Posted: 3/3/2006 11:57:42 AM EDT
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So I tried to order a couple items today from one of the fine venders here (a EOTECH & a X200 Surefire light), and they said they cannot ship to my military FPO due to ITAR ( LINK ). I understand they have to follow the rules, no problem, but can someone who speaks "leagaleeze" explain what that means? I'm in the military, but I'm ordering a civilian version EOTECH for my personal rifle. Where is the harm in that? Anyone? Thanks, Gene |
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Gene, I was in the exact same boat as you a year ago, and it was probably the same vendor. It irritated me no end, I can tell you. ITAR is a set of regulations put out by the State Department to control arms dealing with unsavory regimes and also to protect proprietary military gear from going overseas into unworthy hands. In other words, they don't want PVS-17s to end up in China or some new guidance system for Tomahawk missiles to go to Syria. Some folks have extrapolated that out to include even selling a commercial piece of aftermarket gear that is related to or built for a firearm, even to US servicemembers if they're overseas. I happened to be working on a State Department contract at the time and asked the top DoS guy on my site --a senior Foreign Service Officer-- if ITAR covered things with no immediate military/police use --rifleslings never hurt anyone on their own, after all-- and he said "Fuck no." Regardless, the vendor in question would not ship to me, on the advice of counsel. This is just like businesses that won't ship magazines or ammo to some states, even where they're not illegal. CYA is king. I went to another vendor (Lightfighter) who had absolutely no trouble filling or shipping my order, and the FBI has not kicked in their door yet. Good luck. |