Anything new on repealing ITAR?

repealing ITAR?

as in repealing the whole thing? Not likely -- parts will likely be modified --- sure would be nice to legally be able to send a scope to canada

Since 2009 there has been an "Export Control Reform Initiative". (just search ECR Initiative and you can learn more than you want to). Only three items left to be removed from ITAR and to the Commerce Dept. Keep the pressure on your elected officials to complete this "initiative". They've got "lots on their plate", health care, taxes, N K, Isis and Syria, but they can walk, talk and chew gum at the same time. Use the "suggestion box" on the Whitehouse web site, attend a "town hall" meeting, make a phone call.

What he meant was repeal or recission of the July 2016 decision that required almost all gunsmiths to register with the State Dept. as "manufacturers" at a cost of $2250 per year. For a while the NRA and others were all over this, 25 senator's and several congressmen wrote letters to Kerry, and there was a long thread about it here:
http://forums.accuratereloadin...043/m/6571034322/p/1
Since then chirping crickets for the most part. Time to contact folks in DC AGAIN, requesting some action.

I knew what the question was/is. I you are educated on the subject, you'd understand my first post. Firearms are on the USML, as are many other items. The ECR Initiative moves many things from ITAR and the State Dept. to the US Dept of Commerce, where the $2250 'registration fee' goes away....... If you research the "Initiative", many items have already been place on "the list" to be moved. The only three that have not are firearms, ammunition and artillery. Many other "implements of war" have already been approved for removal from the ITAR regulations, "implements" of serious consequence. I repeat, attend a town hall meeting, make a phone call (or two!), use the "suggestion box" on the Whitehouse web site. Removal of the items proposed could have a good impact on jobs as firearms/gunsmiths aren't the only ones effected by the ITAR regulation to "register" (and pay the "fee".

I don't think you are going to see any change in ITAR. ITAR was never created or implemented to keep weapons and technologies of mass destruction out of the hands of the enemies of the United States. It was created and is maintained to protect a captive weapons merchants market that can only be accessed by a few select people. The rest of us who are trying to operate within it's parameters at the sporting arms level have simply been caught in the backwash by the definition of the word (WEAPON) which can loosely be applied to everything from optics to can openers.

I have always wondered who actually makes use of the pipeline created by ITAR now that the CIA has sort of stepped back from black market arms dealing a bit. I suppose the only guess that I could make would be a few, very powerful democrats, who also have their fingers dug in very deep into wall street.

DAMMIT ! I seem to have misplaced my tinfoil hat again.

I just communicated with my Senator's office today. Apparently there is now a letter circulating for signatures, similar to the one signed by 25 senator's last fall, requesting that the requirement be rescinded. So we may see some action soon.
The office manager said he would send me a copy as soon as it is available.

On May 1, a letter to secretaries of State and Commerce went out, signed by 29 senators, requesting transfer of firearms and ammo oversight from State to Commerce. If enacted, this would effectively remove the requirement for registration and fee payment to Dept. of State. Let's hope it happens. Since this is already required by a 2009 law, I don't see any reason for further delay.

https://www.tester.senate.gov/...ress_release&id=5236

Thanks for the update! I guess I don't understand how this changes anything. Will this also allow regular Joe hobbyists to legally swap barrels, do significant machine work/mods on receivers etc on personal property, or was this type of stuff technically already illegal anyway? Just curious. I know lots of professional smiths and hobbyists are just ignoring ITAR's registration/fee requirements. Lots of others are throwing in the towel.

This will have no effect on hobbyists. The regulation never did require hobbyists to register, only those "in the business of..."
The July 2016 letter from State was quite specific about what is and is not covered. Moving coverage of firearms and ammunition to Commerce Dept. will have the effect of no longer requiring registration with State Dept.
Whether or not to register and pay over the last 9 months has been a difficult decision. Ignoring the requirement opens one up to legal action, potential loss of firearms rights, etc. Registering and paying the annual $2250 fee could and probably has put some businesses under. I myself paid and kept going, but my small operation took a few months of just "working for the government" to recoup the cost. I decided that after 40 years, I just am not going to let the bastards put me out of business. And if this does go through, I look forward to telling the State Dept. to take a flying leap. ..
The original letter is available in this page:

http://pmddtc.state.gov/archives2016.html

Look under July and Compliance.

quote:

Originally posted by H47:
This will have no effect on hobbyists. The regulation never did require hobbyists to register, only those "in the business of..."

From the ITAR letter of July 22, "ITAR
registration is required of persons who engage in the business of manufacturing ... For the purpose of this subchapter, engaging in such a business requires only one occasion of manufacturing or exporting or temporarily importing a defense article or furnishing a defense service."

I know we've had this discussion before and probably still will not agree, but I read the regs as applying to anyone doing the work, professional or amateur. If the government meant "businesses that engage", not "person who engage", they would have said so. They purposely make their net as wide as possible. Of course that may be me talking through my tinfoil hat.

As a practical matter, it will only affect licensed gunsmiths since the enforcement mechanism is the ATF.

Well, there is probably a good way to resolve this: on page 4 of the letter, there is a procedure for requesting an advisory opinion. Or you can call the "response team" at the number provided for a verbal answer. I called the number and I thought I received a very reasonable answer.

Or.... you can allow Ayn Rand to burrow into your brain and believe that the government is in fact working at breakneck speed to somehow make us ALL criminals so that they can exercise complete control over us.. but that may be a better topic for another type of forum.

This is a rather obscure regulation for most of us, a bit difficult to understand, and has as its premise that whether you engage in exporting or not, you are still required to register as if you did. This is what I have trouble wrapping my mind around.. it's like saying, "well, you haven't stolen anything yet, but since you MIGHT, we are going to require you to do some jail time, just in case..." Wrong, wrong, wrong! Big government overreach.

I've said this before, elsewhere, but the Dept of State and DDTC have over-stepped their bounds. They are charged with what is exported. If a firearm or item that is supposedly defined in the USML, Part 121, is manufactured or altered to a point that State does not want it exported, then don't allow export. Period, end of conversation.

https://blog.princelaw.com/category/firearms-law/

We might be seeing light at the end of this tunnel. Apparently both State Dept. and Commerce Dept. are ready to publish regulations moving common firearms from the ITAR to commerce dept export commodity control. This will relieve gunzmiths and manufacturers from registering and paying the State department fee. Good summary at the above link.

Another article today about ITAR over on Daily Bulletin.


http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/

Here are the proposed changes, just published in the Federal Register:

https://www.federalregister.go...egories-i-ii-and-iii