SAVETHE KOREAN M1S

               Arecent decision by the Obama Administration to block the re-importation ofAmerican made Korean War era rifles has created an outcry among firearmscollectors and gun owners. During the Korean War, the United States supplied tensof thousands of semi-automatic M1 Garand and M1 Carbine rifles to the SouthKorean Army. The South Korean military stored these weapons after the war, andnow they want to sell them to American collectors. Initially, the StateDepartment approved the re-importation of these rifles in a decision made lastyear, but recently they reversed this decision on the baseless fear that theseweapons could be used in crimes. Gun control groups have also falsely claimedthat these weapons can accept high capacity ammunition magazines and thereforepose a public safety risk. The Obama Administration should immediately directthe State Department to immediately re-instate their previous policy and allowthese rifles to be re-imported and sold.

                               The State Department has stated thatthe reason they decided to deny permission to import these rifles is theunfounded concern that these weapons will be used by criminals. The fact of thematter is that ever since the passage of the 1994 Omnibus Crime bill, firearmsdealers cannot transfer a firearm to an individual until an FBI background checkcan be performed on the person buying the gun, and the FBI approves the sale ofthe firearm. This is also not the first time that surplus M1s that the USprovided to ally nations have been re-imported and sold to American collectors.In the past the sales of these weapons has been conducted by the CivilianMarksmanship Program. In addition to the mandatory FBI background check, theCMP also requires anyone purchasing surplus firearms and ammunition to be amember of a CMP approved marksmanship club. The requirement that firearms purchasers must undergo an FBI backgroundcheck and the requirement that buyers of these guns be members of a CMPapproved marksmanship club greatly reduces any chance that these weapons wouldbe purchased by criminals.

               Inaddition to the FBI background check that buyers would have to undergo, the likelihoodthat criminals would choose these weapons as crime guns is very low. The M1Garand is a 10 pound rifle that measures almost 45 inches in length, while theM1 Carbine is five pound rifle that measures nearly 36 inches in length. It isalso worth pointing out that every year, tens of thousands of light weight,easily concealable handguns manufactured by Glock, Sig Sauer, Heckler and Kochand others are imported to the United States for sale to the general publicevery year. The fact that neither the M1 Garand nor the M1 Carbine are light oreasily concealable, and the fact that there are smaller, lighter types ofweapons available makes the possibility that these guns would be obtained bycriminals is even less likely.

               Finally,the false claim by gun control advocates that these M1 rifles pose a publicsafety risk is nothing short of a complete deception. According to a report onFox News’ website, Dennis Henigan of the Brady Campaign to Prevent gun Violencestated "Guns that can take high-capacity magazines are a threat to publicsafety”. The fact of the matter is that neither of these guns is can accepthigh capacity magazines. The M1 Garand is a clip fed rifle capable of holdingonly 8 rounds of ammunition in an internal, non-detachable magazine and the M1Carbine is a magazine fed rifle that uses a 15 round magazine. Comparatively,there are many other models of rifles available on the market, such as theAR-15 or Kalashnikov clones, which can accept magazines with 30, 75 or even 200round capacities. To state that the M1 rifles in question pose a public safetyrisk because they can accept high capacity magazines is nothing short of anoutright lie.

               Thedecision by the State Depart to prohibit the re-importation of these M1 riflesis grievous error based on unfounded fears and outright lies. The facts arethat these weapons are highly unlikely to fall into the hands of the criminalsand they do not have any design or operational features which would pose asignificant risk to public safety. On the other hand, denying the re-import ofthese rifles will deprive law abiding American citizens of the opportunity toown a piece of American history and a firearm that is particularly well suitedfor recreational and competitive marksmanship use. The Obama Administrationwould do well to help protect these historical treasures and our heritage of lawfulsport shooting by instructing the State Department to allow these rifles to be importedand sold to law abiding American collectors.