The president has the power to ban the importation of guns and ammunition, and he is exercising it for ammunition. This new rule will make already costly and difficult to obtain ammunition even more difficult to find. This is part of Biden’s policy to reduce gun ownership by making it more costly, and the National Shooting Sports Foundation (NSSF) claims that up to 8% of ammunition sold in the US comes from Russia. That might not have quite that large of an impact on prices since ammunition would have because the Russians will sell to others who were relying on other sources, and those other sources will sell to the U.S.. But there will likely be particular calibers that could be very hard to find.
From Biden’s State Department:
“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.”
Office of the Spokesperson, “Fact Sheet: United States Imposes Additional Costs on Russia for the Poisoning of Aleksey Navalny,” U.S. Department of State, August 20, 2021.
While the new policy mentions prohibiting the importation of both firearms and ammunition, importing Russian-origin firearms was already extremely restricted under past executive policies. The new rule will primarily affect the importation of ammunition.
The Biden administration claims that imposing this ban is to punish the Putin Administration for its “August 2020 poisoning of Russian opposition figure Aleksey Navalny.” But note Biden isn’t imposing any other sanctions on the Russians, such as stopping the Russians from completing their gas pipeline connecting Russia’s natural gas supply to the European market.
0 Comments