Wednesday, June 10, 2015

The Administration's ITAR Baby

The latest Obama administration's assault against both the First and Second Amendments is coming out of the State Department.

As reported by the NRA-ILA, Old NFO, Sebastian, at the Michigan Gun Owners forum, and by lots of others in the blogosphere, the State Department is looking to expand and apply ITAR (International Traffic in Arms Regulations) to blog posts and other internet activity.

This is being done on the theory that posting about firearms and ammunition specifications where a foreigner could access it would constitute an export of technical information that would require the poster of the information to first get authorization from the government before posting it. You can puzzle your way through the very lengthy regulation (on the internet) at the Government Press Office.

In short this proposed regulation contains a serious prior restraint towards those that would comment about technical details regarding firearms and ammunition online with serious and severe penalties for non-compliance. Discussing how to repair or modify a firearm would count as technical data under the proposal.

Sebastian over at Shall Not Be Questioned has all the details on how you can make a public comment on this proposal, and you've got until August 3rd to do so. Keep the comments polite, keep them to the point, keep them substantive and serious, and get the comment in on time.

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