Anti-gun President Joe Biden is using the August 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny to impose what the State Department calls “a second round of sanctions on the Russian Federation,” and at the top of the list are restrictions on the permanent imports of “certain Russian firearms.”
Additionally, a State Department fact sheet notes, “New and pending permit applications for the permanent importation of firearms and ammunition manufactured or located in Russia will be subject to a policy of denial.”
The National Rifle Association is skeptical of Biden’s motives. In a weekend comment, the NRA took a swipe at the president.
“The State Department claims that it is imposing these ‘sanctions on the Russian Federation over its use of a ‘Novichok’ nerve agent in the August 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny,” the association noted. “While that may be a viable reason for the United States government to sanction the Russian Federation, the ammunition import restriction seems more aimed at punishing American gun owners and businesses than as a foreign policy tool to influence the Russian Federation.”
Biden came into the White House promising to ratchet down on American gun owners, and this appears just one more piece of the plan.
According to the State Department fact sheet, “These latest sanctions on Russia pursuant to the CBW Act will take effect upon the publication of a Federal Register notice expected on September 7, 2021, and they will remain in place for a minimum of 12 months.”
The NRA is crying “foul.”
“Ammunition exports to the United States are only a small percentage of the GDP of the Russian Federation,” NRA says in its response, “but Russian origin ammo makes up a large part of the American ammunition supply. American gun owners were already suffering from a market where demand was exceeding available supply. This new move by the Biden Administration will severely worsen the present supply problems.”
U.S. ammunition manufacturers are working fast as they can to improve the ammunition supply, but in many regions, one finds bare shelves in gun shops and sporting goods stores. It is even hard finding reloading components, including bullets, powder and primers.
A check at the websites of two prominent companies that manufacture bullets show “out of stock” messages.
According to State, “The sanctions can only be lifted after a 12-month period if the Executive Branch determines and certifies to Congress that Russia has met several conditions described in the CBW Act, 22 U.S.C. 5605(c), including (1) providing reliable assurances that it will not use chemical weapons in violation of international law, (2) it is not making preparations to use chemical weapons in the future, (3) it is willing to allow international inspectors to verify those assurances, and (4) it is making restitution to Mr. Navalny.”
“The full effect of this new policy,” the NRA said, “will likely not be realized for a few months, but it will certainly lead to more ammunition shortages, higher prices, and therefore fewer Americans excising their fundamental rights. It may also result in the shuttering of American small businesses that rely heavily on the importation of Russian ammunition. All of this is of course by design for the Biden Administration.”
