I attended the ...Gun Show today... this 600 table show draws exhibitors from throughout the Southeast, including the NRA and the BATFE (separate rooms in the exhibit hall). While I was at the BATFE table (I would simultaneously talk to Jesus and Satan if I could arrange it), an exhibitor approached the two BATFE agents (who actually were very nice and advising two FFL’s how to better handle a particularly obnoxious and notorious overzealous local BATFE agent to effect a positive outcome for the FFL’s) and complained that U.S. Customs in the Port of Miami impounded his shipment of Russian small arms ammunition in anticipation of a ammunition import policy change effective January 20, 2009 (Obama Inauguration Day). The two BATFE agents basically stated that they would be “the last to know”, but as far as they knew there was no policy change, and they advised that the exhibitor’s attorney should contact U.S. Customs to inquire what the particular problem was to effect immediate release of the shipment. Common sense and logical advice, but a few days will tell. I was impressed by the two BATFE agents and how they handled the people approaching them at the show.I'm keeping the name of my correspondent and identifying information about the particular show out of this because I don't want anyone embarrassed by this (but me, and I don't embarrass) should it turn out to be nothing.
As for being impressed by the personable BATFU reps, I do wonder if they'd leave such a favorable impression were someone acting like "shall not be infringed" means what it says in front of them...
11 comments:
I've been hearing about this for months. Part of this is the High Seas Treaty that shuts down such ammo off the high seas. Too bad he wasn't asking the agents about parts kits.
Lets look at a lot of the ammo that has already been stopped. South African ammo in 308 and 30-06. There's a lot of it there that folks in SA would love to ship to us but they can't. Right now imported ammo that fits military caliber that was made for military can't be imported as we are seeing the spam cans dry up. They have already shot down ammo imports from China and Russia is next on the list.
Sorry David, I don't have a links to this because the government will not advertise it, yet anyway. Nevertheless, we can see we can't get ammo from China and SA. What is here from military depots is all thats left. The treaty of the high seas will be signed which in turn will stop Wolf ammo from coming in. I see Monday as one of the last chances to stock up on 7.62X39 if you shoot that caliber. Before prices sky rocket on the little thats left. Last summer it was $150 per 1M rounds, now its $300 for the same amount. Sounds like the supply and demand are working if you get my drift.
Corruption in Customs in Florida??
Say it ain't so!! Here is Paul Tibbits encounter in (1944?)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/542695/posts
In Liberty,
JohnJacobH
www.johnjacobh.wordpress.com
Sounds like a profitable opportunity for "smugglers" (free market entrepreneurs).
A question that I would love to have answered: I just bought reloading equipment because I haven't taken training seriously until recently. I didn't think I would have to because everywhere I would read would say high quality surplus is abundant and cheaper than reloading for .308 and to buy it at gun shows or online. Ok, either I'm stupid or not looking hard enough, because such doesn't exist online or at the gun shows around where I live. Where I do find it, it's much more expensive than reloading. The cost of the first round fired is a few cents more, but after that I start saving. Thus I'm getting the supplies to start reloading. I enjoy making ammo anyway.
FWIW at the SHOT Show in Orlando I talked to the importer/distributor for Barnaul ammunition. He said that he was unaware of any pending problems of this nature. Of course he is importing the commercial version from the Russian ammo mfg so who knows?
Likewise I also talked to an surplus ammo importer I deal with and he also said he hadn't heard anything like that. And his business is dead if something like that comes down the pike.
Glad I've been buying my brother 7.62x39 reloading supplies for the last couple of years. Now all he needs is some fast-burning rifle propellant and he should be all set. I expect local brass mills take up the cause and produce 7.62x39 in large amounts now. (Lapua brass is good, but cost has gone through the roof.)
But hey, what a fantastically protectionist policy to enact while the economy is tanking. Nothing like introducing a huge amount of risk and uncertainty in a market where risk and uncertainty has made businesses sit on their cash.
Perhaps the importer should retire all his workers with full-coverage health maintenance plans and big pensions. Then he can run in the red and apply for TARP funds.
A comment followig TJP's "a fantastically protectionist policy" comment. Years ago, I studied microeconomics and macroeconomics as part of earning an MBA. The professors intently pointed it out that it was not the Stock Market Crash of '29 or the credit crisis following massive bank failures but worldwide protectionist policies along with the U.S.'s Smoot-Hawley Tarriff Act that caused the Great Depression. It took WWII and massive U.S. Government spending for war materiel that lifted the U.S. out of the Depression. It took years to pay off that deficit. Germany invaded east to secure oil supplies and Japan invaded southwest for the same reason. Anything sound familiar now?
Concerning "Paul Tibbits encounter" - after I first learned to shoot and joined a Rifle and Pistol Club, my father gave me a Walther P38 to shoot. I never knew he had it, and never knew there were weapons in my parents home until then. In his old Army footlocker he also had a custom made black leather shoulder holster that held an extra magazine (which he did not give to me). When I asked about the shoulder holster he explained that since he earned combat pay fom December 7, 1941 up to the end of the war, he returned home in Spetember 1945 with a large amount of unspent cash. Word had spread among the GIs that returning servicemen were being robbed at a high rate after they left the troop ships. Press coverage of this was suppressed because of wartime censorship. He returned home wearing the concealed, loaded P38 with the extra magazine, prepared for the worst - a 22 year old five year Army veteran of Pacific coast defense, the Battle of Britain and the Battle of the Bulge in a combat state of mind.
This puts stories of Vietnam veterans being spit apon on their return in perspective.
There is a State Dept order banning russian ammo.... i'll find it when i can. It's not an Obama thing.
Revealing article and I tend to believe the inside scoop. Although the agents may of been courteous,
I doubt they'd tip their hand if they knew.
Anybody remember the once attainable Hansen ammo out of Yugoslavia ? Seems everyone who is selling rounds (and components) nowadays is aware of their growing value. Why, I remember just 10 years ago ...
What will we say next year ?
Zach - here are a few
"stuff 'em yerself"
sites. Some stuff is no longer available, some is. Can't ya just hear all those Dillon's (and others)
clanking 'n turning out there !
Chunka ... chunka ..
http://www.gunbroker.com/
http://www.patsreloading.com/patsrel/whatsnew.htm
http://www.starlinebrass.com/
Also having an MBA, I disagree being the Great Depression was caused by the federal reserve removed 26.5 percent of the cash out of the system to lend to Germany. Being on the gold standard the money just couldn't be printed out of thin air at that time.
Germany was totally wiped out at the end of WW1 and its economy was full trashed. The money the fed gave or loaned Germany took that country to being a world super power in a jiffy. In fact about 14 years from being wiped out it hosted the Olympic games as a world super power. That money to build Germany back up didn't come from France or England. It came from the US and it put this county through hell. T
The rest is history but for a simple thought. Our own national bank thats privately owned built Germany and Hitler, truth known.
Wait! Being on Hitler and Germany the fed aka: international bankers did get something for their money that I'm sure Germany never paid back. They got Hitler's 1938 gun laws taking word for word and make into American's 1968 gun laws.
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