.

The proposal under review by the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) has yet to be made public, but experts fear it will lead to less oversight of commercial sales of assault weapons like submachine guns and flame throwers to foreign buyers.

Less oversight, they warn, could make it easier for deadly weapons to end up in the hands of terrorists and drug cartels.

“It’s a major change,” said Colby Goodman, director of the Security Assistance Monitor program at the Center for International …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms