The executive order (Executive Order 13662) signed by President Obama on March 20, 2014, has recently created quite the stir on social media because on July 17, 2014 the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) released additions to its list of Russian persons and companies prohibited from doing business in the United States. Included in these additions are the firearms manufacturers Izhmash and Kalashnikov (Saiga). Various blogs have produced very accurate analyses of this executive order, however, many others have misinterpreted the executive order to be a blanket ban on all AK platform rifles. For example, the headline “Obama Bans AK-47s”. This simply is not the case. Executive Order 13662 originated as a means to punish Russia for its political and military activities in the Crimea and eastern Ukraine. To that end, the executive order included economic sanctions against Russian individuals, financial firms, energy companies, and weapons manufacturers. All other non-Russian AK manufacturers are still able to import AK’s as they were prior to the signing of the order. Further, this Executive Order has no effect on firearms made by these Russian manufactures that are already owned by person or companies in the United States and may be lawfully possessed, transferred, or sold.
With this said, is the inclusion of weapons manufacturers in this order possible evidence of the bias of our current President? We’ll let you draw your own conclusions there.
To see more on the Executive Order, visit:
http://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/OFAC-Enforcement/Pages/20140716.aspx
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