Whither truth?

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I do not frequent the "alternative media" because I get beyond tired of sorting their spin from the news. I don't listen to talk radio or watch TV for the same reason.

Color me whatever you like, but I have this habit of thinking for myself and verifying information before I  believe it.

So, crost my feed yesterday comes a story from alternate media that the president has signed an executive order to ban the import of certain weapons and ammo. It took me clicking that link, an embedded link in that story leading me to another story where I clicked YET another link to finally get to the Federal Register where this all originated.

I had to wade through a bucket load of extraneous links to make that happen too.

So. Don't take my word for what I write below. Find out for yourself.  The Federal Register, BTW, is a massive document published periodically. It contains a report of what the government does. The three pages I reference in the link is partly today's topic.

So, can the president by executive order ban the importation of ammo?

Sorry about this, but gotta swamp you for a moment.

Executive Order 13637
to designate defense articles and defense
services as part of the statutory USML
(United States Munitions List)
for purposes of permanent import
controls, regardless of whether the
Secretary of State controls such defense
articles or defense services for purposes
of export and temporary import; and to
clarify that defense articles and defense
services controlled pursuant to the
Attorney General’s delegated AECA
(Arms Export Control Act)
authority are part of the statutory USML
(along with those that are controlled for
export and temporary import by the
Secretary of State), but that the list of
defense articles and defense services
controlled by the Attorney General is
labeled the USMIL to distinguish it from
the list of defense articles and defense
services in the ITAR (International Traffic in Arms
Regulations) that are controlled
by the Secretary of State.

When your brain stops spinning, this means the president can act pursuant to a law Congress passed. It also references “defense” repeatedly.

Here’s the issue. What does “defense” mean? If that means guns like pistols, shotguns, rifles and ammo for the same for the civilian market, then yeah, the prez can ban in the import. If it means items related to what the military can use, then the prez has no authority here over the civilian market.

Reading further into the matter, I come across this language:

“foreign policy and national security reasons.”

“7 CFR part 447”

“based on the unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States posed by the unrestricted access of foreign parties to U.S. goods and technology and the existence of certain boycott practices of foreign nations.”

“This rule will not result in the expenditure by State, local, and tribal governments, in the aggregate, or by the private sector, of $100 million or more in any one year, and it will not significantly or uniquely affect small governments.”

“THE U.S. MUNITIONS IMPORT LIST (USMIL)”

Several categories are listed as “reserved” which means there’s nothing there right now. Categories listed are: "CATEGORY VII—TANKS AND MILITARY VEHICLES" and "CATEGORY VIII—AIRCRAFT AND ASSOCIATED EQUIPMENT"

You now have the information. What you make of it is up to your, but at least you have the real story on which the spin is based.